Winch

I have not hit the Mitchters. yet

That’s pear

A lot of stuff I do cane with time. Again back then there was no search on SOL that would lead to answers. What’s there now from what’s considered “evevry knows” came from us working together. Where did we get that? From going out and testing our work. I dint mean throwing it in some pond. Or a bath tub. I mean putting it in your bag and fishing it successfully in tough conditions You learned what your failures were. Some guys wrote it down others like me take mental note. Again I’m a tinkerer It’s what I like about building. I have zero interest in “The show season, or the business end of it all”. To me things I didn’t like the year before drive me. Starting with a plugs shape, hook and weight placement, type of wood I use for that build. My plug shapes change year to year based on what I’m trying to achieve with a design. While most guys jump on the duplicator Trying to create the exact replica. im tweaking the design. There is no mass production in my shed. It’s one of the problems of using a duplicator. Guys don’t alter their design. They just make the same mistake year after year because “ it looked good”.

Back then most of us were learning. There was no place you could go and find threads like this. What guys know now or show on utube came from here. back then you posted a picture of your plug you expected people to say. “ This could be better, Try this and you can fix that profile, Even to a point they could call it a turd. As long as they gave you solutions to take the turd out of your build. We busted each other’s balls Then newer guys came on that didn’t like the critique. Pride got hurt and many of the old timers left for that reason. Today if I went on a thread and told someone his plug probably wouldn’t swim I probably get banned. so we just don’t say anything. in my eyes when somebody post a plug and all it gets is “ Wow! Awesome, That’s gonna catch slobs and you should go commercial and the Oh your paint and finish are so pretty” are not what early builders need to here. Praise dont push guys to get better. Just gives them a swoll head and the prima Donna comes out.

I forgot all about those! I am more a tinker than a production builder. I don’t mass produce anything. It’s also all freehand. No duplicator as I can alter a design or even a type in a moments notice. Every early spring after I finished what I had planned for the coming year. I try and find time to think out of the box. it’s all about getting better at what you do when your a free range builder. That’s how many of my first borns happen. During the fishing season I come across problems or holes in my arsenal. The thought is. What will work here? All winter as I build, things are running through my head. The “What” if part of plug building. So by spring I’m either trying something new or altering a design to fit in the niche I had found last season. This plug and it’s very few brothers was one of them. They were tested, adjusted, and finally finished. Some went in my pile to fish others went to a very few guys that I knew would fish them and give me honest brutal thoughts on what they found. Brutal honesty helps you get better as a builder. It’s something today’s builders really don’t like to hear. But to us older builders it was money in the bank if the right guys critiqued your work. Some plugs went on to become my main builds. Dagger and LDR pencils, Mullets and Soft tails. Metal lips Others were brought back to the shop to be refigured or even completely redesigned. Some were like darters, bottles, and bottle darters. Given a single run of a dozen or two and then put aside for my use. And possibly never built again. Then we have these builds. There have been plenty Mostly theory or ideas that swirled in my head. It seems “What if” will always be part of my wonder. I build them. Test them, get them to swim, and may even catch with them. But for some reason. I move on. Can’t tell you why, I just do. This one I had forgotten. I had no memory of it till I saw it. Can’t even remember the layout. It swam well but evidently it didn’t stick in my mind or something else took idid. it became a forgotten design in my head. Just another no name. Thanks for showing it.

Ask Eddie to show you the pictures

I’ve written and erased my replies a few times already. Finding it hard to explain what I do. one I’m a fisherman first. I’ve been striper fishing with plugs for over 50 years. so yes these are to fish. That’s why I build. I fill my fishing wants and needs. To me the art of building plugs is destroying them in fish. I don’t mass produce for the market I build because I want to see them catch. So yes it’s fun, a hobby to me in the off season. I build limited numbers of many baits that I intend to fish My builds reflect what I see during the fishing season. They are my answers to the questioned I faced I have been making small baits and huge baits since I started building many years ago. I’m really about what goes in under the paint. What makes them swim and can I push that design correctly to either smaller baits or even gigantic baits and still produce something that catches. You asked if these were built for small fish. Well that a partly yes. Because there are other factors that can be involved. At first I did Smalls yo mimic sand crabs,here in the west coast and peanut bunker, spearing, and sand eels on the East coast that I found in my trips there. But big fish also target small bait. Consistently each year I get quality fish in the surf with small baits when conditions warrant it. Then there is today’s technology. Rods, Reels, line, guides and other newer equipment allow you to reach out with smaller baits into the impact zones. Back when I started building 8” metal lips were commonly used. Today it’s a rarity for guys to throw big metal lips. plugs I consider my “Smalls” at 5 1/2” are actually more the standard size plugs getting Fished. Anyway I’m rambling. Suffice to say yes the guys in the bay did real well with the smaller top water I’m making now but There were guys in the surf catching quality fish on mysmaller plugs last year

Depends on the size. The 2 1/4 are around .40

Wow can’t believe this thread is still alive. Lol of course I’m surprised I’m still walking around. Slowly this years work is getting done. I’ve been messing with smaller and smaller designs this year. so for your viewing pleasure. We’re going to Toe nail soft tail pikies. 2 1/4” bodies not counting the tail

Nose loop. It matters a lot.Even more than the type of lip! That might surprise you but it’s the little things that count. First start with the shape. In the first photo. The plug on the left has a long narrow look, while the one on the right had a more circular smaller one. Both will allow different movement between surfaces of the loop and whatever you connect with. Back in the diaper age of SOL plug building. We discussed things like this. it made guys think and led to better builds. We critiqued and challenged each other to prove points. Can’t do this nowadays and is one reason I tend to stay away. Guys get upset when you are brutally honest about their work. Back then we discussed strategies and theories on not only the shape of the front loop but also the rear Loop. People should always go into building with the thought “What will this do?” You are actually doing this a not as a builder yet. But as a fisherman. One of my favorite made up sayings about plug building/fishing is Its not the plug it’s the guy behind the reel that dictates how well a plug works.

Lol Phil many many many many years ago when Andrew was a beginner in plug building. It was him doing this to me. Lol most of what is plug building lore comes from the days when we all first started on SOL. I just haven been around lately. Mostly because I don’t sit in front of a computer and my fingers are a bit big for this dam phone. Lol. I do pop in every so often. But rarely see something that peeks my interest. Your post did. Im long winded, a bit nuts, and think waaay out of the box when it comes to the nuts and bolts of plug building. I’m a nut shell yes different lips do make different swims. But other factors can also change that swim. so to say a broad lip like a pikie lip does this isn’t completely correct. Just like saying a Danny lip will do this. it’s the entire build that makes the plug react. Maybe this lesson has been lost on this generation of builders where duplications rule over freehand builds.

Really? Just trying to explain that just because two plugs look alike on the outside does not mean what’s going on in the inside is the same. I’ll do it in crayons next time. Lol so much more than a lip difference.

Okay. I’m interested. First things first. The lip is only one component of the builds and even though these are”commercial” brands it doesn’t mean that the personal touch of the builder/designers should be the same. what everyone one so far is focussed on is the lip styles and correctly they gave you the basic idea of each lips design. lip designs direct water displacement. But other things in the designs can either aid or hamper a swim. One look at the wire job The nose loops are different. two Is the weight placement and amount the same three hook sizes and location Four types of wood and density of the blanks can also change swim patterns. Five. Okay Jigman’s gonna tell me to go lay down before I overload you. Lol I’ll leave you with this. Take them down to the water where you can see each swim and see what each will do. There is no “right swim” just different swims. And in my eyes different is always better

05. lol pre Joe P. On that fat back pencil. That is an old one sudsy. Lol

Your right Capesam. I was getting a bit winded in my reply so I did shorten my response. I think a lot of things done By today’s builders can lengthen lip integrity. Out west we only had Creek chub pikies back then. So my view of plugs built before the 70’s was limited to what we fished. there also wasn’t a sharing of info back then between companies so if one company was doing dimples no one else noticed. Lol Sunce were talking about a Pikie I’m trying to keep the information to that ine build and not throwing other styles in the mix. Pikies by nature if done right have a limited lip slot contact area. Compare it to say a Danny and you’ll see the difference. Today globing epoxy in, tweaking or dimpling the lip, spring loading the throughwire, are some of the ways to improve the longevity of lip life.