ecduzitgood
02-25-2009, 02:11 PM
I thought perhaps I should present the steps and thought process I went through when building my plug. So here goes.......
I loved fishing live herring at the herring run at the Cape Cod canal. Has many of you who fish that area know you are no longer allowed to catch herring for bait in fact you cannot even have a herring(alewife) in your possession. During the last 5 years I have wanted to find a plug that closely resembles a herring. So I went about making a plug......
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u289/ecduzitgood/ugly-1.jpg
My intention for this plug was to cast it to breaking fish in hopes that during the comotion the fish would mistaken my plug for an injured bait. This plug never did work so after fishing it several times I ritired it and thought about how to do it right/better. I had a cotton cordell big O back in the eighties that I threw at some shadows I saw in the marina knowing they were probably bass....wham they were; the only problem was I was using a small fresh water outfit I used to gather bait for tuna fishing this had eight pound test on it that had not been changed in years (it was only for small bait). So now the big O was gone. This came back to mind after the failure of my first attempt and I set out to do it again although this time I had access to the internet after seeing some of the techniques being used (for paint primarily) and getting an airbrush I started my current plug. I just wanted a plug that really looked like a herring and in particular the head (thinking bass hit head first so they must key in on the eye). I know there are plenty of plugs that don't have eye's and rely upon action but I was looking for simulating the bait. I had no intentions of the plug having any action thus no lip. I also did not like the way hooks dug into the finish on my other plugs so I installed a rare earth magnet to hold the belly hook during the cast. I was concerned about the magnet being sensed by the fish but had to find out if this was a good or bad idea. This is what I ended up with.....
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u289/ecduzitgood/myplug.jpg
After dressing it I noticed the rear hook could still cause damage so I tried a little hot glue to stop the rear hook from reaching the plug (it wasn't pretty has MikeCC can attest as after my first test at the canal I stopped by Cape Cod Tackle to get some supplies to build another). When I got to the canal I tied my plug on and dropped it in the water and was dissapointed to see it sink slowly. I wanted to cast it to breaking fish and have it stay on top. I cast the plug out to see if it would atleast sit well in the water and use the rod to impart any action. When I retreived the plug I was pleasantly surprized to see it actually does have a slow swiming type action which made me feel better about it sinking. I did not consider the weight of the etex and hooks when testing the plug during the build in a bucket of water. I contnued to fish the plug even though I saw no fish and then to my delight I caught a striper 24". I took a picture with my cellphone and if I can figure out how to get the picture onto my computer I will post it. One other thing I learned is I should have taken pictures during the build to refer to when building another. I can post pictures of my build on the next version which I have also implanted a rattle along with the magnet. As far as the paint job it took at least 10 attempts to get the desired effect on the first one and over all probably about 10 hours hands on time over several days (weeks actually; when I could spare the time). I have the next one ready for it's final paint steps when the weather warms.
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u289/ecduzitgood/lftface.jpg
One change I made is moving the belly hook foward (so the trebble hooks are where the fins would be). I also take the third(soldered) hook off of the trebble so there are just the two hooks riding on either side of the plug (like fins). For thoose of you that got to see the plug at the plugfest and voted for it Thank you! I do feel somewhat guilty because I was not going to enter it and just brought it along to show that I too am now addicted to this hobby and just wanted to fit in. I showed it to the man in charge (sorry no name tags) and he said enter it even though it had no hooks and a scratch from the belly hook:eek: (from the one fish it caught) and etex missing at the rear from removing the rear hook and hot glue. Where the guilt comes in is after seeing all the amazing work done by others that I consider even nicer than mine and the only difference I felt were possibly the eyes and the paint work on the head. It did take alot of trial and error to get it right and I cannot see the amount of time necessary to complete the plug being feasable for sale; but that was not my intention. The paint steps really aren't all that difficult and as I stated I will post the build to show the steps involved if people would like to see it.
Thanks again, Ed
I loved fishing live herring at the herring run at the Cape Cod canal. Has many of you who fish that area know you are no longer allowed to catch herring for bait in fact you cannot even have a herring(alewife) in your possession. During the last 5 years I have wanted to find a plug that closely resembles a herring. So I went about making a plug......
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u289/ecduzitgood/ugly-1.jpg
My intention for this plug was to cast it to breaking fish in hopes that during the comotion the fish would mistaken my plug for an injured bait. This plug never did work so after fishing it several times I ritired it and thought about how to do it right/better. I had a cotton cordell big O back in the eighties that I threw at some shadows I saw in the marina knowing they were probably bass....wham they were; the only problem was I was using a small fresh water outfit I used to gather bait for tuna fishing this had eight pound test on it that had not been changed in years (it was only for small bait). So now the big O was gone. This came back to mind after the failure of my first attempt and I set out to do it again although this time I had access to the internet after seeing some of the techniques being used (for paint primarily) and getting an airbrush I started my current plug. I just wanted a plug that really looked like a herring and in particular the head (thinking bass hit head first so they must key in on the eye). I know there are plenty of plugs that don't have eye's and rely upon action but I was looking for simulating the bait. I had no intentions of the plug having any action thus no lip. I also did not like the way hooks dug into the finish on my other plugs so I installed a rare earth magnet to hold the belly hook during the cast. I was concerned about the magnet being sensed by the fish but had to find out if this was a good or bad idea. This is what I ended up with.....
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u289/ecduzitgood/myplug.jpg
After dressing it I noticed the rear hook could still cause damage so I tried a little hot glue to stop the rear hook from reaching the plug (it wasn't pretty has MikeCC can attest as after my first test at the canal I stopped by Cape Cod Tackle to get some supplies to build another). When I got to the canal I tied my plug on and dropped it in the water and was dissapointed to see it sink slowly. I wanted to cast it to breaking fish and have it stay on top. I cast the plug out to see if it would atleast sit well in the water and use the rod to impart any action. When I retreived the plug I was pleasantly surprized to see it actually does have a slow swiming type action which made me feel better about it sinking. I did not consider the weight of the etex and hooks when testing the plug during the build in a bucket of water. I contnued to fish the plug even though I saw no fish and then to my delight I caught a striper 24". I took a picture with my cellphone and if I can figure out how to get the picture onto my computer I will post it. One other thing I learned is I should have taken pictures during the build to refer to when building another. I can post pictures of my build on the next version which I have also implanted a rattle along with the magnet. As far as the paint job it took at least 10 attempts to get the desired effect on the first one and over all probably about 10 hours hands on time over several days (weeks actually; when I could spare the time). I have the next one ready for it's final paint steps when the weather warms.
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u289/ecduzitgood/lftface.jpg
One change I made is moving the belly hook foward (so the trebble hooks are where the fins would be). I also take the third(soldered) hook off of the trebble so there are just the two hooks riding on either side of the plug (like fins). For thoose of you that got to see the plug at the plugfest and voted for it Thank you! I do feel somewhat guilty because I was not going to enter it and just brought it along to show that I too am now addicted to this hobby and just wanted to fit in. I showed it to the man in charge (sorry no name tags) and he said enter it even though it had no hooks and a scratch from the belly hook:eek: (from the one fish it caught) and etex missing at the rear from removing the rear hook and hot glue. Where the guilt comes in is after seeing all the amazing work done by others that I consider even nicer than mine and the only difference I felt were possibly the eyes and the paint work on the head. It did take alot of trial and error to get it right and I cannot see the amount of time necessary to complete the plug being feasable for sale; but that was not my intention. The paint steps really aren't all that difficult and as I stated I will post the build to show the steps involved if people would like to see it.
Thanks again, Ed