I am getting ready to turn some nike style plugs and was wondering if I changed up the angle on the front slope of the face of the plug and used a lighter wood would it be possible to have the bait run on the surface as a wake bait. I am going to use both AYC and Red Cedar. I will also be changing the weighting location as well. Kinda shooting for head down tail up wake bait.
Thanks in advance!!
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h122/blackjackCB/nikeonlinediagrm.jpg

Rule number 1 in plug building.......test, test, test. If you are looking for a plug to do what you want it to do......make several protos, different lip cuts and different weighting and find what it is you are looking for. Have fun with it good luck and welcome to S-B!:)

The central line tie position of the Nike will make it want to dive.
Dropping the line tie position should help the plug stay on top, but as it does you will lose the some of the swimming power of the upper part of the face. And gain a lot of roll so plan your paint scheme accordingly.

Search for pictures of the Musso Lipless swimmer. It is a pure surface swimmer. Likewise, the Believer is a modern musky plug with a shape very close to the Nike. I think it has several line tie positions that allow it to work deep or shallow.

FYI, don't copy the face shape of the top yellow plug in the picture. It was a miss-cut that I finished to try, but was a dud. It lacks enough lower face vertical surface area to swim. Here is a photo of an original Musso

Numby... how well does the Musso lipless swimmer catch?

I'm betting if you make that out of red cedar, put one belly weight in it and maybe a small tail weight in, cut the lip on the left dashed mark, that you will have a pisser little swimmer for right on top/just sub surface.

Numby... how well does the Musso lipless swimmer catch?

Not great for me. Looks good in the canal, but I don't fish there much....or at least much when there are fish there. The ones I built like calm water better than rough (sort of not what you want for a lipless plug). Probably it is more me than the plug. I have so much faith in metal lips that I've only fooled with the lipless plug a little when things are slow. I think the original swam a little better than my efforts and I've got some tweaking left to do. Very difficult plug to build right .