Can you guys tell me a bit about these plugs? What they are, history, etc.?

cap'n bills
gibbs
cap'n bills

The top one is a Cap'n Bills Popper, the Middle one is a Stan Gibbs Trolling swimmer and the bottom one is a Cap'n Bills Swimmer. All are from the early fifties. Enjoy!:D

Relative to contemporary profiles, these have dropped off, although if I squint at the Gibbs, I can make a Bomber out of it...

Are they still made and fished today in wood or for the mosdt part "unproductive"? It seems like certain profiles have survived since the 50"s and some have not...

the capt'n bill's were poorly made..cheap pine,,no sealer..they were lucky to get any primer...no long made.

the gibbs were nicely made...they were made up to only a few years ago...don't know if the new gibb's co. are making these now or not I don't know.

I notided the thin paint finish on the Captain Bills. Also the odd "Swivel" arrangement for the belly hooks. Did they catch fish but just not hold up?

Anyone out therer use the Gibbs Plug? Trolling or otherwise?
I was thinking of a few real long deep rips that I could work droft it out and slowly work it back in.

those r hook hanger's ....the wire goes up into the hole and is bent over and back down,,at which point the through wire is put through the bend in the hanger...non-swiveling.

Sounds kinda like a cotter pin...

Originally posted by steelhead
Anyone out therer use the Gibbs Plug? Trolling or otherwise?
I was thinking of a few real long deep rips that I could work droft it out and slowly work it back in.
I have used the trolling swimmer on wire and lead also a drail ya know the lead with a keel.
blue and white worked very well and so did the mack and the all white along with yello.
I had a mess of gibbs and live oround the corner from where they was made.
I had some very rare one offs. and fished them and got ho'd and gave away a bunch. I dont care i make my own crao any way.
I had a million Hans in the package as those lures where junk and would fall aprt after a day on the island but they swam good
I use to throw the long jointed hans into the rocks at night and my last one all beat to crap is hanging at harrys and has made a cover on otw. lol........
But the gibbs You have is a real good one for wire. I should make some. 3rd week in may the sound loads up with macks or the 4th week and that is the #1 plug to troll off the bridge in the am in mack or blue and silver.
I had some flesh colord ones but they sucked.
I got 10 perch flaptail dannys from atlantic ave and lost them all to rocks and fish but had 1 left and 10X10 got that plug from me ,he was a plug collect'r and s#^&#^&#^&#^& when he seen some of the gibbs I had. owell there only hunks of wood.....

The Cap'n Bills went through several iterations. The Shearer Bros. of Northbridge/Whitinsville MA. were the first builders and developers of that line of plugs. They were sold to Red Top bait eventually and Bunny DePietro had a guy in New Hampshire turn the bodies, paint and coat them with a heavy epoxy finish ( to make up for the lack of sealer I guess) Early versions are not "cheap pine" as was previously stated, but red western cedar, as with anything that gets "farmed out" by one person to another to keep up with demand, the guy in N.H. was found to be "cheapening" the process by switching to un-seasoned pine which led to later models splitting and cracking. The guy in N.H. would ship down cardboard barrels of of finished but un-riggerd plugs to Red Top and Bunny had Chester "Biff" McArdle ( later of Biff's Bait and Tackle by the Sagamore Bridge) cut the lip slots and thru wire and lip them then put on the hooks and box them.

Stan Gibbs trolling swimmers are still made though for some reason, which Jimmy Greicci, former owner of Gibbs when they were last on Cape, never explained to me why he made a change, they now come with a large Danny lip instead of the
standard wider lip. I think the older wider lip ones swim better.
The largest Bluefish I ever caught was taken on a Blue Mackerel one, one night off of Nantucket on a September full Moon fishing Old Man Rip with Bobby Perimian on his at that time boat "Foolish Pleasure. We were fishing wire and taking some huge Bass on Gibbs trolling swimmers when I got a tremendous hit which I thought had to be a fish over fifty ( we had a couple 40's in the boat already) because it fought so hard. Well it turned out to be a 23-3/4 pound Bluefish. ( I should have mounted that fish). :D

Man, I love those stories. Keep 'em coming!

flap i think i got a couple with the lips that are not the same
i remebr us looking at something hanging in my cave