Your Thoughts On Habs
 

Would any of us be making wooden lures had it not been for John Habs?? As for me....I must say I would not! I got into striper fishing about 10 years ago. Habs were the first "custom" wooden lures I ever saw! I was fishing the usual bunch of Gibbs lures, all good stuff, but Habs were different thats for sure. They peaked my first interest in making my own wooden lures! My question is this.....who was making wooden lures before Habs started to make them??? I am not talking about Gibbs or Creek Chub or Floyd Roman or Bob Pond or Bob Hahn. I am talking "Post Striper Moratorium"? I believe that were it not for John Habs, the renaissance of wooden fishing lure building quite possibly may not have happened! At least not to the degree which it has! Your thoughts on the subject would be appreciated!:uhuh:

Beachmaster, Hahn, and probably also Gags, preceded Habs.

"Post Striper Moratorium".

I know Gags and Beachmaster were making lures before the moratorium........but who besides Habs started afterwards?? Did he not light the fire??

Thats what I am talking about Karl....others who were doing it pre-interblab. My brain cells must be sleeping forgetting George Carlzone. I did not know BM was building that long ago??? This is exactly what I was wondering...just looking for some history. Who inspired many others here to begin themselves???

I personally have Habs to blame for my addiction of plugmaking. I started making my own one night way back when Bassmaster came over and we spent the winter knocking out needles poppers and pikies, we learned a lot on our way and Habs and Mike Fixter gave us plenty of advice. Mike Fixter is another excellant builder who has become known widely due to the internet who was building all along even post moritorium and pre. Ask Winch anout his history.

There are a ton of garage builders who didn't sell their stuff but fished them and their friends did also. Most were not refined as well as John's stuff.

Another builder that needs to be mentioned is Tony Stetzko (Sr.)
He was a master at machining things and a pretty good surfcaster himself. His stuff is quite unique and innovative. Ya can't get much more custom than Tony's stuff.

John Haberek inspired me to make plugs that caught fish, and they did. I will always remember fishing with him at Watch Hill the night I caught my first bass on a plug I made myself.
We all miss him


Slipknot


gotta go fish now and my bag is full of just Habs :)

Before I got on this board I was basically a bait only guy but after reading some of the posts here I quickly started tossing plugs, I didn't care which plugs, plugs of any size or style so I could experience what all the hoopla was about, I soon found that I prefered plugs over bait and have mostly been that way since.

So if I had to say who started me on plugs and started me spinning some of my own to toss around then I'd have to blame you guys on this site. Because of the many talented builders on this site I have been bitten by the plug bug after seeing so many good ones posted here and I got reeled in by the idea of trying some of my own from those said posts and pictures.

So ..... Yeah, I blame you guys for my addiction and for keeping me hooked! :uhuh:

Ya me too Teaser.

At the risk of forgetting some, i'm old, i would have to say the main guys
who influenced me most and got me started were ,

BM with his tutorial,
Tagger with his surfster help,
Karl with his patina paint,
Jigman with all his pointers,
Slipknot with his thru drilling,
Bernzy with his airbrush.

Then there were guys like BBJ, P., TT, Cape Sams, and ALL uze guys that would answer questions at the drop of a hat.

Gotta thank you all. :)

So how may builders cloned a Habs 2 ounce needle as their first custom plug?

-spence

I did!:wave:

before "interblab" info was communicated through fishing magazines, local papers, seminars, etc. - did y'all forget already??? :D:hs:

If interblab is so bad - then why are the ones complaining here? Should all fishing sites be private? Just playing devils advocate here. :devil2:

Now back to what this post was supposed to be about - Hab's.



Hab's inspired me like most of us. My first plug was a Hab's spin atom takeoff.

John made the quinessential needle and I am glad I have enough to fish for years to come, but his jointed Atom Jr's from last winter are my favorite of his work, along with the 1.5 ounce mullet swimmers.

no guesses for who I copied this from

I found the pic :cheers: It's labeled wrong these are spin atoms - not Atom Jr's.

http://brianmullaney.com/fishing/alb...iors.sized.jpg

The top plug by Bob Pond is an Atom Jr. Spin Atoms are finger sized. For those interested, this thread discusses the difference http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...ad.php?t=43183

Not me,,, but there is a clone of Habs big needle's on the market,,,,,, hmmmmmmmm

Best not go there. There are two sides to every story.

Stan Dagget, best fishing buddy of Stan gibbs ,,tought me how to make his eel skin needle...from there it went into collecting vintage plugs which lead to reproducing the classic's , Danny Pichney's stuff is high on my list of remake's. As well is atom's..some gibb's..blue streaks..beachmaster...ccb...brad norris..gamsby...charley murrat.

Only made 4 Hab's needle's....somewhere in the mix of all the other's.

Here is a needlefish lure time line by DZ
VB