Nice!, I just ran a bunch Saturday , all on the rack drying now...

Striperondafly those are some awesome 1st,,you got a good teacher ... George ,, freakin mint .. those are great looking bottles .. what kinda wood you end up using ??

Good question as it makes a bid difference.

those bottles are fricken sweet!!!!!! :humpty:

Used pine, since I think that's what the Gibbs were/are. Weighted them along the wire, all the way to the front hook. Not sure I have that right yet, but I'm getting closer. Got a few AYC as well, and have been thinking about trying maple........either of you guys any experience with maple bottles?........made one a couple of years ago that was a dud but I think I had the lip wrong then. I also shaped these more along the lines of a Musso than a Gibbs, the latter which has the shoulder closer to the neck, I'm starting to think the Gibbs shape may swim better. Along the same lines, here is a weak knockoff of a Musso littleneck swimmer (after I got outbid by a ton for one on ebay)............same shape as a bottle, but the weighting is a mystery so far.

oops.....here it is, interesting plug.

If i see Mr Musso i'll ask him how he weighed it for you.

I know if you look in a SS bottle or sinking popper the weight is behind the front hook.

Geez George, can the bar be raised any higher? They are awesome. :btu:

had good luck with bottle darters .. fattys and Larry Welcome type .. I used hard maple and weighted just back of belly hook like 1/2",,, darted well on moderate retrieve and even did a little swim wiggle on slow retrieve..Once I weighted a pikie around the thru wire up front like they did .. Rolled like a bastard .. I never made a bottle plug .. Have a Gibbs that rolls out imediately on retrieve . I think Larry Welcome uses something lighter ... maybe Larry will chime in and tell us .. he does look in once and a while .

NS - I have been making bottles for a while now and found that the gibbs was the better one to work with. The plug is weighted just the same as the gibbs polaris. The weight is a 1/4" round slug 1 3/4" long. 2 equal pieces all from the tail to the front. There is a piece between the hooks. There is no chin weight in the plug I have. I am attaching a couple of photos of that plug. The critical part of the bottle plug is that lip and the curve with the sides angled back from the center point where the wire eye is.. The plug is 3 ounces.:wid:

Gone fishin, this may interest you. The bigger Gibbs bottle has two of those weights in it.....(duh, I just reread your post and that is what you said) These are old Gibbs, the bottom a real early one, the top a brass wire one I think.

I'll be seeking bottle and darter lessons at PlugFest. Those are perfrect! All the plugs here are mint!!!

is that a real xray? lol

Numskull -- my plug has brass also. I was surprised to see the 1/4" lead. Again, the secret is in the lip! I have 10 or 20 that I made that were junk. I tried everything to get the lip right and finally used a dremel with a flapper sanding wheel to shape it to where it works well.

It is a good plug in the ditch when the current is just right. You can feel it wiggling like mad. Casts like a rocket also.

Thanks for the x-ray - very helpful.:tooth:

my new fish killer
 

took them for a swim on sunday.
swam great just under the surface

That's a cool little plug. Sort of a cross between a plug and a metal squid. What sort of action does it have?

it swam just under the surface with a killer side to side waddel to it.
i can see the fish smashing the thing this spring.

Nice bottles for sure, I weight my AYC one in the tail and under the chin, the maple ones get a weight just behind the hook which is forward of center and again in the chin... I like the X ray shots....

Here are some needles and a few darters I finished this week...

big fish on, whats the weight on the plug?

i want to say 1 1/2 1 3/4 not sure yet but not to heavy

Can't get over your paint jobs! Excellent!:kewl:

A few to liven it up. The strange one is an upsized knockoff of a Pfluger plug called a Tantrum minnow. Didn't get it right and haven't swum it yet, but what the hell, always fun to try something new.

Tantrum minnow ? is that a very rare plug ... i scan plugs on epay daily ... have never seen that one George .. Looks pissa .. very different ...

You may not think it is right, but if you finished it you have a good idea it will swim OK.

You seem to have the bottle down perfect. The angle on the mouth is real good. We have to get together at plugfest for a couple of minutes so that I can learn your secret. Did you use a dremel to get the proper angle?:chatter

Which is a knockoff of the west coast salmon plugs aka J Plugs.

Yeah, there is some resemblance, but the source I have says it was an upsized version of their Poprite minnow. I've only seen pictures, but it looks to me like they may have used a Ballerina body. Should have more taper to the body and the slope on the head is supposed to have a concave shape as well as the lip. I bet it will tend to roll out, but we'll see.

Very nice, I like the paint on the tntrum minnow... it bores a slight resembelance to an elongated J plug hjust with a lip...

Thought I'd try one of these again

Looks like ya succeded, Fred. :drool:

WoW thats sweet Fred!!