Studs and Duds...lets see em and hear the stories
 

My(almost) first year building has turned up some real "studs" and "duds" but l'm learning something new every build while mindlessly pissing my money and time away.

First, some duds...

Was kind of guessing when I did the conrad slope head copies...put the lip too low and belly weight too far forward. They swim ok, but roll out once you speed up the retrive at all. They might catch fish, but they don't work as I envisioned...gonna give em to redlite :hihi:

Couple studs
 

The white danny was one of the first plugs I ever built last winter. Its a cross between a #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& body and beachmaster hook/weight placement. Caught a bunch of fish up to 35# on Numby's boat with it, plus a bunch off smaller stuff from the beach this fall...

Yellow one is actually the result of a screw up with my duplicator. The plug I was attempting to make came out longer and out of proportion because I mounted the master wrong, so I slimmed it way down and made the most of my mistake. It is now a 7" skinny danny and worked great.

Here is a good shot of that yellow one some bankrobber must own.

Some more duds :doh:...Man, some of these looked sooooo good when they were done, but swim like absolute %$%$%$%$ regardless of lip bending, hook size, line tie...they're gonna become toxic firewood this winter when I get my open burning permit...:angel:

Here's a stud and a dud all in one...
 

Caught some nice fish on this musso style plug. Best one was 33#. The plug held up ok, but eventually cracked from water intrusion :wall: and then the paint bubbled up on it...:gorez:
Its going into my hall of fame, though, due to having caught my first big fish with one of my own plugs on it.

Here are some sexy duds. Probably not fair to call them duds, they swim fine, but I really didn't find much use for them.

The lipless swimmers cast well, but I had more faith in a regular danny's action and found myself losing faith pretty fast. They do look promising for the canal, however.

The medium musso surface swimmer is a nice enough plug, but I like pichney's style better. These don't stay in the surface film as well and maybe I'll try some a little lighter.

The musso eely is a plug I was very proud of (I feel like I brought it back to life) but truth be told I found little use for it. It doesn't cast very well and runs quite deep. I did hear from a Outer Cape legend that he did well on one I gave him......but maybe he was just being nice?

These are three plugs feel like my right arm to me. All have taken at least several fish better than 35lbs for me. The middle is Eddy's needle, the darter a Musso copy, and the purple swimmer one of my skinny donnys. These are as dependable as plugs get.

These pichney eely style plugs worked very well everywhere I fished them. Didn't get anything better than high teens, but there's always next week and ultimately, next year.

Last one is an extra loaded musso style plug I did well in the canal on. My goal for next year is to make one that will get way down into the rips where I usually need rubber to penetrate...wish me luck...

Very nice mike. Those a40's look a bit skinny in the back but surprised they didn't swim. Maybe not high enough lip wire. Where was the weight in those? Love the shot of the trash bin

Why are those 40s duds??? They look like they would do well

BB,there is no such thing as a dud in the plug building world,a pretty paint job and the buy sell forums take care of that problem:)a dannie that i make seemed to be a dud for the a couple of seasons.then 3 years ago it became one of my top producers,the same plug the same areas.maybe i just learned how to fish it,but who knows

pictures of dannies

You need a duplicator Mike....I see continuity issues with your hand turned bodies!:uhuh:

You still want that grommetizer??

If you don't mind me asking, what is a Grommetizer?

Its basically just a device a couple of talented guys on here make used to round over belly grommets to fit the contour of the plugs belly!:)

don't tell him, I have no time. Heck I ought to make a bunch and then I can retire

Same here John. If you asked me a year ago what I thought of dannies, I would have told you they're worthless.

This is not the case any longer since I got a tutorial from Numbskull and developed a good feel for when and how to throw them. A lot of it simply has to do with confidence.

My "useless" plug right now is unquestionably a darter, believe it or not. I've never caught a fish on one. I know they work, but have never taken the time to fish them or develop any confidence in them as of yet.

I made a simple grommetizer out of a trailer hitch and a hydraulic fitting, but thanks for the offer as well as your efforts to get one to me.

I do have a vega duplicator and am just learning how to make templates. I was previously putting master plug bodies directly on the duplicator. Sometimes it worked great, sometimes not so great. If the master moved or spun a little, the resulting bodies would be all effed up as a result.

They have very little action...almost like needle fish:laugha: Like Salty said, I think there's a lip placement/slot/belly weight issue that has been resolved. A couple recent 40's I made swim much better.

Thanks Larry!

I didnt fish plugs as much this season... when I did it was spooks and small ( 6") dannys.. mostly in June in the river, day break highs ...for the most part this year they were fusy little @*&%^%$ and wanted meat... September brought some hungry fish that keyed in on sand eels on the beach ( when the wind allowed) .. that thin Pinkney ispired sand eel was hot for the second year in a row... I need to make more, i gave away most, my second to last trip found large (high twenty to low 30lb) bass hanging behind the moored sail boats on the drop, the trick was to cast the plug tight to the stern, you knew with in 3 casts weather they were there or to move to the next boat, well one particular fish streaked off running up current. in and out of the "fleet" of moored boats... a managed to free her from a few of them, but in the end.. she swims with my last sand eel plug...

as far as the duds... the only one is the small Gibbs inspired darter that the Professor brought by my house...I copied things pretty close... some swim better than others, some play turttle... I've had pretty good luck with darters, but this aint one of them, i need to relive this one a bit..

Hey Joe,

I was lucky enough to get one of your mackerel sandeels at plugbash & I did quite well on it a few weeks ago in SoCo.

We were getting beat up good by the surf, so pics were impossible.

That plug is definitely a stud!

These all worked for me this year. I'm not sure I'd call any of them studs, but they're definitely not duds.

One more that was an accident. I had these two pieces that were turned a few years ago (didn't remember my original intentions, but you can see where I had made awl marks for belly hole & weight on rear piece). Decided to weigh and rig as a jointed needle (sinking). The thing moved like a snake when twitched. Got one decent fish on it and then lost it to the bottom forever. Definitely making some jointed, sinking needles for next year.

Mike,the thing i really like about darters is that fish seem to strike them much more aggresively than most other plugs.i do find that my sucess rate with them is much greater on LI than on the Cape.even fishing the open beachs.here a cape caught fish on a gold darter

here a picture

My plan for the year fell apart in may. I went into the season having built a 126mh arra and a ton of big plugs to fish with it, then I got a wet suit in may and fished mostly lighter gear and eels so I didn't even fish most of the big stuff I made last year :smash:

I poured and fished a ton of rubber this year, seems like I fished a lot more black than in prior years. Most of the pearl white stuff I poured I never used.

I did ok with pencils this spring. I had some good fish size wise but never really had a lot of fish numbers wise... Seemed like I was always a day early or a day late... That bottom pencil with the peeling paint was one I swapped for at plugfest. Has real nice action and its a lot lighter than mine. I had a few fish mid 20's on it, but I forget who built it ??

Black darters were good to me and are about the only thing in my night time bag that don't get rotated out.

This fall was needles, eels and bucktails. I had my first (and only) really good night with needles including my first 30 on a needle. Top 2 needles in the picture are floaters and I did well with those 2 that night. I also did well with maple ones like the one below them but I lost 2 or 3 of the ones I used that night.

The one thing that was a bust for me was 'sealed' plugs with hangers. I thought they'd wear better if I could keep the water out but the bottom darter in my prior post with the big chunk of paint missing taken out had a fish get both hooks in a funny position that made the belly treble dig into the plug and rip it up. The other thing I had trouble with was the plumbers epoxy on the tail wraps. I had that crack on these 2 plugs. Maybe its the way I wrap the tail loop as mine are always 2 or 3 twists long.

That pencil was one I built. You can tell real easy by the peeling paint :o. Glad it got a few fish for you.

I got one of my favorite fish of the year blind casting that pencil in the back of a dying rip @ sunset one night. Funny how every year you get a few fish that really stand out in your memory. I'll re-paint it for next year... Same color too :)