Felt the need to share this as I have been lurking on this forum for some time now trying to get into plug building. I do not have a lathe (yet) but I decided to take the plunge anyways. I carve duck decoys and shorebirds, so i decided that I would first try a hand carved plug with the tools I already had at my disposal. I really wanted to make a large pike, which I'm sure isn't the easiest place to start, but I drew something up and started on this project nonetheless. Once I got it to the point of sealing, I assembled the plug and did some testing with it in a local pond. If it didn't swim the way I wanted, I would have just chalked it up as a loss and threw it in the firewood pile. However, I really liked the action so I continued on with painting (rattle can) and epoxy (envirotex lite & hang dry). Anyways here is my first finished plug, and hopefully the first of many