More a curious question than anything else.....how many of you guys go for an original look to your plugs when you build? When I am sitting home my mind is always working...looking for something that might be new or different.....something that sets my plugs apart from anyone elses. Be it the body style, paint...whatever! How does your mind work when you are turning something new? Lets talk about how your creative juices flow especially during winter...the season to turn!:think:

With all the builders past and present, it's getting real hard to find something that hasn't been done. So I combine things. Squid needles are one example, but I believe Steelehead did one before me based on a Norris. I make a little sandeel needle too. Try to give the impression of a mid-sized sandeel in color shape and sparkle. I'm sure that's been done to death too. Sometimes it's just bringing back a plug that was never understood in the first place. Tagger is the black-belt king of that. Look at that Floyd Roman, Tagger has shown us hows and whys of a very simple,yet very sophisticated lure. And Capesams :shocked: I'll never be there. Original ? Not much hasn't been covered, but with a better understanding of how and why they work, maybe we can take a little here and there and make something new.

I look to the past to inspire stuff Im doing now. I take those proven designs and try to apply them, by modifying them to suit locations I fish now. Case n point. I went to an auction, picked up a jerry sylvester flaptail that was a beater. Took it home disected it, and made some with similar specs (slightly larger). I fished them last fall and did well, but the action was not as close as the action on the original as I liked, because I was using dif. wood. I went back and modified my processes to get an action that was more true to the way the original swam, what I have now I feel mimics the action of the original close enough for me, as I'm using all dif. materials. I'm happy with the changes I've made and it functions the way I'd wanted it to now. Good topic Larry.

love the old guy's,cream of the crop elder's of bait builder's...men who invented the wheel..it ain't broke so I go with the flow,,cept a few upgrades now an then on the hardware. I thank you plug maker's of the by gone day's as we'd still be using smelly dead fish for bait today.

I still consider myself a student of salty ghost that lived and fished years ago .. Sometimes its another builder steering me a certain way.. I do have an orig. project going but it will stay hidden .. I need lightweight batteries and small solinoids with digi lense attached to live feed board on beach ... whoops said to much already ..

:hidin:

I just try to think of how to make plugs better that will catch fish, I don't care about originality.

I'm mostly looking to build plugs that fill specific niches in my plug bag. Sometimes that means you go on your own path, and sometimes you borrow a shape from the past. I don't go out of my way to try and be original in the shape, sometimes they are and sometimes not, I try to build plugs for specific location, conditions, or the rod I want to use... Functionality is much more important to me. I want a bagful of plugs that lets me outfish or atleast outcast the guys that are muggin me :bl:

Above my lathe I have 5 or 6 plugs hanging that I draw on for inspiration when I am turning. There is a danny, a pikie, a gibbs bottle swimmer, a polaris, an old screw eye darter, a mag darter and a few plastic minnow type swimmers. I take down the ones that may be similar to what I'm making, and I borrow a curve here, a transtition there, sometimes the way a tail tapers. Thats about as much as I try to borrow when I'm turning, but before I start I definitely have a fishy shape in mind that I'm going for.

Unfortunately I don't know much about the history of old wooden plugs, so I end up winging it a lot...

.. I need lightweight batteries and small solinoids with digi lense attached to live feed board on beach ... whoops said to much already ..

Tagga, i got some old spring wind up motors if ya can use e'm . :D

I just copy what I see on the internet.
For instance i just seen these plugs called woody's.
Nice stuff.Kinda stuff i would do if i was a builder.
He had some kool paint schemes for squid darter's I can't wait to copy.
An i have no shame in sayin it.
When they come around u'll se more of em.nothing goes uncopied.Its the greatest form of flattery.

seems to be the way nib:lurk:

I never had an original thought in my life. If I did I am sure it was sh-t luck.

Paul...I have heard that before so you are right!:hihi:

Cavemen Argued over Who invented Fire.

I'm mostly looking to build plugs that fill specific niches in my plug bag. Sometimes that means you go on your own path, and sometimes you borrow a shape from the past. I don't go out of my way to try and be original in the shape, sometimes they are and sometimes not, I try to build plugs for specific location, conditions, or the rod I want to use... Functionality is much more important to me. ...

That pretty much describes it for most of what I do. I borrow some old ideas from time to time, and modify as needed for the conditions where I'll fish them. Pikies, for example, are one plug I obviously borrowed a lot from CCBC, though mine are not clones of the originals.

In my opinion, the best that a garage builder can do is design something to fill a niche rather than make a generic clone of something that is out there already. Yeah, they may borrow some ideas from other sources, but its the combination of variables that makes that plug killer under the conditions it was designed to be used in.

Jigman

I just try to have my own paint style and look for new ways to improve.:happy:

I am pretty new to plugbuilding so I'm copying stuff that I know works until I get a handle on what makes these things tick. Once I understand how changes affect the action and whatnot I'll be able to make what I'm really looking for. Will my stuff will ever be truly "original"? Probably not seeing as almost everything has been done before at one point. Honestly I don't care if it is or not, as long as it catches fish. I've already learned a ton from all you guys and want to thank you for the help(both directly and through posts to others).

Cavemen Argued over Who invented Fire.

Oh man, LMAO.Where did ya get that one from Karl. :huh: :rotf3:

A lot of the stuff I build came from stuff that hasn't been built in a long time. I look at the original and adapt from there giving it my twist. CCB inspired a lot of my stuff; small pikes, large surfsters and now medium ones with the new lip, and hybrids which started after my following pin on duplicator slipped and I made medium surfsters too skinny. Pencil poppers and dannies; I looked at most that were available on the market and put different aspects and characterisitics into the ones I build. I took a little here, changed something there,etc
Some of the old stuff I will copy to a "T" to fish myself.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl F
Cavemen Argued over Who invented Fire.


Oh man, LMAO.Where did ya get that one from Karl.
__________________


Karl was the one who invented the wheel ,he let everyone else take on fire:smokin:

A lot of the stuff I build came from stuff that hasn't been built in a long time. I look at the original and adapt from there giving it my twist. CCB inspired a lot of my stuff; small pikes, large surfsters and now medium ones with the new lip, and hybrids which started after my following pin on duplicator slipped and I made medium surfsters too skinny. Pencil poppers and dannies; I looked at most that were available on the market and put different aspects and characterisitics into the ones I build. I took a little here, changed something there,etc
Some of the old stuff I will copy to a "T" to fish myself.

Dead nutz right on what Mac said.