Striperswiper, it is going to feel great the first time a bass hits one of them. Nice work.

Chris, the little pencil looks brilliant. Total fun plug.

Chris your turning into a turning machine. Nice way to past the time. Ribbed? ?

Chris your turning into a turning machine. Nice way to past the time. Ribbed? ?

I think technically it's "fluted" as far as terminology goes, maybe someone can clarify

But they look like this.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee435/chefchris2/0E3B12EA-D1C9-4BEF-B4C5-7550234072FD_zps0ltvixjb.jpg (http://s1227.photobucket.com/user/chefchris2/media/0E3B12EA-D1C9-4BEF-B4C5-7550234072FD_zps0ltvixjb.jpg.html)

Absolutely slated on em in 2011/12, and so did my two fishing buddies, so building a bigger version using the wadd body
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Chris, the little pencil looks brilliant. Total fun plug.

Thanks George. Small pencils and poppers work so great near me In The spring, topwater is all we really fish (my pops and I) so really looking forward to fishing again, especially on the lami 1081L
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I see. Parting tool sections. I would derived how a tapered body towards rear would act as a vibration maker using those ribs as a stepped dimensional variation. I have an idea!! Plenty grooves for eelskins.

I see. Parting tool sections. I would derived how a tapered body towards rear would act as a vibration maker using those ribs as a stepped dimensional variation. I have an idea!! Plenty grooves for eelskins.


There's some old and very rare creek chubs out there that have the same grooves on em. Think I've seen one or two different ones ever.
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Ribbed for the fishes pleasure
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Nice work guys :) Just looking at the pile of blanks Chris posted makes me cringe a little. Thats a lot of wood.

I've been working on bottle plugs all week. Boy is there a lot to learn with them. I got the ones I based on the gibbs to float like the gibbs during the week, but couldn't get down to the ocean to swim them til yesterday. Wish I had done that before I finished shaping the first batch. They sure didnt swim like the gibbs. In the first pic I had experimented with different shapes and length lips, and different sharpness of the curve you see when you look at them from the top. I did eventually get all 6 to swim but had to tweak every one of them. The one that swam the best right off the bat, was the one I thought would swim the worst which is pretty funny. The batch was a little bigger than the gibbs and I added lead til they floated like teh gibbs but my lip (based on the gibbs) wasn't big enough to swim that much lead so ended up having to back down on the weight a little and that got them going pretty good (although I also reshaped a few of them). I feel like I still have a lot to learn about them.

I'm glad I did the smaller ones first and learned from that, that made the larger ones much easier. Bottles are definitely the most challenging plug I've made so far, way way harder than darters. I had a lot of problems making a stencil ala the mr pogie thread on bottles and an even a harder time trying to do the drum sander by hand following the pattern like he did. But I figured out a different way to get them where I didnt need to draw the pattern on them and still was able to keep them even. Definitely a plug you need to think thru and build jigs for... Its funny I thought of an easier way to do them after the first batch, but more work than it would be worth for the small runs of plugs I make.

Both of the larger ones swam good. I was really surprised by how little roll they have. It will be interesting to fish those in some hard current and see how they do.

Look good so the bottom picture is the lip configuration you liked the best and did you go with a belly wgt. Or the thru wire Gibbs way?
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Paul they have a weight under the chin (like mr pogie did) and then I tail weighted them on the thru wire. No belly weight.

Cool thanks.
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I see. Parting tool sections. I would derived how a tapered body towards rear would act as a vibration maker using those ribs as a stepped dimensional variation. I have an idea!! Plenty grooves for eelskins.

Always would like 2 skin grooves... For those times you have the snake and those you don't...
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This week I epoxied the last of the needles. There were 4 black/4 yellows (2 each in pine and maple), just playing with weighting on these but had some ugly epoxy issues. Ended up sanding the other 3 yellow ones after the second coat and will do a final coat on those maybe later this afternoon.

I painted the bottle plugs this weekend. Hopefully I can get those wired up and epoxied during the week.

Painted 6 more Pikes . Different color combos. Oranges. Gold, head, blacktop. Orange /white. Orange head/yellow. Bunker scale white washed w/pearl white. (Turns the black top back line silver). Gave it a glittery look. After these get epoxied, rods to build and spring fishing. Yeah!

Got my mini pencils all sealed up this week, some blind and some squids

Sanded more pikies to hopefully paint this week.

Waiting on lead/lips
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My last plugs of the year are on the spinner (smaller bottles). I'm very glad to be at the finish line, time to clean up the shop and start the yard work...

I finished epoxying these ones yesterday. The big ones are 3.5 oz, the smaller pogie one is 2 1/4. Cant wait to fish them. Finding a big fish on a bottle will definitely be a goal for the year for me.

Looks great DJ. Those bigger lips should dig. Good luck with them.

Tasty

Those bottles look killer DigginJiggin!

I just started finishing some stuff up a couple weeks ago. Still have a dozen or so to paint and then it's on to a bunch of needles, plan on fishing them alot more this year and losing a few..

Nice darter and others too but I like darters
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Nice bottles Dave.
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It’s been a little slow going this winter for me building wise but I’m about done with the needles and Mussos I wanted to get finished so I decided to try something new based on a Conrad. I went a little longer and skinnier than the original Conrad senior. Couldn’t find the actual lips for them anywhere but got a few from Billy and ordered some of the NJ tackle multi-purpose lips that they say will work on Conrads. Seems like the NJ tackle lips will work but I’m going to need to drill a second hole higher on the lip for the through wire. I did bend the edges on the lip to mirror the actual Conrad lips but I’m not sure if it is needed, more testing to do. After adjusting the lip and line tie this swam and dove very nicely on a slow retrieve but the action was more wild than I like on a fast retrieve. Might find a place in the bag for calmer deep water spots especially if it will swim well with a skin on it.

Is this lip slot above center? Thinning the diameter along with tail dia may have added some more action.

Is this lip slot above center? Thinning the diameter along with tail dia may have added some more action.

The slot is right on center.

Good thought that thinning it might have resulted in more action, thanks! I usually make a half a dozen or more different variations of a plug when I try something new and then pick the one I like best so I'll try one a bit shorter and see what that does. Maybe add a little lead in the tail to one too. As it is now it has a nice snake like swim at slow speeds which I was going for but the swim changes a lot and become very erratic at faster retrieve speeds.

Raise the slot. Dive deeper and may take some of the wiggle out in current.

Finish my last request. A black pike. Have a few new ideas for next season. Have a great season. GOT WOOD!!

Lost a few weeks due to health issues but back home and working on some stuff

Way too many plugs in various stages to even think about anything new......but started on some freshwater swimbaits similar to an a ms slammer or pats.

Did a few in 2015, and was happy but these will be better

3 piece 8.5" baits using an atom 40 as the design, lexan lip.

The sections will be V notched

Biggest difference is they will be thru wired and swivels instead of screw eyes

Doing a few variations on the tails. Some will have a Ron Z tail (think snake or rat) some will get notched to except a soft tail (slammer style or paddle tail cut off a big shad) and some will get a hard tail (joe Adams woodtail style) probably use the same lexan and cut it tail style.

Lots of sanding and painting this week coming up

Cleaning out the garage asap too! What a mess, hate working like that

Need to get some stuff done before the big fish show up
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Glad you're on the mend and getting back in the swing. Hopefully before the next building season to build a spray booth. VENT WORKS has plans for a nice one with an out of air stream Dayton fan motor. Not explosion proof but like to shoot primer. Looking to pick up some 6/4 ayc & eastern white cedar. Looking for it in rough if price is right. I have the resources to mill in shop. I have to check with Liberty, but not yet.

I just may try it cause I am going to experiment with some new to me epoxy they have an need to place an order.
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Paul, did you ever get to trying the Pettit EZ Prime 6149 High-Build Topside Undercoater?
Tommy