The Rapalaca

Any of these can be made as heavy or as light as you want...light for the fly rod, heavier for spinning or bait casting outfits.

The diving bills are made from molded plastic vegetable containers--like the boxes surrounding high-quality green house tomatoes. Make the bill substantially too big at first. Rough up the backside with 220 sand paper. Glue it to foam or soft plastic with CA glue (super glue). Once the lure is made, tune it at streamside by trimming the bill with toenail clippers. If the bill tracks to the right, trim the left side of the bill. The lower down on the bill you thread the tippet, the deeper it dives, but the tighter the wobble. The higher up on the bill you thread the tippet, the slower and the wider the wobble, but the less lure dives. A wide slow-motion wobble at depth (the most effective big-fish combination) can be achieved with a high-on-the-bill tippet threading combined with enough weight--either built into the fly or attached to the leader.

A buoyant upper body combined with a low-mounted weight (like the big tungsetn bead above) makes the lure wobble from side-to-side rather than turning over and spinning completely around.