After a lot of tweaking and playing around for the last few weeks I got something that I kind of like now.

It is one of my plastic pours and it is fairly complicated to make. The wood plug looks good but the mold has a few minor flaws I have to work on. (I think I need a vacuum pump and big chamber to get it perfect ) I will have to make a new mold before I go into "production" but I was able to produce a couple to test out. This is the first plastic squid I made right out of the mold. It weights 3.2 oz fully rigged, floats, body is about 7.5" long with 1.25 in dia and has a reverse rubber skirt as the tentacles and two hackles as the long tentacles.
It is a hybrid darter style in that it darts somewhat like a darter and has a somewhat flattened side. It casts quite well as it is fairly streamlined and the fins provide some stability in flight. It swims about 1-2' below the surface with a mod to slow retrieve and surfaces when stopped. I hope to have a bunch few made for the spring squid run here.

Sorry for the poor quality of the movie, it is difficult to cast/film and reel at the same time.

What do you guys think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPVZgv_CNsY

Very nice job

Very Cool.

Very nice now you will have to show the fish you catch on it.

This is the part that always confused me about skirted squid plugs, don't squid swim tentacles first?

That thing looks incredible. That plug will be devastating in the rips off Monomoy in Late June next year.....devastating. Just let it back in front of the first curl of the rip and lock it down.:musc:

When squidding each spring and watching them and they move both ways. They swim and hover by undulating their fins and also by the "jet" jump near their head. When they want to really move they use the pump. If you have ever caught them they approach the jig with their fins ( tentacle first) ...then grab the jig and pull pretty hard with their jet the other way.

The more I test this thing the more I like it. I am playing now with internal weighting and different buoyancy levels of the plastic tail hook arrangements etc, and experimenting with different retrieves. Every couple days I have something a little different to try and note the change. I should have it nailed down shortly. As for action, The steady moderate retrieve action shown in the video is ok ( it was the only thing I could film by myself with the rod and camera in my hand) but I really like the jerk/pause and reel, jerk/pause and reel action...that looks like a squid trying to get out of the way of something. A bass will grab this when it moves like that IMO.

Frankly, I think it will work regardless of the action. Bass eat squid like no tomorrow here. I have seen them take dead squid floating on the surface. Working on color too. I have one with red flakes and a white/pearl like body now that looks as real as the fresh squid I have vacuumed packed in my freezer. Just ordered some matching skirt materials, should be awesome this spring.

What really impresses me is the casting performance. With the fins and weight where they are this thing bombs its way out there like a rocket and doesn't flop around in flight. This one might be a tad big for some, but I need big. 2oz plugs are just too light many nights for me. I need 3+. this is about 3.25-3.5 oz now. When I get this somewhat more perfected and have the recipe done I will make one a little smaller in the 2.5 oz range. My problem is I need to work on one thing at a time to compleation or I start 20 projects, play with them all and never get anything to the point of what I really like.:wall: I have always had the problem ...I have too many irons in the fire and don't feel like a make enough progress on any one.

Jim, did you move the video? Was not able to see it.


C'mon down to the station next time your out testing plugs. I'll be testing a few more in a couple weeks.

It;s gone Jim :(
VB

sorry about that. I cleaned up some old videos and I guess that got removed as well. Here is what the first one looked like (it looks better in the water IMO)

plug looks mint ...

Looks great Jim.

that's great Jim
good going, I bet it'll work well

Neat. The nose (sans fins) has a design similar to a darter produced by a company called SuperLure back in the early 70's. What did you use for tentacles?

That looks phenomenal.