Solarfall has been one of my favourite lure builders for a long time.
I asked him a while ago if I could do a little interview with him? No problem he answered.
So, here it it.

Interview with Solarfall, part one.
TPF=ThePikeFather.
SF=Solarfall

TPF: -Solarfall is the name of your baits. What´s your name?
SF: -To be exact Solarfall is just a net alias I picked years ago when I first dove in to the wonderful world of internet and it sort of stuck. my real name is Mikko Okkonen.

Solarfall/Mikko.

TPF: -How did you start your fishing? <– This is a question that I ask everyone, always interesting to hear about.  🙂
SF: -That must have been around the age of six or so, our dad used to take me and my brother pole fishing at the near by lake, remember it being great fun back them.

One of Mikkos lures. If you ask Mikko, every lure is just ok. 🙂   I think they´re mad, in a good way. 🙂

TPF: -When did you begin to build your own lures?
SF: -First lures I did when I was about 15 but you know how its with teenagers at that age, you end up finding other interest and I kinda dropped the whole hobby back them. I picked it up again later in life, something like 3-4years ago and really fell in love with making lures my self, its all been down hill from then on hehe. with me it tends to be that when I get into something, I really get into it.
TPF: – It´s the same with me, that´s one reason why I for example keep away from fly fishing. 🙂

So natural, looks like the real deal.

TPF: -In what material do you most often build your lures?
SF: -Mostly for jerkbaits I favor maple above all, its heavy enough and tough enough and I get it free from my friend who works in a company that makes a traditional Finnish instrument called “kantele” so the wood I get from him is usually left overs of the best quality German maple. for wobbler/crankbaits I mostly use softer woods like balsa and birch, depending how big lures I’m making. now a days I use resin too to cast lures.

I think this is a “kantele”.  🙂

TPF: -Where are you from, and where do you live?
SF: -I´m born and raised in eastern Finnish in the city of Joensuu, but you and your readers might be interceded to know that I do have some Swedish blood in my family too.
TPF: -I can tell you have Swedish blood in the family by the quality of your lures.  😉  
Sweden ♥ Finland.

TPF: -Your age?
SF: -I´m 28 now.

A Solarfall tailbait that looks like a birthday cake.  🙂

TPF: -What kind/kinds of airbrusch do you use?
SF: -I have used pretty much all brands that there is over the years but right now I mostly use iwate hardline and for more detailed work I have harden& steenbech infinity.

Good quality airbrush, good craftsman, good result!

TPF: -What kind of colours do you use? Maker and different caracters of colours.
SF: -I started using water based paints from deca and create but then swiched to solvent based CAB paints that are made here in Finland and its especially designed for lure painters, after all Finland has more small lure makers than any other country as far as I know, so I guess it pays off to have a paint line directly made for us lure painters, own pretty much every color that they make, but I also mix my own colors too.

I you own alot of colours, you can always try new settings of colours.  🙂

TPF: -What kind of lure epoxy do you use for your baits?
SF: -I use mostly 1 component lure varnish from CAB and envirotex, I also have been testing out this other stuff from smooth-on called crystal clear 200.

Solarfalls lures is unbelievably nice!!

TPF: -How many layers of epoxy do you apply on each bait?
SF: -Depends on the bait of course but usually its 2-3 after the paint layer, I use that CAB varnish to seal my baits so I just need the hard epoxy coating on top of the paint.

CAB varnish to seal the bait.  😀

TPF: -How many lures can your ”torkvinda” take. I don´t know the English word, the thing you put your baits in to dry, and that spins with an electrical motor.
SF: -Depends on how big the lures are, I don’t make a lot of baits usually at one go so I don’t really need a huge wheel contraption to circulate my lures while epoxing them. usually its 4-8 baits at one go.

A beautiful jointed pike wobbler.

TPF: -Do you have any own ”idols” within the lurebuilding world?
SF: -There are heck of a lot of builders but if I had to choose few, I don’t even know most of the guys real names so some of them are listed by there user names on the internet. janne koivisto, toku, janne2, silli, tim novak, fatfingers, muskyslayer, Yoshihiko ando and many many more.

Masterpieces!

That´s the end of part one, part two will come later on this week, so stay tuned.  😀