Atom 40 belly weights
 

Did the old wooden ones have them? How about a little slug in the tail? Or were they balanced with big Mustad belly hooks? Like 5/0?

Do you lie awake at night pondering these kinds of questions like I do?
:-)

No weights on the wooden ones and no I get a good nights sleep.:laughs:

Any idea what wood they used? I noticed some of the old Atom lips are bent up and the sides. Is this to create more roll?

Jigman

white cedar and yes that's why they are there. PM Capesams he can give you the low down way better than me.

Thanks Flap! Hopefully CS will see this and respond here as I am sure others would be interested too. If not, I'll PM him.

Jigman

I had this discussion with Capesams about the bent up sides of the the lip. He says it is to help the lure from rolling. Pinchney did it also and so does Beachmaster. Hopefully Steve will elaborate.

bent sided lip= a VERY tight half roll w/ no tail wiggle,,,runs like a bomber/rebel type swimmer.fast side to side twisting action.like the bait is about to die and wants the h*** outta there.

not bent= a slow roll with a nice -s- wiggle to the tail..like it's on a sunday go to meeting stroll.

Well now I know... Where can I buy some 40 lips, NJT seems to be out.

CS... any weight in the belly?... uh.. I've seen some do it..recommend :huh:, or is it an "as needed" thing... ones I've seen with the belly weight, appear to be nice tight grain pine.

I believe atoms were ment to cruse the surface at a slow pace just like danny's ,,but back then they used 4/0 mustads [for the most part] which gave them the balast that kept them running right...today most are running vmc's which imo are lighter and smaller which would translate into putting some lead in to the wood to compensate for the difference in weight.either way it wouldn't hurt to always put a tad in reguardless of wide/tight grain wood.....I've got many that people bent the eye way up to get them to dig for sub-surface running...floater tuned to digger all in one bait.

:kewl: Thanks CS, always appreciate your insight.

That's a good question about atom40 style plugs. I had gotten a few of NJ tackle's plugs that look like slimmer versions of the original atoms a while back. They are made from birch believe it or not and have some weight just in front and back of the belly hole. They came with Danny 2 style lips, but I have used a Pikie lip on them as well. It slowly sinks and I had my doubts until I tried them in some deeper current. I bent the eyes and lip down to make them ride higher and it has become another surprise plug for me to take along when working this type of water.

Thanks gents, good stuff! How did the wood ones compare to the plastic ones? Similar action? Same size? Recently picked up a plastic one and figure to use that as a model.

Jigman

the wood[old] stay's right on the surface when slowly reeled in...the plastic seems to want to just barely slide under the surface.

wood's a 1/4 " longer//tails a 1/16" thicker//bodies a 1/16" thicker as well.

plug school is :cool:
:lurk:

Thanks CS! One thing I do know but I don't know why is that if you use a yellow buctail on a Herring Blue Mottled P-40 it catches better. go figure?:hihi:

kinda like watching girls from the back when their walking away, then some have the nerve to turn around:err:

Appreciate the help CS. Be experimenting with the Atom :soon: :read: :gf:

Jigman