Learning from Donny
 

Knocked off his lineup of big (7.5") swimmers. Top is a Maple (3.8oz) then a Pine 3 oz and the last 3 surface swimmers (also 3 oz) . Each came out .2oz heavier than the original (2.85 oz Pine)....still unsure why. The body shapes are the same. The Maple is unweighted maple, the pine and surface swimmer are weighted pine. The Maple and Pine share the same high slot lip (which it turns out is nearly identical in size/shape to the NJ tackle large Pikie lip) the surface swimmer used a lower slot lip that was reportedly smaller (I don't have an original) so I used a mid slot lefty 2 for 2 plugs (which is what Musso used on his medium swimmers), and a Pikie 2 for the other (reshaped to lower the wire hole). Will swim them Thursday. Expect the Surface swimmers to stay up, the Pine to go medium, and the Maple to go deep.

The cloud one is really fine George. Don't leave your plug bag open near me with that one in it.

Youve been warned.

Honesty
 

Gotta love an honest man,,,,:wavey::wavey::wavey:

Flap you have a good eye and i'm drooling over all of them.Beutiful work George .

George I've seen soft maple at D&R... I've used soft maple on spooks .. seems alot lighter than maple ..

Nice and clean work, nicely done as always.

Your killing me, very nice

very, nice work george, I have been fooling around with those, but cant
seem to get the lip right. been looking for an original to look at.

wow, your finishing strong., I've got a few to finish but your making want to go make some more.. those are outstanding!... I've got a surprise to unleash in a few weeks... right now they are "curing" from being sealed....

they ALL look really fine :btu:

How'd they swim?

Nice stuff !

just beautiful:uhuh: Ill take one of each:love:
GOOD LUCK GOOD PLUGGIN

The surface swimmer (weighted pine with a lefty 2 mid slot) looked good. The pine (weighted pine with a Pike 2 high slot) also was interesting, going down about 4-5 feet. The maple didn't swim much deeper than the pine (I had hopes it would dig like a Conrad), although I didn't have time to fool with tuning it. I suspect I can get it deeper with a few modifications to the line tie, lip angle, and losing the tail hook. They do seem to cast very well, I think significantly better than a big danny, but I didn't throw them on a full size rod which is more likely to result in tumble. They also have an interesting swerve and roll when you yank them that looks a lot like a bunker's movement. All in all, I came away impressed with Mr Musso's skill as a plug builder.

museum quality man! thanks for the details too! gonna print those out and add to my three ring binder....

very nice. awesome work. clean colors.

Beautiful. Especially that cloud blue! That color's been a favorite of mine since I picked up an old large Danny, probably a Lupo, in that color at an upstate NY antique store years ago.

I think I've got a surface swimmer in the basement. I'll take a look and let you know what I find on the lip slot and size.