What's Cookin' ?
 

Seems we need a winter thread, something to keep running for a while.
Show and tell, discussion type stuff.

I finally started working on somethings, so here goes.

First a few WY Poppers. Frech claimed this (and an A40) where his most productive plugs. Supposedly he used them at night. Birch and heavy. He is vague on how to weight them. The diagram shows two huge 1/2" by 5/8" weights (which yields a 4 oz plug), his article talks about casting 1/2 by 3/8 weights for the plug (3 oz end result). I did both but think the lighter one is right.

Cutting the popper face well in dry birch was one of the harder things I've done building plugs. I am also concerned it is too deep. I've yet to find a way to make a shallow wide cup effectively that follows the angle of the face (although Fred told me how Gibbs did it using tiny different diameter circular saw blades mounted on a mandrel).

Next up are needles.

I've had repeated success on large fish (as in over 30#) with Eddy's small needle. It has gotten to the point were I consider it a "go to" plug. Eddy is buzy rebuilding his fishing cottage so he won't be making any more any time soon.......so I ripped him off.

....and then there was Flap :( . His favorite plugs were needlefish, and one of his "go to" needles had been built by eelpunt (wonder what he is up to these days). He had me measure and xray it one winter.....twisted, straightened hooks and all. I was supposed to build him some copies......seems like time I finally did. I'm pretty sure it will have good mojo. AYC 2.10z rigged with Mustad 3/0.

George thread to start. Something to look forward to turning on computer Sunday morning. Restoring a bunch of Goo Goo eyes and Bluestreaks for a friend. finally bought a Createx paint kit (20) color. Threw out the craft paints. More headaches with gun. No issues w/Createx. Back by popular demand, I'm making a batch of the reknown Billy D stuby needle. Many supporters in this neck of the woods have great succcess. I 'll get you one for Plugfest. Maybe do a few large Surfsters and a 6" & 8" Wadd. Those Frech poppers, do they float? Nightime use? Swimming like a SS little Neck? The popper face would seem difficult to do especially in a Birch or maple. Ball rasp is too violent of an procedure as an end mill? Oh well time for coffee. Who else is doing what?

Billy, if you are going with createx paints try to find some Liquitex air brush medium (Liquitex is a different company than Createx). when the createx is new it flows well, but as it ages a few drops of Liquitex as a thinner helps a lot.

Nice work George. Chefchris' redfin thread inspired me to give handcarves another shot, so I'm working on some 5 and 7" redfins. This week I hope to start duping some creekchub giant jointeds and some 1/2oz. gibbs pencils.

Thanks George. I was thinking of a thinner other than water. Airbrushing is definately a breed in itself. What u think flows doesn't. trust me those craft paint were thin and shot like crap. I did recieve a bottle of Createx brush cleaner with the kit. Could this be used as a thinner?

Lots of good airbrush info here

http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...h-threads.html

Neat plug, Ryan. Mahogany or WRC? A lot of work getting those to work right. I tried once to replicate a F90 rebel but didn't get very far.

Great start to a thread george.

Ryan that hand carve looks great. I have done anything else with mine yet.

Fired up my lathe for the first time this week. Turned some habs 2oz needle bodies, some will be extra tail weighted for those windy days, 3oz torpedo Danny's musso inspired, 2oz slow sink needles based on dons shape but weighting is different, a couple eelys, and some CCBC 6900 series pikies.

Sealed about 60 plugs on Friday night after work, had some bodies left over from two years ago, the new stuff and some odds and ends from g2h that came with the lathe.

There are two hawg hunter pencils in that batch of mixed plugs, looking forward to making a bunch of those for my ditch fishing, cool design.

Also scored some more original pichney plugs that will see the ocean for the first time in their lives next season.

The big a 40 is very different than his standard a40, ill post some pics side by side in a new thread.

Got some small freshwater/schoolie stuff sealed up too.
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On the popper cups what works for me is a ground spade drill . I pilot drill first so the spade will cut true.

Thanks Chris

Thanks G, I think that one is spanish cedar. I made some out of wrc to but I still have to sand them. Should probably get to test swimming them before the water freezes up. I recieved that gibbs pencil on thursday thanks again for your help

Suddenly I'm all horned up over NJ style sealed plugs. Obtained a bunch of examples- Lefty, Skippy, Cyclone, Tom Bottomly, Pajama Plugs, Basswood, Luna... And came to the realization that besides the sealed construction there is very very little difference in shapes, lips, or action. Odd that they are such copy cats down there! Any how, going to make some of these in various sizes. From 4-8".

Also doing a lure I call the 2fer. Basically a white cedar slope headed surface swimmer with a pikie 3 lip, however, the slope extends 2/3 of the way back, instead of to the midpoint. In calm water the lure will swim on top with a nice tail wag IF your rod tip is up high. Drop the tip and point it at the lure and it dives 2-4'. In the breachway the big lip and long flat top make it a super stable deep diver. 2fer- Two for one.

This week I need to churn out some plugs for gifts.
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Hey Fellas,

Some cool stuff there!
My building time has been very limited, but I've been on a crank/twitch bait kick. from 4 inch walleye size to 12 inch fall trolling sizes. All made from cedar and will have either stainless or lexan lips Also my first attempt at foiling (wow quite a learning curve):smash:
I've also been admiring how cool the added gill and fin effects are on some builders posts and decided to give it a go.
Here are a couple in mid stage! (crappy camera pic)

Happy Holidays fellas:uhuh:

MS

Hi Jon. Any particular dimentions for this 2fr? i like that option, top water and a diver. Looking to do a niche plug this winter also.

Another plug that has a good 2fer quality is the CCBC 7400 surfster.

I turned a body this week, rigged it with a pikie 3 lip, slow crank will stay on top, faster retrieve and it will dive 2ft.

Need to play around with some weighting options, want to make a med/deep diver.

Just love that shape!
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A Pikie Lip!!! on a surfster?............What were you thinking?
I was going to do the same :uhuh:...still want the body??

I haven't posted any plugs in awhile since I usually only turn in the Winter. With a baby on the way, it will probably be less in the future, but that's okay with me.

Numbskull, I love those Frech poppers!

here is what I've been working on. Wadd needles made from Tiger Maple. I think I'm going to do one like the tutorial, black, yellow and Block Island green.

Used the new plug spinner/dryer for the first time yesterday.

A few more.

Wish my epoxy looked like that :fury:

A new baby and a bunch of wadds. Life should be good. Congrats.

I have Skippy to thank for that.:buds:

Plugs look great Mark!
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I can't wait! The baby is due late May...Hey, my timing has never been the greatest! :smash:

Nice looking stuff guys
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Thanks Chris

Look good Mark

Pretty big

7.5" and 3.3oz rigged with 4 .092 Screw eyes, rings 3/0 VMCs and a flag o the back. And 10-12g in the belly at the max width point.
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Pretty much a wasted week stressing over Xmas, but #^&#^&#^&#^&ed around a bit. Nothing intentional, but had some fun. Avoided the "curse of the duplicator", that plug building mind trap where if you decide to make one you should make several dozen. Just started using up some of the odd sized,odd wood, left over blanks littering the cellar. Chuck 'em up, rough 'em down and grab a skew.

Ended up with some pine mini-mussos, some sloppy CCBC darter clones, some basswood SS little neck knock offs (with over cupped popper faces :smash:), and a few trial small needle shapes (thinking a pocket rocket, a floater, and a level runner).

George, first off, hope you all have a great holiday.

Now, my question is, how are you cutting/sanding the darter slope? I have not addressed building a jig for that step....

Decided to turn some of the pine I had. dug up the specs on a Conrad Jr. found both PM's specs & canalman's Fisherman article. both the same length 5 1/2" but different in diameter, weight amount and hook amount. Has anyone swam both versions? I seems that with the smaller diameter 1.125 and less weight (8gr) would still swim deep as the original larger diameter 1.165 and the longer weight slug (approx. 10gr/12gr). I spun the smaller one (1 hook) and will swim along with one larger w/2 hooks. I have a couple of PM's lips to test with.

I just freehanded those, Ross, with bandsaw and belt sander, and I effed them up (just like the 1000 times before when I tried the same sloppy method).

If I am building enough of a plug to do it right, I build a sled to hold the plug on its side anchored at the belly and tail, mark out the slope, bandsaw it, then clean it on a belt sander. My system is not great nor perfectly consistent. If you search on SOL for "darter hell" thread, Joe posted a series of pictures that shows a good way to do it. Eddy does something very similar. I like to cut the chin of the plug first upright on the table saw (using a jig to hold it vertical...never freehand).

If I had access to a pin router or shaper I'd build a pin guided bed to follow the curve of the slope. You can do pattern sawing with a bandsaw using a point shaped guide block and a sled shaped to your cut, but my efforts at it were disappointing.

It is the lip and line tie position that takes a conrad down, not the weight. No matter what size plug or wood, just weight the thing so it floats level with the top of the back barely out of the water. Keep your line tie close to midline (not on midline though or the plug will struggle to wobble) and a long vertical face to your lip (ie the distance from the line tie to the start of the diving plane ) and it will run deep. Also keep the slope of the diving plane pretty sharp (close to 45 degrees).

Turns out a high slot lefty lip will take a plug just as deep as a conrad lip if you rebend it a bit (lefty lips come with a very shallow diving plane angle).

Ross for me personally I prefer to do it by hand. Now if i was making 100's of darters I'd come up with something else. I do make fixtures for the front lip angle as I feel that is a very important step and that fixture makes use of a belly hole positioned plug fixture. The slope I just bandsaw, with another belly hole positioned fixture. The slope is cut about a 1/16 to an 1/8 from the finished dimension freehand and then I take a sheet of sand paper on a flat surface and do the final sanding by hand. I don't like using a belt sander myself. There is not a lot of material coming off and I feel like I can control the final dimension better by just rubbing the final wood off. I tried the belt sander, and we have a real nice unit at work, but found i made a mess out most of them and usually took too much off. I prefer to sneak up on the final size.

George on the mini mussos what lip are you/he using?

I'm actually on my way to test swim the one I built, I used a Danny 2 lip (I think) and it carries a big belly weight, they weigh 2.7oz with hardware and a quick coat of paint, without epoxy.
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duplicate post

Chris, sounds like you are describing a standard jr sized Musso surface swimmer. It uses a Lefty 2 midslot (which should be called Musso 2 since Lefty just took it from Musso).

Musso didn't build one like I have shown. He did build a small swimmer for personal use that he never sold. I've since learned it was a fatter plug and used a full sized lip. I think there is a picture of it in the Pinaturo articles. It only had one belly hook.

These plugs were originally something I dreamed up and described in this thread a few years back http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...structive.html. The dimensions are in there somewhere. I know Fred (eskimo) built a variation that worked for him. Somebody else actually copied them and was selling them over on the saltwater edge forum a year or two ago.

You can use a lefty 1 midslot for surface use, but they also work very well with a lefty 1 high slot lip and swim as deep as a little conrad set up that way. The ones I built used a small belly weight and tiny tail weight. I like 'em better than the small danny surface swimmer although that plug fishes pretty well itself

Here are two nice fish (and one great fisherman) taken on the little plug

George heres the one Im building, just got back from test swimming it with 3 different lips.

This version is 5.75" long, weighs 2.75 oz rigged the way it is now, carries cut 2/0 hooks and a flag on the rear (3/0 will work too without marrying)

Belly weight is 11 grams and is 2 5/8" back from the nose. Sits just in the body enough to be able to cover it.

Sits low in the water, with just the top 1/4 of the plug exposed.

I tried it with a danny 2 lip first, stayed right on top, maybe 2" down, great tail wag but anything except a slow crawl made it roll out.

Next was a lefty 2 lip, better holding but still rolled out, but not as much.

Best results where with a pikie 3 lip, slow crawl stayed on top, with 2/3 of the body rolling nicely, flag waving and making a nice v wake, on a faster steadier retrieve it went 2 ft down, no matter how hard I tried or fast I cranked it wouldn't roll out.

So Ill be building em with the pikie 3 lip seeing it gives me a more versatile plug for the surf and the conditions I fish. If they were for flat calm water I'd go with the lefty 2, but I barely fish those conditions.

My testing spot is nice it has a little calm back bay on one side and current flow bay side that is usually pretty choppy on the other, so I get most the conditions Ill actually be fishing in.

Think this plug will fit nicely into my rotations and the spots I fish.