First off, I know that alot of people make/have made eel plugs for longer than I've walked this earth... but this one,I have been making/changing/fishing and catching fish with for years, long befor I knew how to use a computer.... the first one was god awefull, made in the late 80's, brass wired, home made scoop type lip, short tail piece that had an inbedded hook in it, I tried to make it EXACTLY like an eel, shape wise.... I never caught a fish with it, in fact it didnt swim very well... as time progressed it got betteras I made change after change,the first real fish catcher sported a #2 surfster lip, it fished well but cast terribly, helicoptering and often catching the rear hook, whech acted like a mini gaff eery time a fish was hooked, the head hung down in the water because the lip was too heavy... fast forward to last season, after many trial and tribulations, I came up with the plug I fish with today,I catch more fish with this one than all my other plugs combined...

The Double J ( Joppa Jinx) is 9" long, 2.25 ounce laminated maple and cedar jointed eel... I just made a fresh batch because I lost my last one to a SBFT that was in with a school of breaking bass at daybreak last September... 15lb test and a Cabo 40 were no match for this oversized mackerel.. the spool was empty before I could start the engine...this plug was to be my entr for the 2009 plugfest...in the First cast to catch a cow category...

nice, I like the bucktail side flippers

is there a tailhook, or just a flag?

You could also win the most likely to be 'HO'd category...

Lot of cool ideas in that one. Beautifully executed as well.

nice, I like the bucktail side flippers

is there a tailhook, or just a flag?

Just 4 saddle hackles.. the predisessor had a tail hook, it did way too much damage to the fish.. so I eliminated it... %95 of the fish are impaled on the front hook...

Joe.... very nice work, very interesting...

and that is a very interesting mix to marry.....
all to achieve the right depth and action I am sure...

your one smart cookie, and talented craftsman :claps:

yes it is a strange pairing,but the idividual qualities of each one lends their part to the plug, because I as concerned with the different rate of sealer absorbsion, I epoxy seald these plugs... the difference betwwen the full cedar body and the laminated body is 5 grams..

Very nice Joe. I would luv to get my hands on one of those. You up for a trade? God I'm terrible aren't I?

Joe, that is just beautiful.

Very nice! I would like to see a thread for each builder showing their work, seperate thread for each builder so I can try and keep track of each builders characteristics/techniques.

Rockfish, hope you make plug fest next year! Looking forward to meeting you. As always, love your stuff and sharing it with us.

A Most Likely will catch a cow this year plug... :drool: Beauty

Beautiful Joe, just beautiful. :btu:

nice... another plug that had 'fins' like that was the 'soco chief'..

Good looking plugs Joe, just what you told me about the other day. Have fun wrecking them on fish, LAHRGE fish :kewl:


Ya , soco chief, the one that looks like a sea robin, I have found many bass with sea robins in their belly, bass eat everything

Very Nice..I am a huge fan of all you plugs I especially like what you do with the large jointeds..
I have a question You mention laminating the maple and the cedar..i think I read where you said the maple was in a cedar sangwich..Well perhaps you did not use them excact words.'
I have to ask Are the laminations vertical or horizontal.
I imagine horizontal with the maple on the bottom..??
Wait, then that would be a open face sandwich.
Do you think the ear hair makes the design more attractive to fish.

Sweet! Beautifully done.

Good looking plugs Joe.I was lookin for ya, brought some rope to tie you down if I saw ya. I WANT A PLUG:drool::drool::drool: I saved one for ya but you never showed :shocked: maby next year
GOOD LUCK GOOD PLUGGIN:eek:

Very Nice..I am a huge fan of all you plugs I especially like what you do with the large jointeds..
I have a question You mention laminating the maple and the cedar..i think I read where you said the maple was in a cedar sangwich..Well perhaps you did not use them excact words.'
I have to ask Are the laminations vertical or horizontal.
I imagine horizontal with the maple on the bottom..??
Wait, then that would be a open face sandwich.
Do you think the ear hair makes the design more attractive to fish.


Maple on the bottom.... IMHO, by laminating the plug ( gorrilla glue) it made the plug more stable and castable. with out the benifit of alot of weight..as far as the "ear hair" not sure that it makes a hell of alot of difference, but, digging back in my cloudy memory, I remember a morning many, many years ago when a dozen or so of us were swimming plugs ( mostly goo-goo's) in the mouth of the river on wire, most of us were fishless as the sun lit the morning sky, one Gent, was hooked up constantly all night... we never saw what he was swimming... latter that fall at a directors meeting of the Merrimack valley striper club, I got the nerve to ask him what the hell he had been doing different that morning... he replied.. "whiting"... I thought for a second and said "huh" he said he was swimming a Captn' Bills swimmer in white/siver with side fins on it... I never forgot it...

Paul.. I may have enohg for a trade... a few of my fishing buddies already have their hands out!

What were the dimensions of the maple and cedar you married? I have some of each in the scrap pile and will glue some up today,,, since I am cleaning the shop while I wait for some jobs to break,,,, sux.

Laminating ... that caught my eye too .. Funny,, no one I can recall has ever done a thread on this .. I get it .. You are manauly hydro orientating by laminating heavy wood to light to make a stable ,bottom heavy plug without the use of lead .. I remember at a msba plug night a guy showed me a laminated lipless swimmer he had under his coat .. same idea .. I'd like to try a spook like that ,,, or a low sitting danny be nice .. Your awesome Joe .. you just turned the page in plug building ..

Laminating ... that caught my eye too .. Funny,, no one I can recall has ever done a thread on this .. I get it .. You are manauly hydro orientating by laminating heavy wood to light to make a stable ,bottom heavy plug without the use of lead .. I remember at a msba plug night a guy showed me a laminated lipless swimmer he had under his coat .. same idea .. I'd like to try a spook like that ,,, or a low sitting danny be nice .. Your awesome Joe .. you just turned the page in plug building ..

I'd be happy to do a tute on the whole plug, from the laminating on down to the paint and finish, alot of the guy's here have been instramental in many of the things I've improved upon along the way... I wouldnt know what I know today with contributions from all of you...

I'd be happy to do a tute on the whole plug, from the laminating on down to the paint and finish, alot of the guy's here have been instramental in many of the things I've improved upon along the way... I wouldnt know what I know today with contributions from all of you...

That would be great .. would love to see that ..

Me too..

me three, amigos

I'll start working on the presentation this weekend, try to get it up mid to late week...

Hey Joe ... make it a new, seperate thread . to showcase ..

Nice stuff Joe. Waiting with metalip-baited-breath for the tutorial.:hee:
We missed you at Plugfest.

I've found myself in this thread at least five times just to look at these.
Each time is just as good as the first.

its midweek :)

.:hee:
We missed you at Plugfest.


and How :uhuh:

Joe-

I've got my laminated maple/AYC blanks ready to turn to 7/8" diameter.

I made my first jointed eel plug following the info posted so far by Rockfish. This version is about 9.5 inches long... the connection is not as tight as I would like. It is made from laminated AYC and Cherry and turned to ~7/8 inch. I have added small tailweights in each section and a 1/2 of a round bellyweight. Paint is reed green oversprayed with flat back and ivory on the belly. I did not have a Pikie 1 so I used a pikie 2 lip.

I intend to troll this baby behind my kayak at night.

I'm sure I will learn from this first rev and make small changes as Rockfish has done multiple times over many years of development of his Double J.

I am psyched to try this out in late May early June this year

I applied my eTex after wiring it together as shown in the 2nd image rotating on my single plug curing station

oops here are the 2 images... forgot to hit upload....

sweet. Is that a large pikie lip you are using?

yes that is the middle size.. a 2


I have not done ANY swim testing yet. Hopefully it will be adjustable with the lip angle and tie angle to achieve some nice diving/swimming action at low troll speeds

Joe - beautiful work as usual. I agree with the comment that you have turned the page again!

Joe - beautiful work as usual. I agree with the comment that you have turned the page again!


Thanks Don and Tagger, any praise ( or critisisim ) taken from this group means alot, you guys are the best in the buisness...

as far as the tutorial.. I havent forgotten you guys... I got a little side tracked last week.. I'll get it up ASAP...