I was wiring some darters tonight and I noticed the grain on these 4 blanks. Funny how the sealer really makes the grain pop. All 4 are hydro oriented and all 4 have that grain on the corner at the same angle, although 2 have it on the left side and 2 have it on the right. Gotta say thanks to Tagger, I really think getting these sitting right up front is a huge headstart and just looking at the grain I'd never guess that side was up....

If I ever get anything painted I'll post some pictures when they're done.

mmmmmmm...............they look like tuna steaks.

Nice DJ ... what kind of wood is that ?... I've had some new thoughts on HO,ing darters ,, Some pieces may HO so the grain might go vertical thru the beak making a weak beak . (thanks Numby).. you know how beat up that beak gets .. just watch for that .. happens on the tops of pencil poppers too if the grain runs vertical thru the cup it gets (splitty) looking on top .. So I don't HO pencil poppers ,, I've got 1-1.5 ounces of lead in the arse .. don't matter ,, just run grain sideways on those .. Back to darters .. to me ,, if the wood HO's with the grain slicing up the beak ,, that piece of wood can not be a darter .. most pieces the grain goes right .., :eek:

hit-em lightly with a torch and your can really bring out that grain

those do look cool as is tho,,,, :uhuh:

I have a question regarding the hydro-orientation, if you determine the high point by hydro-orientating and then remove a sizeable amount of wood as you do with a darter or slopeheads, wouldn't that change the orientation even slightly? the grains are not straight, or is the change small enough to be insignificant or off-set with a little weight in the belly? just curious...is the ho just getting you as close as possible to the most favorable orientation even if it is altered slightly through drilling and trimming?

..is the ho just getting you as close as possible to the most favorable orientation even if it is altered slightly through drilling and trimming?
Yes ,,To my thinking exactly what you said ,.. HO just gives you an idea what your dealing with, before you start with that piece of wood. Like we all suspected, every piece is different, even out of the same stick .. Some pieces "the force" is weak ,, may not matter,,some pieces "the force" is very strong. I wouldn't want that on the side of an unweighted darter. At plugfest a few years ago,I brought some round blanks i had totally sealed and a pan of water. I was accused of weighting blanks by a couple of guys to make them flip the way they were.. Probably best just to round out,seal and test a few blanks to see how much it matters to you . It matters most on big wood .Nikes ,unweighted or lightly weighted swimmers,, unweighted darters.. I had a bottle plug I had to hang a vmc 5/0 off the bottom to keep it from flipping ,, so probably bottles too .. havn't gotten there yet ..

good stuff...thank you!

Its funny, but if you think of it as finding the light side and having that be up, then the heavy side is on the bottom as a keel. Now you cut the face of the darter, and mostly you are removing material from the top of that long slope going 1/2 way back down the length of theplug, which is mostly removing material from the light side, so its even lighter on that side and I'd think that would amplify the effect of the heavy side...

Nice DJ ... what kind of wood is that ?... I've had some new thoughts on HO,ing darters ,, Some pieces may HO so the grain might go vertical thru the beak making a weak beak . (thanks Numby).. you know how beat up that beak gets .. just watch for that .. happens on the tops of pencil poppers too if the grain runs vertical thru the cup it gets (splitty) looking on top .. So I don't HO pencil poppers ,, I've got 1-1.5 ounces of lead in the arse .. don't matter ,, just run grain sideways on those .. Back to darters .. to me ,, if the wood HO's with the grain slicing up the beak ,, that piece of wood can not be a darter .. most pieces the grain goes right .., :eek:

Crap, I have not really given the grain orientation any thought and I haven't fished wood darters before but at first glance this sounds backwards to me. When you guys are talking about the wood splitting, where does it split? I can understand the beak geeting beat up onthe bottom but which way do they split?



I know I've split some dannies when I cut the lip slot too narrow and I tried to force in a heavier lip, and the lip acted like a wedge and split it as the cut was horizontal to the grain. So now I make the lip slots go across the grain so that the grain lines go up&down and the lip crosses the grain lines at a right angle.

When you guys are talking about the wood splitting, where does it split?

I was talking about the beak getting tattered , splitting is a whole other issue with darters . When they split they split from front to back,,From nose loop to arse loop usaully showing on top first . Why ? .. some suggest sealing issues. I've ruled that out with me ..CPES seals the nuts .. I think its a combination of things .. Cranking arse loop so hard you pull the nose loop in like a wedge , like when your trying to split wood .. solution maybe as simple as screw eyes suggested by Karl F . Type of wood ,, Hard maple and rock maple are just too frickin hard.. Hard = brittle, imho,,, When a piece of wood falls off the bench and splits hitting the concrete floor ,,whats it going to do hitting the water on an Arra like cast ?. So far, I like birch for darters .. that may change ,,I want to try soft maple and check weight sealed . Yours look pine .Grain looks huge unlike hardwood.. I've never tried pine because I was trying to go the Musso route of an unweighted darter and pine is so light. I drift in and out of darter hell ,but I never stop thinking about it. You'll probably hit the nail right on the head.. I've always hit my fingers alot first .

of all the plugs I build, I feel that the darters benifit the most from the HO... funny you were talkingh about being acused of weighting the blanks, some I have to spin a couple times to be sure, others act like they have an ounce of lead in them, prior to HO'ng each blank, that blank would have been a clunker.. one of those plugs you make and cant figure out why it constantly make right hand turns and goes turtle...

as for darter wood, my choice is birch.. maple is just to damn ugly!

I learned a little about grain when I was in the wood baseball bat business for a while...turned bats are sorted by grain count..the lower the count(particularly with ash) the better and that wood is usually ticketed for the major leagues and brings a premium...higher grain count goes to the general market which in many cases is desiring lighter bats...a 33" bat ideally weighs about 33 ounces but can vary from high 20's to mid to high 30 ounces in the same length of the same model depending on the grain count...big difference in weight and performance...don't know if it is helpful but you can sort your blanks similarly by grain count and those with more grains and therefore more softwood for topwaters and lower grain count should result in a heavier blanks for needles etc.....also straight grains, save the straightest grains for the finicky plugs for a better result, a grain that is not straight in a bat is death and even more so any knots...with maple bats you don't often even see the knot or small soft spots that the wood can contain until the bat explodes and you pick up the pieces...anyway...just some stuff to ponder....maybe it would be easier to just put some screw eyes in a dowel....nahhhhh...I can see the attraction to darters, they're probably like golf though...you swing like mad for 18 holes in the hope of that one great shot...when you watch a darter swim right, it's really a beautiful thing...

Tagger, those darters in the pic are soft maple...

Tagger, those darters in the pic are soft maple...

thanks for doing my home work for me ... pleezzz .. are they weighted ? what do they weigh in at sealed ? I was going that way next .. let me know how they swim ../// splitage ???

Dave - I need to make a visit soon, just to BS....

thanks for doing my home work for me ... pleezzz .. are they weighted ? what do they weigh in at sealed ? I was going that way next .. let me know how they swim ../// splitage ???

So I read this and I decided to weigh one to see what it weighed and it weighed about 1/4 oz more than it should have. these should have been just under 2.5 and they were closer to 2 3/4. So then I floated one unwired and it sat too deep and wants to roll sideways.

Apparently I sealed them too long. I soaked them overnight like I always do with ayc, but the maple must suck up more sealer. I wonder if they'll ever dry out and lighten back up.. About 1/2 the batch is now not bouyant enough to float when wired..

Plus where they were hyrdo oriented correctly when unsealed, once sealed the end grain on the flat surface of the cut seems to have sucked up more sealer and is now the heavy side, so they want to roll over. This was supposed to be the final batch of darters . :smash:

Hey Mike, long time no see... I've still got that kit for you, it's in the car but I haven't made it down to southcoast in a while...

So I read this and I decided to weigh one to see what it weighed and it weighed about 1/4 oz more than it should have. these should have been just under 2.5 and they were closer to 2 3/4. So then I floated one unwired and it sat too deep and wants to roll sideways.

Apparently I sealed them too long. I soaked them overnight like I always do with ayc, but the maple must suck up more sealer. I wonder if they'll ever dry out and lighten back up.. About 1/2 the batch is now not bouyant enough to float when wired..


Been there, done that. If you put it in an oven (toaster oven out side) at 180 degrees for about 15-20 minutes lots of sealer will bubble out of the plug and you may be able to salvage most of them. The stench is god-awful and lingers for about 10 days if you decide to do it indoors.

As for splitting, darters split perpendicular to the grain lines (along the ray lines I think). This thread discussed the same issue and has a picture of a split darter you might find interesting. http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripertalk/showthread.php?t=54420

bummer DJ ...