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.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Finishing some Nike's and GooGoo's, started a Masterlure Popper this am, also would like to try a Norris Squid, anyone have some measurements?? Going to do more BM Danny's and some Conrads this week, and build a spinner.

I'm 4 days into a bag I told a guy I'd build him in order to save some bucks on a reel I bought from him. After materials I figure my time will end up being worth about $2/hour. :wall:

I wish I made $2 an hour.

Numby... a plug bag?

I work like a turtle. I will have more to post sometime in the future.

Numby, after building a few of those bags between material and time do you think the price of higher end bags seem a little more reasonable?

keep practicing

DOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When sealing them I forgot to wipe off the excess epoxy. :(

So I sanded them like crazy with 80. :)

Then I recoated them lightly incase I sanded through with the 80,

AND FORGOT TO WIPE THEM AGAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :wall: :wall: :wall:

Was going to airbrush and clear them, but now I guess I'll just prime with BIN and hit them with rattle cans. :(

Yes and no. If I was trying to feed my family by building them I would have to charge a lot per bag. But if you look at the average backpack, they sell for about 50 bucks and entail much more complex construction than a plug bag. That makes me think that a professional garment manufacturer could turn out equivalent bags for much less than 100 dollars cost (probably 1/3 that) if the volume made it worth their while.

LMAO......Paul


VB

All is well that ends well.
 

These swim great, but not subsurface like Gary's Skinny.

Got to do some tweaking.:uhuh:

Those are nice! Great job with the airbrush

I managed to finish a few this week. I've been busy building jigs to make my next batches easier. 2oz. and 2.5oz. pikies, some 1oz. poppers which are headed to florida for some friends targeting speckled trout reds and tarpon. the yellow popper is a 1.70 ounce sinker. I saw a mike fixter pikie that was kinda the same color so that was my inspiration for the yellow/orange stuff

Nicely done Ryan.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Finished up my gang this AM. Ready to swim!

Nice work Jon. I want to swim the Gary 2 you gave me.. I don't have that slim syle in my collection. How those the Lefty 1 lip work the plug? If you need the swimmer to dive you can change wood, tweak the weight hole forward or raise the lip slot. Another way though more labor intense is to take a larger lip and thin the width. Say a Danny or A-Jr. Let me know.

nice job. Those will serve U well. I like that plug a lot , fishing wise.

Nice stuff Guys. I finally got started this weekend. Its going to be a pretty light year for me, just needles, a few darters and some topwater stuff. I did myturning this weekend although I'm sure I'll add a few more odds and ends.

Here's what I'm working on..
Needles, top ones are pine floaters, bottom ones are maple. I made them a little fatter this year so I could put in a little more tail weight without turning them into fast sinkers.

Some replacement darters, and some gibbs style penils. I like the narrow profile of the gibbs, I think that size/shape matched the spike macks and whiting we had in the canal last year.

And I'm experimenting with 3 sizes of spooks, bottom ones are ayc, top are white cedar and the smallest ones are basswood.

look good. Do you weight your darters?

I made some wide ones a couple of years ago that were like 1 1/4 inch and they had excess bouyancy and I weighted some of those and got them to swim right. But if you put any weight in the tail it changes how they sit, and I needed to put some under the chin too to get it to dig in right. These ones won't have any weight.

all look awesome. Size/shape of the needles look perfect.

Nice stuff Diggin Jiggin! Everything looks great.Woody those slims are sick