Post your yesterdays and your todays! Lets see um'!:eyes:

First Pic: Yesterday.....Rattlecan

Top one is a popper from my first batch of plugs ever!

Second one is the first plug I ever turned/finished!

Third one is an early "Flathead Minnow"! First few batches I am guessing?

Second Pic: Today.....Air Brush

"BlitzSeeker", "Prey", Blue Streak copy!

Third Pic: First "Flathead Minnow" & Refined "Flathead Minnow"!

Come on lets see um!!!???:huh:

Come on lets see um!!!???:huh:

I'll get some stuff up for ya tomorrow,With this thread in mind I was poking around the back row of plugs last night , where the proto's and plugs/failures of yesteryear reside.... there are some pitiful excuses for plugs hanging back there..

I will post some protos later!:uhuh:

Here ya go Larry. I wish I had earlier ones of each type as its interesting to see your progression of different styles thru the years.

First picture is from the first year, all screw eyes with swivels 'pinned' with stainless nails... The two poppers took a lot of fish, the swimmer was too heavy to cast (over 5 oz). The popper in the middle is a shape I've played with a lot.

The other two pictures are popper shapes I've tweaked over the years and some danny shapes I've used a lot. The top one is the first danny I ever caught on. and I still use all 3 of those sizes...

Here are a few made over the last couple of weeks. I've made less than 20 lifetime, so I guess these are the earliest and the latest.

Some of my first goo-goo's.... the plug resposible for me getting into plug makeing on a serious nature... I cant believe I actualy caught fish on some of them...

If my memory serves me, I used steel workers tie wire.. it rusted...

note the brass wire and home made lip ( stove pipe sheet metal) ..

the top one was the first effort... brass wire and pinned tail hook... it didnt swim very well.. it never caught a fish either.. the middle plug was the next step.. it took hundreds of bass and was refinished twice.... it was the last plug i painted (on a regular basis) with rattle cans.. i retired it last spring. in favor of the fish catcher below it...

Rattle can finish, home made lip, brass wire, pinned in place.. it never caught a fish...

Brass wire, home made stove pipe lip, rattle can paint.... never caught a fish...

One of my more sucsessfull ventures,... I actualy caught quite a few fish with this one.... I had forgotten about it until i saw this thread...

I actualy got a laugh out of this one... needless to say it didnt swim or catch a fish...... I used it to practice my epoxy techniques when I made the switch from lacquer to epoxy...

once I got past using broom handles and small dowels to make poppers and needle fish.. I made this lathe.. using an old 1/2" drill and some good old yankee inginuity... originaly I used another drill and a bit to attempt carving as the plug as well as regular wood chilsels.. the lst and most sucessfull tool was the roto zip...

Some of mine.

Early stuff. The small popper on the top was mid 90s, pre internet learning. Used a pocket knife and sandpaper. Wood was some pine left over from making some shelves. Vinal jig paint, no clear. An ultra-light plug that I used for bluegill. Did well with that one, but only made a couple. The bottom one was my first post-internet one, late 2001. Again, carved with a pocket knife and sandpaper. Second one down is the first freshie plug that really worked well for me. Poplar dowel on the lead, no sealer, rattle cans. Smallies ate it well. Third one down is from around 02 or 03 from a swap on the other site.

36875

Some from this year:

36876

The multi-jointed swimbait has done pretty well on larger smallmouth this year. The jerkbait bait below that, foiled, also a good smallie bait. Those two are "handcarved". Rest are lathe turned plugs. Spook, pikie, bottle, and off-center plug. All have done well for stripers and bluefish.

Jigman

This was one of the very first. Made as a young teenager....@1970 while waiting for opening day. It didn't work.

Soon after.....@ 1975-1979 I built loads of bluefish fodder. First plugs I through wired. This one worked big time.

After a hiatus from fishing for a while (training, marriage, new job, first kid), I got back at it in the mid 80's.........at which time danny style surface swimmers where briefly unavailable so I started building my own. The whites and black were my very first and all caught fish. The top one was 8.5" and carries 5/0's.

The next year I got fancier....but only the big one was successful. All are before you could buy lips.

Once I could get BM (then Gibbs) I stopped building dannys. But still fooled with copying older stuff in the late 80's. The flaptail, larger jointed, and predator were very successful plugs. Still pre-grommets/stamped lips. The darter was built around 90-91 when I could no longer get the BM version.

I quit building for the most part in the early 90's, and spent a decade mostly flyfishing/chasing tuna/coaching and driving kids/etc until the early 2000's when I came back to plugging. Flap told me about this site and @ 2005, after looking at what Eddy, Mac, Bruce, and others were building I dug up some old Frech articles and got back at it big time. This was the first of the internet age for me.

We are glad you came along George! You sure make people think! Your work is amazing!:uhuh:

these two are from 3 yrs ago when I just started using E-tex

these are current plugs just made recently with improved etex finish and dressed siwash hooks

When I started building it was about the same time as Mac . Nobody would tell you nothing (like todays clear coat). NJ wasn't making lips and if you were building a surfster you were probably using a colorado blade for a lip . Sounds like an old timer but it really wasn't that long ago . Here's a couple of early ones .. I can tell because of the primitive home made lips . I gave one of these to Mac and he proceede to peel the whole plug like a banana and gave it back to me .. (prick).. I also remember giving Slip a yellow danny only to the belly holes way off as it passed hands .. imbarrising ..

The "Electric Lady Land" plugs... I remember finding these screws on the floor it work .. I thought they were small ... Pikie lips are screwed ya know ..

Magna Strike Equalizer knockoff,,, arse turned on lathe ,,front handcarved... Tail weight under the lip with one belly weight .. swims great and very Chum like looking if I do say so myself .. Best plug I ever made .. IMHO ..

Again my best fish of the season were caught on these plugs ,,, Fish tell me these are the best thing I make .

I have a similiar reed green/white stubby needle that outcatches everything else in my bag

Magna Strike Equalizer knockoff,,.. Best plug I ever made .. IMHO ..

And you tried to give it away.....which is a testament to your class as a person and a friend. Very Chum like as well. Dumb though.