May 9, 2021

Grasshopper Lure

This is a topwater grasshopper lure that I made. The lure is about 1.75″ long and modeled after a real grasshopper.

This is the picture I started with for the design in CAD. (picture via Wikipedia)

Here is the initial design (minus some legs) done in Fusion 360’s Sculpt environment.

The first test print… It looks a little rough but its a small lure so not to bad for an FDM printer with a .25 nozzle. (A resin printer might be in my future.)

Much like every hard body lure I make the lure is printed in two halves and hook hangers, pins, and weight (a single BB in this case) are then added before gluing the halves together.

The first prototype was painted in a Spur-throated Grasshopper pattern which are common in my state.

The second one (with a quarter to show scale) was painted to match the picture I designed from, although I’m not sure what flavor grasshopper it is.

The first float test with a #10 Hook.

… and here one is with a #8 hook which sits slightly lower in the water.

After the initial prototypes where successful enough I did go back and add a lip to the design. The little front feet were always meant to be glued to the lip. (I think the final design used about 11 forms to create one side before it was mirrored to create the other side of the lure.

The first print of the lip version came out really rough because of a partial clogged nozzle but should still work for testing.

The first lip version was also painted to match the design picture…. I really like this pattern.

Again tested with a #10 Hook…

… and a #8 hook. The results were basically the same.

This one is suppose to be a Differential Grasshopper pattern.  (all of these look much better in person than the pictures show.)

Again crappy picture but I painted this one as a Cricket.

In person the gold really gives in that Cricket imitation pretty well.

The first batch ready for testing.   Yeah I got a little carried away making these even before testing. (hopefully all goes well)

My little kit ready to go.

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Update 9-4-22 = I kind of forgot about these but I finally got around to testing these after someone asked about them and well…. they were slightly (but not totally) disappointing.  The one with a lip didn’t have a ton of action and it tended to want to lay on it’s side at rest while the lip less one sat well enough in the water (as seen above) besides twitching it as a top water bait (which is all I really wanted) they don’t have any action if just reeled in.  A twitch on the retrieve works ok though to add action.

Overall while they aren’t the best lure I’ve made they were a fun little project and they still did work well for the Johnny Roaches (panfish) which is what I made them for so they are still a win in my book.

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