best way to make plugs?
since i plan on making a few this winter, i looked around not much on the ""aerodynamics"" of plugs. not that i can find anyway. so do you pretty much whip one out and test it in a pool or some clear water and see what happens?

Try making what you like best.....study the plug itself. Its not rocket science Chris! Good luck!:wave: Try the search option here in the forum.....lots of answers there!

Try making what you like best.....study the plug itself. Its not rocket science Chris! Good luck!:wave: Try the search option here in the forum.....lots of answers there!

i turn everything into rocket science.. (which is might be my problem lately.) granted you are the one person i know least in your family. you may know of my.... well currently.. under-achieving brain functions.

you know that miracle lure that came out? the one thats like banned from tournies? i had a rough draft of that made up when i was 9. when i saw it a mag i was pissed. my draft was nearly identical. down to a T.
you can ask my mom of my long line of inventions that have struck the billions mark..
i over analyze and perfect everything.
honestly.. if i had access to an actual wind tunnel.. you best believe my plugs would be in there as well as a current pool thing..
if you think i have gone batty now.. wait till i start building plugs.
i am going to try to keep it as simple and basic as i can.. but i would fear for your lively hood.. lol. j/k but really.. expect some ridiculous stuff out of me. you might be getting a fully mechanical life like bunker replica by next season.

What kind of plug .??? who makes the best ? darter? pencil popper?spook ? whatever .. study the masters ... new and old .. I swim plugs all winter ..A plug that fish love and cast great is a common goal .

The way the process usually works is you build a few of the different designs you like, test swim them, and when you think you have them perfected you mail me a copy of each and I put them through a battery of QA tests for you and report back on my findings...Its all very Scientific :hee:

but actually.. i pretty much study everything. i mean the basic over all designs, of every plug i have ever fished are embedded in my brain.

what i was really getting at is.. how do you test out the final conclusion. just drop it in and see what happens? and then tweak as necessary? like say i tried a danny... just carve it out, throw on a clear coat/sealant and toss it into some visible water and see what happens? then sand off the coating and make adjustments till it works right? or would i hafta just carve out another one if the first one failed? starting from scratch? granted wood is pretty cheap. (depending on the type) but my biggest fear is wasting a bunch of wood perfecting action. especially considering drilling spots, hooks and their placement/size. skirts, weights etc. ... i would assume once the action was down the colors are complete trial and error. cause ya never know a fire engine red of one lure could be deadly where as a bright.. uh... err.. green camo pattern? could be the nuts on another..

The way the process usually works is you build a few of the different designs you like, test swim them, and when you think you have them perfected you mail me a copy of each and I put them through a battery of QA tests for you and report back on my findings...Its all very Scientific :hee:

i liked that answer.. i can do that.. since we all know what happens when i try to fish.. rather put them into the hands of some one who can catch fish under normal conditions... lol.

then again, if i create something that even I can catch fish on.. you know it's a killer. :rotflmao:

and now 5 mins later i am already over analyzing.. do you guys consider that certain miracle lure a cheat? what exactly crosses the line between sporting and cheating? oh boy.. here we go.. pembroke hospital here i come..

I would focus on catching fish first. How can you build a plug if you don't know what you want it to do and how would you know what you want it to do if you haven't caught fish on plugs?

You already have one problem. Why dump more on top of that? Doesn't sound like fun and it's suppose to be.

aerodynamics"".....poppers and pencils, spooks..of all the customs we trade for, some are better casters than others some are better catchers too...some are good for boat, some beach:rotf2:test-test-test every year you'll get better

I would focus on catching fish first. How can you build a plug if you don't know what you want it to do and how would you know what you want it to do if you haven't caught fish on plugs?

You already have one problem. Why dump more on top of that? Doesn't sound like fun and it's suppose to be.

i have caught plenty of fish on plugs.. i know exactly what i want them to do.. only problem is the plugs i have caught fish are incredibly hard to come by these days. (excluding my freshwater assortment) been pluggin since i was six.

i have a very good idea of how i want my stuff to act. thus building em myself. since i cant find em. i'm just wandering how the process goes to getting them to that point. i hear "test test test" aka trial and error... and then "study study study" which is more of a hypothesis approach. i guess it all boils down to what i asked though and the results come out to be trial and error.

Test and create to fit your needs.

i have caught plenty of fish on plugs.. i know exactly what i want them to do.. only problem is the plugs i have caught fish are incredibly hard to come by these days. (excluding my freshwater assortment) been pluggin since i was six.

i have a very good idea of how i want my stuff to act. thus building em myself. since i cant find em. i'm just wandering how the process goes to getting them to that point. i hear "test test test" aka trial and error... and then "study study study" which is more of a hypothesis approach. i guess it all boils down to what i asked though and the results come out to be trial and error.

Sorry. I thought I saw something about you primarily being a chunker. I don't read most of your posts. What plugs are you looking for that are now hard to come by?

Geeez your making this awfuly hard .. I'm exausted :gf:. 1.The fish will tell you if your plugs are any good ..
2 . can you reach the fish ?
You say you know everthing .. then why do you ask .?
Take a simple plug .. a danny .. fat in the middle tapered both ends ,,right ..maybe not .. what if you made the fat part a little aft of center ? (beachmaster).. Would that make it cast a little better ? Hurry Up and start making them .. I'm dieing to see what you come up with . And they better be Hydro Orientated !!!!!!!!

K I S S.

You are a glutton for punishment

Geeez your making this awfuly hard .. I'm exausted :gf:. 1.The fish will tell you if your plugs are any good ..
2 . can you reach the fish ?
You say you know everthing .. then why do you ask .?
Take a simple plug .. a danny .. fat in the middle tapered both ends ,,right ..maybe not .. what if you made the fat part a little aft of center ? (beachmaster).. Would that make it cast a little better ? Hurry Up and start making them .. I'm dieing to see what you come up with . And they better be Hydro Orientated !!!!!!!!

hahaha you get me!! i know what i want! but what do the fish want?hopefully what i want since those were the last major producers for me... wait.. now i've confused myself.. see how i work now? i know everything but i never know enough. make sense yet?

no?

didnt think so...

cause i dont even know yet.. it a combo of me and others.. all i asked really was how they planned things out. yours has been the best answer. with take a design and modify. larry's was close with study it. but though he meant study then reproduce. which is no fun. otherwise i would just buy him out of stock. :walk:.

i think you guys are the ones over analyzing the question lol. i just want to know the methods you use to test and correct.

but i may have worded it horribly. english wasn't my thing. i'm a math science guy. there is no room for interpretation with me. it's all black white, yes or no answers.

example... i want a certain wobble, i base it off lets say a danny. ok i take your idea and make it fatter at some point.. then just toss it i lets say my grandmas pool.. as larry sits on the deck enjoying a tropical drink. (he knows where it is, and should say hi since every one is asking about him) but it doesn't wobble right..

should i toss a complete blank in? or hooked up version with a full clear coat and then sand that down and work on THAT ONE til i find the sweet spot? or should i not bother and just spin a few different variants?

p.s.- wait for my "snap intos" those are gonna be killer :rotf2::rotf2:


ok bad inside joke

The best way is to seal the plug ,,swim it ,, not happy.. shift weight .. drill and fill ... swim again .. pay attention to plugs attitude at a dead drift in the water .. You can tune a plug by swapping out hooks.. But you may already have some standards you will want .. For instance ,, I do not like to go any smaller than 3/0 hooks ,.. unless its a ,just for fun schooly plug .. The fish I'm targetting . demand 3/0 and I'd feel better with 5/0 hooks.. are you a top water junky ? or just targetting large and a slow sinking needle will do the trick and could care less about the visaul .. I fish my plugs and just about everybody eleses . ,. making a plug that catches fish ain't that hard .. One that consistantly fools large again and again is quite an achievement . Those are the plugs that will be sought after years from now.. There's some really great plugs being built in here .. Build something ,, Lets see your stuff ..

The best way is to seal the plug ,,swim it ,, not happy.. shift weight .. drill and fill ... swim again .. pay attention to plugs attitude at a dead drift in the water .. You can tune a plug by swapping out hooks.. But you may already have some standards you will want .. For instance ,, I do not like to go any smaller than 3/0 hooks ,.. unless its a ,just for fun schooly plug .. The fish I'm targetting . demand 3/0 and I'd feel better with 5/0 hooks.. are you a top water junky ? or just targetting large and a slow sinking needle will do the trick and could care less about the visaul .. I fish my plugs and just about everybody eleses . ,. making a plug that catches fish ain't that hard .. One that consistantly fools large again and again is quite an achievement . Those are the plugs that will be sought after years from now.. There's some really great plugs being built in here .. Build something ,, Lets see your stuff ..

alright now im gettin some where!

so basically start of with the hardware you expect to use, with a basic design. then if not satisfied sand/cut/tweak as necessary. got it!

now you guys hold tight.. i still got a month or so of fishing to do before i start building. you really think i am gonna give up on fall run to sit inside and coordinate with my building buddies?!?! you must be insane!! next season you will see what we dream up.

actually you said you prefer to base the wood around the steel... not that i dont value the opinion but do other prefer to base the steel around the wood?
i want to find the middle ground of wood vs steel. how many tweaks to the steel (since it seems easier then tweaking the wood) do you make before you decide the wood was no good?

edit... never mid.. i'll figure it out if the pool isnt frozen

Try my method...........just turn any old crap, then trade with Eddy and Paul to get something that catches fish

actually you said you prefer to base the wood around the steel... not that i dont value the opinion but do other prefer to base the steel around the wood?
i want to find the middle ground of wood vs steel. how many tweaks to the steel (since it seems easier then tweaking the wood) do you make before you decide the wood was no good?

edit... never mid.. i'll figure it out if the pool isnt frozen

You really have to be more specific ,,, What plug do you have in mind ,, Hooks are one cosideration but not the only .. Most the time its a place . a rip ... deep water .. or lack of it .. sand .. or rocks ... I've made some heavy arse needles to drag in the sand that would be insanity to throw in a rock pile . I know what hooks I want ,, but sometimes a plug (swimmer) will tell me what hooks it wants . I know a plug that can not be reproduced because the thin wire 5/0 hooks do not exist anymore . Jerry Sylvester's jointed plug .. I had to get some old arse hooks Flap had ..
http://www.shorelinebt.com/id13.html

A few things to consider. How do you like to fish (surface, subsurface), what conditions do you fish, what is the bait like in those areas, and how does the bait swim. Now try to replicate that. Once I have a size/profile I like I'll try various lips, hooks, hook locations, weight sizes/locations to get the best action I can out of the plug. Usually that takes some tweaking at a test pond, or better yet, at the area you want to fish them. You can use screw eyes to aid in determining hook locations. Wide rubber band to attach a slug of lead so you can move it around and find the best location. Once you have a good idea of how much lead and where, the location of hooks, etc, you can turn a couple more to those specs and tweak some more from there. Most of my test plugs are either not sealed, or just have sealer. I'll sometime prime them so I can see them better as they swim. Even draw a line with a sharpie down the back and for the eyes so I can better judge the action. Once I have something down how I like, I'll turn a few more and paint, then show them to fish. The fish may give you some additional ideas for tweaking the plug.

Jigman

YES !!! now i'm getting a good idea. the last two really helped out!
as far conditions. i dont have any. i have been every where, all types of geographical features. in all conditions yet to find the magic bullet. so i honetly don't know. wanna turn some basic for practice. (cept for my one complicated jointed with a very specific color scheme)

jigman's was really what i was lookin for. as it seemed tedious turning then drilling. only to fail then having to repeat many times.

colors are obviously my last priority, they just make em pretty. and maybe rare... ::evil smirk::

i dont wanna toss anything at fish i'm not satisfied with. or do i? lol. ya never know!

just wait... my pink, green blurble red tiger leopard super deep diving swimming popper darter will the shiznit!! lol

Pick one type of plug that you like to throw a lot. Pick a set of conditions that you typically fish. Now make something to fit those conditions. Once you have one down well that is catching, move onto another type of plug/conditions.

Jigman

My head hurts from reading all this... but I do admire your enthusiasim.

First off, I only scanned this thread, as I said, my head hurts...if you think, you can not "waste a bunch of wood" your picking the wrong hobby.... there will be waste..... as others have said, decide what it is you want the plug to do, where you are going to fish and procede from there.... your going to have to spend some time studying how bait fish react under various conditions, your going to have to keep notes, you will want to make your plug acts like a baitfish acts.... then by changing shapes of your plug, adding or subtracting weight you will begin to see patterns, the learning curve will quicken, but you must be willing to invest time, be studious and not be afraid of failure.. this site can give you a tremendous head start... but it's gonna take some hard work....

good luck
Roc