Cool idea Eski.

Tail weighted like a pencil?

Can't wait to hear how it moves.
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My turn...
 

FINALLY! Tough finding cave time lately, especially when the cave is a 20 minute drive away.

G2 Skinny
These were the test run to check the template and set up.
Pine, not AYC, but that will be next.

is that a G2 slim. If so they are a nice plug to make and fish. You will do good with those. I have not got anything real nice on one yet but a few people I have given them to over the last few years have.


That shape needle, pencil, will do good in the canal Frank.

yup, all tail weight.

The G2 clones look great.

:hidin: Nice stuff. :hidin:

:wave:Matt, I know you are a worse procrastinator than me, by just the slightest of margins, but you must have something to show us.

:hidin: All my stuff is half-baked er done.:wall:
Can't seem to finish anything.
Hopefully I'll have some done to trade with @ Plugfest.

Up and at 'em men. Junior's hockey game is late today, so I figured I'd wake up with some plug chat.

Shaped 10 AYCs Friday night. :-)

And then broke the trunion mounts on the Delta bandsaw! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Have to wait until next weekend to cut and drill.

Will kill some of the time making a lip slot cutting jig, ala Rockfish or Prof, and a drilling jig ala Jiggy.

Suppose I should order some lips too.

Do I need to hydro orient the skinnies since they don' have any lead in them?
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it is so quick to do and you only have a few plugs, I personally would do it.

Seems dead around here.

Got a few things in the works....

A shallow running bottle, a early Pichney A40, a few popper clones (masterlure and bluestreak). There is more curve to the face of that bottle than the picture shows.

Then I've been fooling with small musso darters (pictured with their big brother for scale). Wood selection has proven trickier than expected.....turns out they were not maple. Got the jigs made, though.

From Prof M's
 

Thanks to Paul's "Book of Secrets" i got some Goo Goo's, Beachmaster Danny's and started on the Conrad Jr's( waiting for someone to get lip's in stock:soon::confused:) this past week. Also some Nike's that need epoxy ( need to do another half dozen since they keep getting ho'ed. Small needle in tiger for a friend. Goo Goo's was an attempt at Masterlure color, but need a little more practice and try one in the blue color scheme.
Also got an early Christmas gift from my buddy for all the plugs I've made him this fall (see pic) and another on the way (QTC frame for my Chrome Rocket :uhuh:)
BTW, anyone know of J.K. Rush (NY) lures 40's-60's. Have seen a few of his plugs and they have possibilities.

Nice work on the MasterLure color!!! Recognized it right away!:uhuh: You do some beautiful work Sarge!

Fish scales are haunting me.

Numbskull-

What was the wood for the early Musso darters.. mahogany or pine?

I don't know. The 3 oz ones are maple, but it is too heavy for the 1.5 oz 5" plug. Birch would weigh the same. Pine is too light (though might work if weighted right). I doubt Musso used mahogany. They might be basswood, although the stuff I tried came out light. Heavy darters don't swim so you have to get it right.

Numby.. I will check with Steve Musso to see if he can ask his Dad

sarge is that a cts blank? nice!

I have alot of stuff in different stages.. I'm trying to turn a bunch of blanks so I can take a break from turning for a month, really starting to get sick of turning a bunch of the same stuff without a dupe.

Made a eel skin conrad Jr. and I'm not sure if I have the eel skin groove deep enough?
So far I have some polaris poppers,hab's needles,conrads, musso style needles, small donny's,bm dannys, and some pikies, a handcarve and some other stuff..Hopefully I have some stuff done for plugfest. Thanks to paul,george, and everyone who's been helping me out:buds:

Yup, 11'6" and all of 7.8oz.....Going to cut to 11' and do clear wraps with single foots down to 3 double foots for my Abu Chrome rocket, strictly for pluggin. Hoping to keep the rod weight under 11-12oz.

Looks fine to me. I like a couple of wraps of fireline to attach the skin, but used to use #30 monel wire.

George,

A couple of local LI guys duplicated that plug some years back with AYC and it worked pretty nice. I have had limited success with Red Cedar and a 00 buckshot 2/3rds of the way back (Digger gave me that trick). This was before i knew anything about plug building and I did the slopes by rough eye on the belt sander. I still know nothing and do the limited darters I have by hand on the belt sander. Some people never learn.
Kindest,
Billy

I am trying them out of AYC

all the stuff looks great guys. I am just finishing up my main jig, fixture for doing my belly and wgt holes so i can do them at home on a drill press and not at work anymore. Too many really late nites after work. I do pretty much all my work off the belly holes so i need something that is going to allow me to be precision but also able to handle all the different shapes. I think I covered all the variables and need to start drilling some to find out. Also built a nice sub plate for the drill press table and a nice fence for setting up the jig. Glad it is done. All my turning is pretty much done for the season too. Now on to the more enjoyable stuff.

Pine/basswood with 7-8 grams 2/3 back floats right. I've not swum them yet. Soft wood darters wear quickly, however.

Found some cool ideas on You Tube last night.

Check out Lordship lures clip on making an A40. Simple and effective painting jig. Cool DIY hook installation tool too.


The Surfcaster's Journal clip of Gary Soldati putting VMCs on plugs without breaking the eyes is informative too. Similar to the Lordship method.

Darn blizzard is keeping me from going to the shop to work on my Skinnies. :-(
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Hi All, was looking at some old P-40s Bob made with 2 weights in them so they'd dive deep. has anyone tried putting a weight near the nose and behind the belly hook on a wooden one for draggin behind a boat or working it in fast current? Bob made a few of these for guys fishing the Race and some other fast rips and they liked them. Ron

Hey Ronnie, quite a few guys from Maine have signed on recently. I was wondering if you were the impetus behind the new members from the North Woods?

Morning all. haven't been doing plug turnings yet. As some might know I've been busy starting a hobby/business turning wooden baseball bats. my son & I been making turning models out of original models. Coming along nicely but there is so much to learn about wood, grain and the dreaded variables. I have request for stubbys. I have the dupe ready to go for a run. If time allows I will hand spin a large pikie sub swimmer. Once I get a shape that I like i will make up a template. SGT. STRIPER, nice looking paint on those plugs. GOOGOOs like sweeeet!!

Get a shape you like and then test that shape to see if it sinks or swims.......then make a template.:uhuh:

Hi Swimmer, been tellin people about it but don't know if I can take any credit for people signing on or not.

Here's some stuff I've been working on. I played around with lip slot location and lip styles with these. I cut the slots on center, just above center and just below. Tried a small pikie and lefty 1 high slot on each. Can't really say one was better than another but I like the pikie lip on them with the slot centered. I need to tighten up the joint and will try Rocfish's method.

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff012.jpg

Been doing alot of handcarveds. I enjoy doing them but can only take so much at one time as they can be time consuming. I did a bunch of the redfin copies for a swap and people have told me they liked them. I had some fish on it also but did not get alot of fishing time in this year in the salt for one reason or another. The others are loose copies of G2's tiger and enticer. I was just trying to see if the enticer tail would push a bit more water that the normal tail. It's not built like his enticer which I believe swam deep and held in current using a different lip and may have been weighted. I just built it the same as the others looking for something different. The big ones are a shape I came up with. I have built them both ways with two belly hooks and one. The one belly hook starts up faster and has a bit wider tail swing than the two hook. I also built some with hangers and some with swivels. Much easier build with swivels. Other stuff is a bunch of smaller thin swimmers. I have foiled a couple of those. And a bunch of different size Big O styles.

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff021.jpg

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff023.jpg

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff020.jpg

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a.../foilht022.jpg

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff010.jpg

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff007.jpg

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff009.jpg


Numbskulls big popper thread got me interested in building a big [for me anyway] classic styled popper and this is what I came up with.

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff001.jpg


I had thinned out a surfster I have been making and like it's shape. Also made a couple chunky surfsters out of white cedar hoping to use the large surfster lip on them. I have not had much luck using the big surfster lip. I need to test these still with it as soon as I can find some open water.

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff015.jpg

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff019.jpg

Still have some other things I've had laying around that need to be tested just need to find some time.


http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...11stuff014.jpg


Looking forward to Plugfest as usual.

Greek,

I'm always amazed at how ALL of your work is so damn clean. Crazy how beautiful your stuff is even without paint.

Super sweet!
Love the skinny surfsters and I hope you post a bunch of thos foil jobs when the are painted.
Always enjoy looking at your builds.

MS

your way too motivated for me. I am a graduate of the Chumbucket school of procrastination. Nice stuff.

Ted amazing work as always! I really like the Big O carves, always great to see the stuff you have in progress. I take it you like to keep the posts on the doll eyes you use?

I like to leave a little. I snip off maybe half. I set my eyes when I epoxy but I don't like to epoxy over the eyes unless I get a fingerprint on them from epoxy. The little post helps guide them in and usually I can get them in with no problem. Note I said usually.

Impressive

Good idea, I usually snip the whole post off then put 5 min. epoxy on the back of the eye. Then I end up dropping the eye on the ground and it gets all sorts of crud stuck to it:rotf2:. I'm gonna try it your way next time I mess with those eyes:grins:

Wow Ted you have been busy. Beautiful shapes! Can't wait to see them painted up.

Pats Pikies are insane. :uhuh: all plugs here are absolutely purdy.

Finally got my jigs done and am ready to paint my G2 clones this week.
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