Sunday morning post?
 

Remember when this was a weekly thing?

You guys going to fire it back up?

I know Larry needs to keep his post count up!

Been doing this today

Those jointed darters are just nuts Paul.

I've only gotten as far as turning some wadd style needles and some Donny senior clones.

L
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I miss the Sunday morning bull sessions! (there....one more post for me! LOL!)

Oooooooooo my favorite colors

good times. That fluorescent is :spin:

I also was wondering if anyone was thinking on the same line. Been jumping around d the shop between rod builds and some plug turnings. I'll post up pix and weekly progress..
Chris, check your PM's

I remember checking this thread on Sunday morning. Got to stoked to build stuff. I get burnt out easily and with work only have so much time but I've been messing with darters for a good month now and some of the same stuff I always build.

I spent the weekend working on some new work benches for my plug building area (basement) this weekend and am still working on getting everything organized. Will be nice actually having some room to work on plugs now.
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White, Lime green, Black and Yellow....all you will ever need.:hihi:

I could live with just white. I have given up on fancy paint jobs. I suck at it. I can never leave it alone and end up wrecking it.
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Finished some jumbo profile needles , pikes and some canal pencils. Have turned more pikes and doing g a thin erosion of same pike. Changing the stylus dimentions only. Same profile. All ayc. Will be doing a few in maple and walnut.

look great Billy

super stubbies and red heads oh my!

looking good. anyone use a dehumidifier in their basement? I've used one and then stopped and then started again. Never noticed a difference but figured why not.

I have one down there full time......it helps.

nice stuff! you knew exactly what i needed lol

Rene

Awesome work guys!
I've been messing around with handcarve stuff waiting for a new belt for my lathe and my bandsaw needs new tires. Was shooting for a river herring profile slow sink swimbait with this one. Still thinking on how to go about wiring it..

Nice Ryan - Dig that shape

Ryan,have you through drilled yet? Pending on the sharpness of the angle cut, you can recess the nose grommet in the rear section a little to minimize the gap and also get creative and double over the wire about an inch for rear loop of front section and feed the doubled end through a 3/16 " through wire hole. Make the length 3/8 " longer than body once doubled over . Once through put a block of wood under double over wire and take an awl and drive open the doubled over loop and continue until you reach a desireable loop diameter. This method lessens the gap between bodies if so desired.

Thanks Frank

Billy I haven't drilled it yet. I like the idea of doubling the wire over. Think I'll try doing that for the bottom portion of the joint and then just have a screw eye with the same size loop for the top part of the joint.Thanks for the advice.

Darter question. What wood have some of you Darter magicians found works best? I've been playing with them for a few yrs an I'm still not happy. Workin on some with mahogany right now.They are quite the challenge for sure.

Working on the garage today, hoping to have the lathe and jet dust collector all set up and running

And then start drilling weight and hook holes on the 50-70 plugs I turned a month ago, mostly Donnys and wadd needles and some odds and ends like super skinny pencils and some metal lips
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Ron, for a lot of the places I fish the AYC with a single OO buckshot in the belly work well for me.
otherwise I have has good results with maple and birch

I haven't made any in a long time

Birch for the larger and lately I have found AYC to be a great product for med to smaller ones. I select heavier pieces for this application. I am Epoxying thru wire in 30 various sizes right now.
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Thanks Bruce an Paul.I've been workin on a few that are a cross between the old Pickney and the old large Creek Chub. I've got a couple of peices of AYC that are very heavy for the wood. I'll give them a try on some smaller ones. Thanks much . Ron

I've used maple and AYC but slimmer darters have me using AYC more. Don't cast as well without weight but made a few of the same darter out of maple just for this reason.
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The best darters I made were mahogany. 1 belly weight just forward the belly hook. Great erratic action.
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i agree heavy ones out of birch for long cast or heavy current ayc for calmer conditions but they do like current too so I don't use the heavier ones as much. I also like the fact they come up faster so around structure it is a benefit. Stop reeling boom up they come.
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Mahogany. Tough drilling wood. Smokie and flutes love to clog. Turned fine on the lathe dupe. Just did some Wadds maple and mahogany. Maple was like pine compared to mahogany. They also weighed .7 oz heavier. I'm going to finish them el natural'. Nice reddish burgundy color.

Yup mahogany sure does look a lot closer to squid when natural.

That was the logic. Added big silver eyes near the tail.
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Baby Steps
 

Finally turning some wood! Until recently, we hadn't had cold weather so I just kept fishing. Hard finding time to make noise with a 14 month old, when he's up I want to be with him and when he's napping, I want to do the same.

My Winter plans are:
8" Darters
BM Jr's & some variations in lip / wood
various needles
Gary2 Slims
(if time provides maybe some oddball plugs)

Sunday afternoon I turned some bodies
Attachment 62525

And a while back I was able to finish some, awaiting a sealer bath
Attachment 62524

Paul and/or George,

On your AYC darters are you adding weight? Also, what length darter is your cutoff for not using AYC? Or, if you are using it for any length darter, more specifically on the larger side (7"+), would you add weight to counter the plug's buoyancy? I'm giving this a shot but would appreciate your thoughts and experiences
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I can speak for myself. No weight in mine. If you want more of a sinker use birch or maple. I have made them up to 10" out of Ayc. Upper water column darter. The larger darter i make copied after Pichney's large darter i make out of birch no weight.
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Ok cool, thank you.

I'll give it a shot, it'll be nice to have a large darter in shallower water and that fast recovery after bumping a rock.
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I tried adding a small tail weight to one (Hydro'd after epoxying in the weight) and had better results than any belly weighted version but still went unweighted.

Frank you did this on an ayc darter but still deviced to go without the weight? What about the weighted darter made you give up on the plug?
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The tail on the darters I made were really tapered so while they swam fine once the plug started going they seemed to hang up right when I started to retrieve them. I'm sure if the tail was bit thicker it would work but really they cast fine without any lead.

If you're using maple and thicker profile like you have a above I'd go without weight.

Ok cool. I did a few AYC today no weight and put 2 belly weights in 2 other AYC darters equally spaced from center to see what happens.

2 more I set the cutting point in more just to turn a thinner profile.

I fished the maple darters all last year and was happy, so this is a cool test to see what happens with a different wood
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