who tests there plugs for afew years???
dont forget the search ingine on the net can be evil.........
:pop:

been working on the process for a few years :think: :wall:

i heard all plug builders are really bait fishermen in disguise. only been making them for a few years so testing them that long is about right.

is the cave open yet? i wanna test something.

I have fished a few of urs for 2 seasons now.one has caugt at least a hundred fish its not long for this world but i still toss it.I have a few of my owns that have done well. i had one i got at least a hundred fish on last fall.It was trashed then i snapped it off.for the most part my plugs suck i am constantly messen wit em.I find the more i do this the more use specific i make things.Its part of the isanity.I get lost in it when I start fishin then i try to remember things as I put some together in the off season.over all as a bunch i am gettin some solid designs.but then I wanna do some other things.that means startin all over.i don't need yrs to know if they will work.they get kilt real fast if they are good.but then again i don't sell any plugs either.

I wanna test your IQ

I wanna test your IQ

You really want to read the results? :err:

Been testing this plug for a few years now Bassmaster

http://www.bmwoodworking.com/brucefishing/snowplug.jpg

weird, it kinda looks bunnyish, :) just in time for Easter.

I think we'll have snow in June at the rate this winter has gone :(

You really want to read the results? :err:

no, I'll forward them to you

BM, How do you test a FLOATER.................. :bshake:

always testing,,all winter.. haven't caught much lately .. building,,testing,,tweaking,,thats the whole hobby ain't it ? Its only been a few years ., Is this a test ? :wall: I didn't test well in high school .. they threw my diploma at me . :rotf2:

I am testing...only building for a year but testing none the less! They catch fish...test over! You testing plugs for 3 years does that mean it took that long for you to catch fish on it? :smash: :bl2:

I had an interesting conversation at the show with somebody who has been fishing and making plugs since before we were in diapers. I know where your coming from Dave... but this gent said something to me.. he said the action of the plug, is only as good as the guy swimming it, he claimed it's up to the angler to impart the action he wants into the plug.... I'm still chewing on that one... I agree to a point,but...shouldn't the plug have some of the required action, built into it? :huh:.... but I am like young grasshopper kung-fu.... still searching and confused...
Tests, everytime we throw one it's a test..... do I have to study for this test?

make plugs, fish eels, catch more fish :rotf2:
that's my Thought of the Day

good replys guys, im glad this thred is taken the good way:)
to funny on the pics.
karl, that guy is smart and that is true. you can tweak some plugs that swim like poop to swim better or at its optimum performance.
its an art all in its self to tune a plug. there are tricks that will throw you off as far as tuning goes. such as the sweet spot. Im saying that You may want the plug to stay on top yet you will bent the eye up( now U think that the plug will dive) Yet now You have taken the roll out of the plug and now You are bending the lip down, and then You tweak the eye and lip to get the action You want.
solid colors are great due to the fact that You wont have to worry about roll and get many a type of action out of the plug.
so if you want the slow snake like flaptail likes and talks about or the wiggle like i like most the time then these tweaks will put you on the road to fish.
as far as a danny goes. if you really want a plug to stay on top this is when You would jump to a phat body lure to keep the lure up on top and yet swim great and true along with it being able to dive. I have built some of these only for my self out of another wood other than ayc and pregnated the wood with epoxy and then prime paint. so its all in how far you want to run with it.
Dave>)))'>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` :)

I've been doing this for about a year now. This winter I made a batch of swimmers with all the same body profile. Then I added diffferent weights and lips to them. There were about 18 in total in the first batch. I was amazed at how differently they all swim and moved and how much I could manipulate their action, and attitude in the water by fiddling with their lips and line tie angles. I've since done two more generations of the same plug, playing with wood type, weights and body profile. Again, eye opening. I still don't know which ones will catch fish, but I've learned so much about what does what relative to action in the water. (Not that I can remember it all. It's kind of like info overload at certain points.) I made these guys dive, roll, wobble, wiggle, swim like a snake. I've also learned that certain lips need to be trimmed and reshaped a bit to get a particular action that I'm looking for. Here's what I've learned for sure... There are clearly rules of thumb. After that, it's sort of an art and a bit of black magic that you build on as you go.

I'm lovin' it and can't wait to see how the fish vote this spring!!!!

GREAT POSTS. keepem coming......
howelsedo others tweakanddo things thathelp themlearn :)

when im testing my needles i bring slivers of lead flashing, and shove em in the through wire hole till i get what i want, then when i get home i put a drop of 5 min epoxy in the hole. :)

I had the opportunity a couple of times last season to have BM give me a "how-to" on how to fish some plugs and he knows his stuff! :)

how else do others test there plugs,ya donthave to build to reply.
keepem coming, this is good thred :heybaby:
I will fish bass river wheniwantto see a plug swim, its good as ithas fast water at the mouth on the flood.
andwhen on the sand i will test wood, I really love a swell and working wood in it. when I wasmaking pikes all I did was fish them all year to find the best time of day and year for them to work. Me thinks the danny out fishes pikes though cept in spring when herring and shad are around. and that blue and silver is a top color along with olive and gold.
found that at sun up yellow is killer along with all white....

I'm still working a big zagger,,,take 52 probably.. The fish liked the plug, got decent fish on it last year but I want to improve the casting so I added another shot right behind the belly hook . I hope the plug can handle it and I don't kill the action on it ..Thats the hardest part for me,, What good is good action on a plug if you can't reach them ,,added weight seems to deadin a plug .. its a catch 22..That sweet spot your talking about for me is castability with fishabilty . not as easy as it sounds..

I've just started to test. One in the last batch,a metal lip lefty looking thing, would only come straight in. ? Bent the eye up, nada,down, still nix. Bent the lip down and it turned into a snake. I have sooo much to learn.

My testing grounds

I test my stuff...but last year I had more fun destroying Jigsy's stuff :uhuh: johnny

When I set about making a plug I look at others plugs and take from them things I like.. for instance, I liked bassmasters round nose on his needles, so i gave me needles round noses. I love habs needles and like they way they ride at 45 degrees so I tried to duplicate that by throwing alot of lead in the tail. AS far as painting, there are certian colors that we all know are killer so i go with what works. The result is a needle that is unique to me, but in the same way its a combination of many peoples designs morpphed into one plug.
With the exceptoin of a few poppers, i have never gone out and copied an exact replica of someones plug, i dont beleive in that.

When I test my plugs I go down to the narrow river in narragansett and swim my darters and swimmers in a few of the rips that are close to shore and not too far of a walk. I bring a pair of plyers, split rings, hooks in 2/0, 3/0, and 4/0 and sometimes a notepad. This winter was the year of learning how to make darters and I had a few that didnt work and alot that were jems. the ones that didnt work didnt get trashed, but are hanging in my shop with notes attached to them explaining why they didnt work- too big of a nose loop, too heavy of a wood, too light a wood... from those I learn what not to do...
Swimmers are pretty hard to screw up, and testing those is just tweaking the loop and lip to get them to wiggle right. sometimes i need to change up a hoook size to give it more belly weight.
next on my list of plugs to learn to make are pikies.. then jointed swimmers. Its fun and in the end, the fish will tell you what they want.
Ive leraned almost everything about building plugs from this board and for that I am thankful :D

I remember you testing this plug Dave.....

http://www.#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&.com/images/bassmaster.jpg

I can't say I've tested my own creations, but I do go to a bridge over a saltwater marsh outflow on a falling tide to learn and see how I can work different plugs. Mostly the big wood, the type Manzi seems to favor, and some I got from Scott. Reason is I NEVER see guys up my way throw a darter, a pikie, a danny, or swimmers...never. So I have to test them when I can get them. (Donations accepted)
Pencils and needles rule up here, then topwater poppers, bombers, yozuri and the other off the shelf stuff. Tested the new squidzee last year, threw it a ton, catches too. Still can't figure why I never see those plugs in use up here. Can it be that different, or we just have blinders on???????

you have blinders on... dannies and pikies in mid may where you know there are bass feeding on herring. strong currents call for darters.

I remember you testing this plug Dave.....

http://www.#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&.com/images/bassmaster.jpg

And then youse 2 field tested it together.... :rotf2: ;)

good posts keepem coming....
salty U sick in the nogin
Tagger move your belly hook back 1/4 Inch and then maybe up treble in back or single 1 size. youmayfind that is all You need to do and the plug will retain action.
im lucky that i can fish rather well and grew up phishin.
no swellage just a fact bout me.
ebenand others glad U bums growing with woodage.
:spam: Master Says.
thatif Youhave a nice hunk of wood and it feels right and light make a swimmer out of it.
if You have some ayc thats dence them make a darter or needles. or a nice popper.
also picking the right color on the sand can equate to more fish landed. as in a white plug get You fish yet a swap to a yellow and white gets You on every cast.
last spring I pulled of the rack a chart and pink bomber and painted it pearl white. and put 2 vmc trebs on it.
this was #1 plug at a spot in late may loaded with cow bass and shoolies. put on a bone bomber got fish put on a pearl white got fish. then I thought of hueing this plug out asit would add shades of white to it. and bam it would catch when nothing else would. so the point is wood tin plastic Use the mind and try out stuff.
P.S. there was 2 guys from ny there they was nice as they seenme and stayed in there safty zone ( room) I called them over they both had white and that wonder bomber on.
untill theyseen what I made, theycouldnt buy a fish.and I told them if they could find the bomber i have,I dont think thay makem any more. 1 year on nauset that bomber stock was the balls..
:spam: Master>|)))'>

I like to make an undrilled test blank and attach lips, hooks, and weight with screw eyes. It's an easy way to change and move stuff around to see what happens. I then start making plugs to fish with. I'll go back and play with the test plug whenever I think of something I want to change.

HOw different are the plugs when you thru wire them with the wood removed and wire going thru, etc., than the test plug with screw eyes? Do you feel you loose some bouyancy? Particualrly smaller plugs?

dont know on that one steel, Me thinks it would'nt matter though. :putin:

Thanks Dave ,, hooks pretty far back now ..Top 1 is mine bottom 2 are original ballerinas,,( you still talkin about that damm ballerina),,I hear ya's But ya ,, fishes well and cast well but doesn't cast like a polaris popper.. On bouyancy, I have found copying freswater lures you can add more weight converting to salt for the added bouyancy you get in saltwater, The arrow shows where the orig is weighted ,just like mine .. trying another shot aft of hook to improve the cast as long as I don't loose the angle of the dangle.. Iwant 20 degress .. not 90 not 45 "20" ... Speaking of bouancy I've made this lure out of just about every type of wood ,. What I want it to do ,,. is cover water verticaly as well as horizontaly. And it does. AYC this thing stayed on top and that was that ..Hard maple or birch is the ticket for me .. Snap it down and it works sub surface . snap it up ..there it is .. Yes I've put alot of thought into this .. not just winging it ..

tagger, im doing the exact same thing right now.
maple spooks and spooks with eyes in the back. these are the 1st ones, and ive gotten them to float right without any lead, just using bigger hooks, definitly want to switch over to lead though and get some more distance.

Shapes on your ballerina spooks look good .. fat head, little arse,,I'm using a 00 shot where shown .. Maple is good for what I want ,, birch dowels are equaly as good ,, I'm sure youv'e walked the dog in your day,, but you don't have to do all that .. just random tugs (darts) and it will act like a real bait fish . I caught so many fish on the smaller one i made the 308l wire on the arse was all streched out , Thats the one I lost at PA and Mac went down the next night and saw a little kid walking with his dad had it in his hand.. He traded him a brand new Mac pikie to get the beat up piece of junk back to me . kid was thrilled and so was I .. a good friend .. If the added weight throws the angle out to much I'll try a larger arse hook thanks ..You want the 20 so when you give it a tug it moves "darts" and almost suspends some what level .. looks good .. arse dropping to 45 ,,90,, would be no good ,,Because I like to fish it real slow sometimes {alot} not all that mental dog walkin..Although when there is alot of fish and the feeding is competitive i do the fast thing .. Then again when the feeding is competitive everybody is catching on something different. I could throw my shoe in the water and catch then ,,

Man, this is the thread I been waitin' for all winter! :happy: A lot of theory here that I'll never live long enough to discover myself. Thank you all! So, how do you weight that shoe? :hidin: Don't hit me.

Success feels good,, Like talking about that,, never forget the ones i smashed with a hammer that didn't work so well .. You must have gone through a thought process on that red ceadar,fatty,single belly hook,black danny you had so much success with last year Fred... Excuse me ,,, I gotta go check my mail box again .. :rotf2:

:rotf2: is right ! I never saw it swim! It was untested and new moon when I first threw it. I wouldn't a bet that I even hit water. Blind dumb luck. It's stuff like that that puts the stunned look on my face. Gifts from above that I know I don't deserve. Like I said before, I have sooo much to learn. I also have some great and generous teachers here.

I took a danny over to one of my little testing rips this afternoon. By playing with the lip angle and the thru wire loop, I was able to make it swim on the top makng a wake like a motor boat to bottom bouncing. in the current in the same spot. The difference between the motor baot and the bottom bounce was the thru wire loop. With the loop bent at an extreme upwards angle, the plug dove right to the bottom. With the loop and the lip bent way down, almost aprralel to each other, the plug swam right on top making a wonderful wake.

I do all kinds of plug testing. New swimmer I'm working on, I gave some thought on the size/profile of the local bait, then tried to get something close to that in wood. Next was trying to duplicate that action of that bait with the plug. Tried several woods, lips, weight locations/amount and combos until I got what I felt was the appropriate action for the plug. Made up several in the usual colors. Will be testing/tweaking on fish real soon.

Once I have a plug that is catching well, I'll also try a variet of colors to see which work best. Have also done plenty of testing on various sealers, primers, paints, and clear coats and combinations of those. You can do some of that testing at home. Once you find a combo you like, you can try it for a season to see how it holds up under various conditions. Can test other combos against that to see what works best for you.

Jigman

BM, how did the clearcoat on your plug hold up after all that abuse?? :humpty: :yak:

:rotf2: In the immortal words of the Bassmaster, "I'm ruined." I went down to the bulkhead this afternoon in Falmouth and test swam a bunch of my winter work. I don't turn so everything was either scratch and dents, mis-drills or charity that I sanded, re-drilled, primed, painted and coated this winter. I was holding off but after trout fishing yesterday ( which was pretty good) and seeing all the crocusses on rt. 6a then going out to Truro and Wellfleet to see the beach I had to do it. So I rigged them all out with hooks, bucktails etc. and let them swim. They all went great ( the white darter needs a single not a treble on the rear end) but the big pink/white and blue/white swirl Atom that I made from some Slipknot discards just made me loose it. I need MAY and the outer beach at dawn or the Elizabeth Islands. I was seeing mirages of bass coming up to look at them. I had to leave the dock. They swim that good. I cut the lips to match the individual bodies widths rather than use manufactured lips.I need Bass and I got a bunch of stuff to feed 'em. Come on April 20th at least :drool: :ss: !!!

good posts, i have surfsters to build and swim this spring :jump: along with some pikes goingto the islands....

Flap, I'm glad to hear your plugs work, gald to see some junk turned into gold also.

I test mine in the bathtub.

Here are my best two danny plugs so far. Tested these yesterday afternoon in a nice rip near home. Once the lip and loop were aligned like they are in the picture they were like little freight trains. I thing I learned yesterday is that this style plug needs a nice shoulder to pivot around, at least in fast and turbulant current, as well as a belly weight. I have another almost exactly like these with no belly weight and it was clear that it wanted to be in
calmer water..

I'm sure that this is old hat to alot of you guys and the profile is a familiar one. But to own figuring it all out was priceless...

I just finished my 1st batch of homemade ever and will probably swim them this week sometime to see how I did. Being extremely new to plug-building I'm trying to work on the basics of building the plug right now, such as Shaping, sealing, priming, painting, epoxy-coating, and through-wiring (The Drilling is still a giving me grief but I had someone show me a jig that should make it easier).

I'm going to try out the few that I've made and see what i like/don't like about them. Once I'm satisfied that I have the basics down I'm going to start digging into the proto'ing process and really dig into what I need to do to fine tune plugs and what changes the actions.

Like I said right now I just want to learn the basics and then expand off of them. Now to catch something on the ones I've made

Steellhead and TDF, glad to see others on the north shore working in some larger wood. Do you share my view that dannys, pikies and the like are seldom seen up this way?

Steelhead, anything showing there yesterday?

Nothing showing there yesterday... I see danny's, poppers and pencil poppers. Haven't encountered needles, and pikies being used by other fishermen. Maybe where I'm fishing???

What I've noticed is that the Pencil Popper seems to be the plug of choice up around here. I have seen a few people throwing needles and the, very, occasional Darter. after that i see a lot of bombers, yozuri crystal minnows, and mambo minnows.

We've been missing something......

And the plug makers are missing an untapped market.......

I test all the time, I drive myself absolutely nuts... but I test. More lead... different spots... too much roll, fatter skinnierer........... :rolleyes: but it does pay off in the long run when they do what you want and catch fish.


Hey BM...............
GREEN PAINT
Git off yer arese and maile that needle bub!