Lets see some Darters!
 

I gotta say, very few of you guys make darters... Is there a reason for this?? This past season I fell in love with teh darter at a few of my spots... I've got some in the works here.. not sure how they will swim.

I've made a half dozen or so of different hardwoods. I made them with no weight and haven't had any troble with the action. That one in the pic has a nice shape and should swim well.

eben i have some blanks that are masters I will try to take pics.

The one thing that i should have done was to bring the upper lip back a bit. This would make the lower lip a bit larger, and i think thats what makes it wiggle and dart. I just did these by :eyes:

eben the plug will wiggle like that you have made.

it's not too late, you can still take some out of it

heres a good comparison of lips..

mine-

tattoo

beachmaster

supahstrike

Does anyone what wood the Beachmasters are made out of.. they are my favorite darter:love:

I make a killer darter i simply copied a 3oz wooden musso.made it out of hard maple an it swims pissa.6 inches no weight.i put one up on the MAC auction and should be in the next bunch on SOL.I drill the front line tie hole down an then pick it up from the rear it makes it a pain to wire but after i epoxie it in it never comes loose or pulls up.This is important as many i have seen an fished with come out of tune very easily an don't work well after a few fish.the reason i don't do many is the hard maple is really hard an I'm to lazy to constantly sharpen my tools as they gotta be razor sharp to do the right job.If u wanna see how its done right I suggest u win the bid when the auction comes up.Might sound cockey but i just copied the way another one of the many masters designs an did it the way he did.

Nib..I used Red Maple, do you think its a big difference?

I'm tossing this beachmsater in my hand and its got to be hard maple if it is in teh maple family.. I dont have a scale, but its alot heavier than mine. Tattoo's and mine weigh the same.

I hear ya about sharp tools, and Today i remembered that my drillpress' belt was set at a medium speed, which was making my bits wander.. Once I sped it up to high, all my drilling was straight as an arrow :D

Metal lip makes his out of rock maple no weight. they swim deeper than most .best in some moderate current.. .not shure what the lip cuts do i have varied some from one to the next i think line tie placement a slope of the top makes it do what it does most.The darting action comes from the boyancy of the plug workin against the design to pull it down.Some are better for faster water an some for slower water.as the darting action is a kin to a plug burning out of the water.there is a fine line.

Nice shape Eben. What color?

Not sure on the red maple is that the chinese tree in the front yrd.they get big money for those.when I went to exotic lumber dude they had hard an rock i asked the guy which was harder he said hard.could just be what they call it.mine is smaller than the BM an Tatoo's.which i think makes it cast better....tough to get a better built plug than a Beachmaster.he's been at this a Long time.

Thanks Nib... I figured that the higer the loop, the more it would want to dig and Vise versa- Also, I would bet that a very round loop is super important so your snap can slide up the loop as the darter digs in... I have 5 here that are ready to seal and I wonder if I should put some lead in one or 2 and see how they act-
I'm getting into these and they werent that hard to make-
To anyone wanting to try a darter, the key is a bandsaw and to leave the squarestock on teh tail so you can get all your holes and lip cuts square- once all your cutting is done, then and only then should you cut off the tail stock-
as for colors- ya cant not have a yellow darter:hihi: so yellow, black, white, and maybe a black/gold one- nothing fancy

here are a few dartersC:\Documents and Settings\Dad\My Documents\My Pictures\lure\darters1.jpg these are made from hard maple or rock maple. red maple is a soft maple it is not as dense as hard maple.

made these 4 years ago
maple

http://bmwoodworking.com/LURES/darters.JPG

Nice darters guys:D FishinVT i was just reading some old posts of yours over at SOL about darter making.... very helpful, thanks :D

Slip I dont have any Slip darters :mad: :hihi:

ya, well I don't either :( I need to make some

all gone, hoed and lost. ask weewee where his slip darter is :wall:

http://bmwoodworking.com/LURES/mintjulepdarter.JPG

Slip i have one.. its seXXXy

jack frech style montauk darta

Is the hook hangers where frech has em in the Diagram??.I heard good things bout LIfishes darters.i have a coupla Oz darters very nice.as far as colors i paint mostly what i can't buy.Like cool pinkanpearls an black an pinks like the old bomber color got em on a trip to RI wit that one. an Chartruesians i like the minty green one slip is holdin u cant get that color Hahn used to do that color very good fish getter for me.If ur gonna weight em make the hook hangers like a Gibbs 2 5/8's an put the lead in the same spot.i made some out of ayc i did like that an they work good.

I haven't made a darter yet,, just doing other things and waiting for more knowledge.. Does everyone that you guys make peform well ? That is a plug that if it isn't made perfect in everyway,fails in the water, rolling out and coming in upside down .. I've seen it with my own eyes,,by great builders .. no names.. what makes them roll out like that and I mean easily ,, The cut ? The slope ?
the wire placement as nib refered to ? . Ifish Vt has it down pat ..makes a great darter... never had a nib .. any thoughts on this ..

I posted this before. It was a discarded Bassmaster Blank that was supposed to be something else. I chopped it and sanded down the face. No cut but it swims very nicely. It's maple.

you guys are killing me, gotta run downstairs and try! :smash:

Eddie not all my darters have swam good an like i said i'm not sure if the front makes much difference as log as its close.I don't own a Creek Chub darter but iknow the mouth on them is very different.I think if u translate the front to stainless lip philosophy more angle makes it wiggle more an less angle makes it go down more but the top figures into the equasion also.I think the line tie should be in the center of the plug an on top of the slope.i like to make the top part 2 cuts the first cut where the line tie comes out shuold be short an sharp then the second part slopes bout halfway to the back of the plug.like a Gibbs.I have several of the smaller gibbs not swim at all no matter how i changed them up.like i said its a balance thing its the tail fighting the front.mess around with it an see what u come up with.them plastic superstrikes are some of my favorite ones they swim probably the shallowest of all production ones an it u look at the clear ones an see the lead u wonder how they swimm at all.but the lead placemnt being place horizontal on the bottom like that is a good place to put it i have toyed with that idea also.

just a thought....although I've never made one,,I look at the top of the plug an see atleast half the wood gone...now to my way of thinking[even with hardwood] that without lead in the belly and most of the wood on the bottom side, any plug is going to roll out upside down. I see two types of darta's being built,,,,chuppy an thin....will the real darta please stand up:confused: I have a Danny p, it's by far the largest darta I,ve seen to date...should I try my hand and copy this one??

bet yer butt Mike that is faux grain :D I apply it in the primer stage and it shows though the paint. The trick is all in the paintbrush you use for primer :D and the primer drying fast.

Yep

me too, especially with ayc darters

musso makes the best darter I have seen you internet queen

Here's a few from last year.

(attachement was too big, I'll try again)

I gots to make one of these Jointed ones :humpty: