White and Yellow are close copies of the big Troublemaker, the Herring is a loose copy of the original CCBC (which differs quite a bit from the Troublemaker version). BIG plugs........which I've not fished much....but for which a friend (originally from NJ) has been dropping hint after hint after hint (after he had his one and only Troublemaker taken from him on a double). Medium ones are next.

Dammmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I love the yellow one but they are all killer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nizzze George! I love surfsters! Great work!:tooth:

Wicked! :kewl:Fat Baztard are on my to build list. :hee:

sweet plugs... that friend probably prefers white plugs, if it is who I think...

great job... not your usual numbskull type of eyes

Very nice G. I like the blind one a lot.

Nice George, can't wait to see them swim.

Here's how mine are coming along. I re-did the first one I showed you the other night to get that flare but it lost some body weight.

The one I turned this morning is almost right on the original I borrowed from you. I think you can see that all important body flare fore and aft.

Nice surfsters :kewl:

Jigman

sufster's are awesome, especially yours. Great job!:kewl:

nice little detail ,with the nose grommet under the lip .. looks finished .. I gotta make a surfster now ..

thoes are great:btu:

numbskull, :drool: would love to do a couple. could I PLEASE ask you for DEMENTIONS:huh:an wheight :huh: don't own one. will have to pick up some lips from Mike.
GOOD LUCK GOOD PLUGGIN:wavey:

Awesome :)

very nice george. I can never get the body right on surfsters. Flap has the best word to describe what mine are missing, body flair. Back to the drawing board. Did you ad weight to the end or no weight. I know TM;s had no weight

The original surfsters have a concavity between the waist and the nose, as well as between the waist and the tail. The troublemakers do not have the concavity between the nose and waist.

Both versions are 7.25" long. The original weighs 2.7oz rigged, the troublemaker 3.5+ oz. There is also an original "striper special" version (most with just one belly hook) that carries a big slug of through wire lead in the tail-midsection, and brings the weight up to 4oz. The originals were made out of white cedar, I don't know what the troublemakers are (? cedar with CPES).

The dimensions on the original are,
7.25 long
1.5 wide at 3.5" back from nose
.70 at tail
approx 1.2 at head before the taper begins to a round nose (approx 7/8" back)
The first hook is 1 7/8" back, the second 4 5/8" back)

Measuring from THE TAIL in 1'' increments the widths are
0"- .70
1" - .87
2" 1.13
3"- 1.4
4" - 1.48 (guess.....the plug is 1.5 a quarter inch earlier from tail)
5"-1.34
6" 1.23
7" ? into nose curve

The slope on the head begins 1/4" above the lip slot and continues back about three inches (less on some originals and only 2 1/8" on troublemaker.

The troublemaker is 1.64" wide at the widest, tapers in a slt convex curve (rather than concave like the creekchub) to 1.17" just in front of the eyes......about 3/4" back from the nose. The hooks on the trouble maker are wider apart 5" to the back hook from the nose.

Have at it and good luck.

Thanks a lot George, that's a huge help.

funny I have a concavity between my belly and my waist. Thanks for the info, geoge.

thank you for posting dimensions,very cool of you!!!!ive never fished a surfster before now i have a good reason to i goin to give em a
'spin":heybaby:

numbshull, THANK YOUR for the DEMENTIONS , great help just printed them out. thanks again:wave:
GOOD LUCK GOOD PLUGGIN:cool:

any reason why the bottom one doesn't use them????

any reason why the bottom one doesn't use them????

Those are old school (pre formula change) 4/0 mustads. Save them for "serious fish" plugs. That one went to a friend who catches "serious fish". Of course I save the 5/0's for my own fantasies. :uhuh:

nice as always George... you must be close to being ready for the season..

Thanks for that great Surfster, Mr. Numbskull. It's not quite white, but close enough. Besides, beggars cannot be...

Your skill and your gift has lessened the pain of that double breakoff last summer.

I spun one of these up today, tried to copy a troublemaker I have that weighs 3.44oz.. I used white cedar but my unsealed blank weighs 1.51?
Should I try throwing a belly and tail weight in it to try and bring the weight up?

I probably wouldn't weight it, particularly if it is turned to the CCBC dimensions. The red and white one Flap showed wasn't weighted and fished very well. I'd rig it and use large hooks to bring the weight up some.
If you do weight it, I'd put it all at the fat point and none in the tail. I tried tail weighting one of these and thought it hurt the action quite a bit. I think these surfster designs tend to pivot off that wide lip rather than around the belly like a danny, and the more weight you put further back from that lip the more the action suffers. However, I never experimented with them very much so I'm not sure.

Thanks G, it seemed to soak up a decent amount of spar/turps which brought the weight up to 1.91oz. Guess I'll float it with hardware and 4/0 vmc's and see if it sits the same in the water as the one I copied.
Great thread by the way, how did that white one you made end up fishing for sauerkraut?

Thanks G, it seemed to soak up a decent amount of spar/turps which brought the weight up to 1.91oz. Guess I'll float it with hardware and 4/0 vmc's and see if it sits the same in the water as the one I copied.
Great thread by the way, how did that white one you made end up fishing for sauerkraut?

I don't think he uses it (I don't fish the yellow one I kept either....takes up too much room in the bag and I tend to use the large Musso clones instead). He did, however, fish Flap's red and white one (which was the body Steve showed in this thread) and took a 37# fish with it. He also loves Larry's Prey swimmer and uses that all the time as his primary surface swimmer. He has taken some very nice fish on that plug as well.

had to make a fattie after looking back at this great thread...

No Sauerkraut you cannot have this plug.... I'm fishing it


3.4 oz rigged... white cedar with belly wt added to get to 3.4oz
rigged with 3/0s and tail flag