The pikie lips seem to make a big diff with how the plugs hold in current.Danny lips work good for it if you tune them at the tie and go a bit heavier on the tail weight. I've tried the lefty lips . seem to like to dredge in fast current and roll easier. Just so you can laugh it took me over 2 yrs to get most of the bugs out of my jr so have fun.

Thanks Chris - maybe I can check it out at Demo day if you will be there? I been trying to limit the number of different plug styles I make but I do plan to do a pikie or some sort eventually.

I hear you man, I'm trying to make less plugs but have them do more with design tweaks.

Got another 11 epoxied last night.

20 more to go before Sunday :)

Told myself I can start the lathe up until I get these finished
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Well it's a beautiful morn. Too nice to stay in the dungeon. What I have brewing besides my coffee in the shop this week is my redesigned Wadd style needle. About 5 yrs ago I made a few with a twist to the weighting style. Now mind you this is a little out of the box and somewhat time consuming. The results from what I seen and was told by users ,worth it to try again. The normal weighting consisted of 3 belly weights distributed 1 front and 2 rear . My design thought was to eliminate the belly drilling in which you need to drill 1/2" holes deep enough to accommodate 7-8 gram weights. Fill, sand etc. I took a chance to drill from the rear at a point 5/16 " below center w/a 17/64 bit to 1/8 " before hook hole and insert a 1/4 " lead rod 3" long weighing approx.24 grams. Glue in a birch dowel to plug hole and also drilled my hole hole. All measured from the nose mark. Put on lathe and turn. Dowel cut along with blank and tank tested drop and attitude. Swam it with desired results. A have a model od the blank with the distant markings and with hook hole drilled. I'll get a picture of the model blank up shortly.
I did paint some stubbys and primed the rest. Took 8 pike bodies which I had extra for emergencies through the summer and weighted and filled. I make a few extra of those for anyone in need after my building season is done. Once my lathe is converted back to turning baseball bats , plug turning isn't an option.

3 views
 

Front a nd rear views show center for dowel and wire hole.
Side View showing sectional markings . Notice rear 3" for weight.
This weighting allows plug to ascend on a less than 30 degree attitude when reeled slow to semi slow and shallow sub surface. The same dimentional proportions and weighting in AYC turns this plug into a surface needle. Fished super slow over boney areas.

Billy if you finish an extra one of those... Cough, I know someone who's interested, cough
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

So got 9 epoxied this week, another 13 wired up and hoping to get epoxied today after a day of errands.

This is the full batch

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...psrwinggys.jpg

2, 9.5" pencils
2, wadd needles
2, atom jrs, tail weighted. 1 is thicker than the other
3, bigfish prey clones from like 3 years ago, different weighting and pikie 2 lips on 2, surfster on the other
2, 6" skinny pencils at 1.25oz

Close up of the 9.5" pencils, raccoon came in at 4oz and red head at 3.75oz
http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...pshkigbg5c.jpg

Wadd clone shape with my weighting. Loving the black rainbow color, they sink level and stay down.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...psw3mcdbg4.jpg

Atom jr close up, tailweighted, the blue one is fatter and heavier than the raccoon scheme. Pikie 2 lips on both.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...pswbmjzbtb.jpg

Hoping to start up the lathe this week and get some new stuff turned/started
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Neat stuff.
Do you do well with the black orange (sea robin) scheme?
Needles at night have worked for me in that color but I also have some swimmers painted that way which I never seem to use since they'd get fished in the day and I just can't get the faith to try them.

Black and orange has been a big producer for me since I started fishing. Always did really well on the lobster colored afterhours needle and black/orange ss darter

That scheme on those is black/copper/white similar to the BM Raccoon pattern, done well on that pattern too.

I usually carry a black/orange needle at all times, think it matches lobsters and sea robins which are all over my usually spots
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Was able to get a few more pencils epoxied, would have finished them all but only had two brushes left.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...pskqli671p.jpg
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Got almost all my plugs epoxied so started the lathe up and starting turning

First up, some Masterlure staright eel clones, used Numbskulls how to for the specs and had a Habs stixx on hand for reference.

Took some nice fish on the habs this season, but it doesn't cast great.

Going to test a small tailweight in one and see how/if it improves the casting without killing the action.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...psjugkblym.jpg
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Chris that brings back memories. I did an exact clone including making an original lip design. Yes it doesn't cast. I guess it was a nice top water swimming troller in it's day. They do slither nicely on top in calm water. Good point adding a tail weight. I would try 7 gr. If it needed a little help, try a different lip. BTW what lip have you used?

The habs i fished swam down about a foot, casted ok on the gsb

I was thinking a 7 gram tail weight myself.

Pikie 3 lip is what was originally used and habs used it with the standard bends, I might try downsizing the lip and see if that also helps casting distance
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Nice work Chris!
Anybody ever try a high slot lefty 2 on the musso Donny Sr.? I made a few slim versions in pine but I want them to get down a few feet or so when there's some surf..
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Yeah. It works fine, particularly in current. Not sure why you'd want a smaller lip for surf, however. There you want the plug to dig (how much you can adjust by tweeking the line tie) and the standard pine set up is ideal (although maybe I am misreading your question and you are using a thinner than normal body in which case I've done that as well and it also works fine but the plug tends to go a lot deeper than a few feet).

Yeah the thinner than normal ones I'm working on are 1.325" so quite a bit thinner than original version. The musso pine sounds more like what I was going for. I've only built and fished the surface swimmer.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I am about done with targeting stripers for the season, at least seriously, so I finally found a little time to clean up the shop and turn a few plugs. First up this building season is some larger pine needles. I made a few larger needles in pine and maple (light and heavy version) to try out this past year and they ended up producing very well for me and a couple friends. By the end of the season I was kicking myself for not having made more of them. I will likely do a batch of them in maple next and then start on some Donnys.

I like the high slow lefty 2 a lot on the version of the Donny that I have been making but I'm not sure if it is very true to the original. I've built them with the Pikie 3 as well and they do get a little deeper and hold better in rough water/surf with the Pikie lip.

Jay, what do the pine needles weigh?

Slow sink ?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Right around 2.5oz on the pine and the maples are around 3.5oz.

Slow sinking on the pines.

Got an idea the other day while turning and had to make 5 of these to test out, 5 because that's how many pieces of wood I had ready.

It's based on a musso senior, cut a joint at the mid way point, two 6 gram weights used, 1 in each section, under the thru wire.

Plug is about 1.5" at the thickest part.

Got the weights in place and will seal this weekend hopefully and go test em out

8.5" and 4oz with 6x 4/0 vmc hooks on wolverine rings, the hooks don't marry, or catch the joint, lip or tail.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...psui556uda.jpg
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Musso made a giant jointed plug. There is a picture in the bassdozer article (but I don't know how to capture it and redisplay).

I have it printed out already and it's on the wall, it's much bigger than my version and thinner. His version was 10" and 3.25oz based on what's in the article
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Did get some afternoon plug work. First coat System 3 a few stubbys , painted remaining stubbys, spun a dozen wadd style out of walnut and did a sample of maple for weight. About approx 10 -16 gram difference between the 2 different species. I'll be weighting walnut to slow sink and the maple/birch wadd to sink and ascend sub surface when retrieved.

Just went to check the plugs I coated last night with system 3 And was very surprise that the first coat looked very good. Smooth. Normally the first coat isn't great. Two changes I did was to use a soft camel hair brush, not an acid brush and also since it's cold outside, my furnace is running and the plugs are on a rack next to it. With e tex a stiffer brush pushed the epoxy and a blast with heat gun flowed it out bit system 3 the gun didn't seem to do much. So I just coated and hung them. Always learning.

Got plenty to turn. Pikes today AYC. Needles, maple next week. Finish coating stubbys w/second coat. BTW I got AYC delivered to my door from Liberty Cedar. Not bad. Nice service and nice people on the phone. Used to buy online for more money plus $$$$$ shipping.

Here are those specs Billy . Hope you can decipher them. These are the 6" one I think you wanted the Seniors. if so I will find those specs too.

Well I have all 4 of the darters I intended to make this winter fully machined. That was the easy part now trying to get even half of them to the end result, hooks and water, will be the challenging part. Seems like I run out of steam at the epoxy stage every year. Getting that old Delta bandsaw from Capesams really made it much easier not having to rely on the saw at work. Now I have all the fixtures done and made for this specific saw and it is so much easier not having to take it down for others to use the saw. Everything comes out exact to the .005 every time on every aspect of the plug. Have a few 6 oz ones I am still toying with and several jointed ones going too for fun. Got the eelskin conrads done to the lip slot stage, again the bandsaw at home will make things easier. Also got some one off's and promised pieces in various stages. Sealing is up next for most of my stuff.

Geezus, now I feel even worse.

Damn Paul, busy man!!

I'll take a jointed darter in all yellow please! But really I need one!

Test swam the musso senior inspired plug, thing waked on top like crazy and with a long hackle tail looked like a big snake, made a nice knocking sound too

Started working on a 6"/2oz spoon lip plug, test swam the proto this week, tail wagged on top on a slow crank and about 12" down on a faster retrieve, best part was it would not roll out no matter how hard or fast you cranked it. Going to make some in WRC I got from Frank O, and some in ayc.

Only got like 6 more random plugs to epoxy, thankfully

Got some wood from BillyD last year from the CSA demo day, Billy any idea what it was, think it's 2" square, think you said it was from some high end pallets

Going to start gettingbthe wood ready for pikies and Donny's, probably my least favorite part of plug building is trimming the stock, marking it and drilling it
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device