NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
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The Work of Wooden Lure Carver Vince Gewinner W ood-carved praying hands for his mother and obscene gesturing fi ngers for his father. This is the talent, and personality, of Weeping Water creator Vince Gewinner. Yet despite the multitude of carvings he's made — from recurve bows and backwoods utensil sets to keychain ceramics and home décor — his current passion is homemade fi shing lures. But they're not fi shing lures to set on the shelf. They are not the equivalent of wooden waterfowl decoys. They are the opposite. Once they have been constructed, painted, and eventually dry, they are immediately wet again in search of everything from smallmouth and largemouth bass in Nebraska to muskies in Canada. As long as they swim straight. Then and Now "You need to see the fi rst lures I carved," Vince grinned from the workshop behind his home, pulling two wooden crankbaits from a nearby shelf and even a Zara Spook stick-bait imitation hanging on the wall. "I tried the spook fi rst. It doesn't work worth a crap." Mal-shaped with childlike paint jobs, they are a far cry from what he is creating today, but still provide motivation for how far he has come in such a short time. He began carving fi shing lures by hand less than two years ago. "I fi rst made lures I had fi shed with during my life, imitating ones I used as a kid," Vince said. "Then, the more I learned, the more I began to create my own." A process that took him a couple days in the beginning can now be completed in a couple hours. The speed and precision of this work being shown with a lure brought to him just the day before that he carved fi ve diff erent times to reveal his step- by-step process. Everything about the lure he made in less than a day — from its shape to its eventual painting — was night and day from his fi rst wooden creations. Yet these lures still aren't perfect, and for him that might be the best part. Today's seeming perfection is tomorrow's "what if we made this change," knowing full well that there might be a misstep or two along the way. Trial and Error Vince is in constant trial-and- error mode, except for one aspect. He does know what will make a lure pretty. "It starts with looking for grain in the wood that will make a cool design or uniformity." He demonstrates this by laying a piece of wood on his workbench. "See that knothole?" he asks. "That will look very cool." From there, he uses a bandsaw to cut out and sand the pattern until it's in the general shape he desires. Then he Story and photos by Jeff Kurrus Beautifully Functional Above: Vince Gewinner holds a largemouth bass he caught on his homemade lure at Verdon State Recreation Area. Opposite: While Gewinner's wooden lures look as if they should be placed on a mantel somewhere, their combination of paint and wood grain dazzling to the eye, he continues to design these lures to catch fi sh. 32 Nebraskaland • March 2024