Capt Bills Red Top #9 repro swimmer
 

I was reading thru my PDFs of the Saltwater Classics articles from Hunting & Fishing Collectibles magazine and came across the "Cardinal" plug that was sold thru Red Top and made by Capt Bills. I wish I had an original to measure but I decided to make one based on the attached image from the article. In the day... this plug sold for only $2.25. WOW

After looking at these images it appears the original had a thinner tail with more concavity than my version. They were available in both weighted and unweighted versions... I chose to make mine a weighted version...

here are a few more images

Probably based on this model Cpn Bill's plug, I'll post the measurements for you later today!
I've also got one original lip for it too! I guess I'll have to do one this weekend.

I have an original Capt. bills swimmer ( gold with siver glitter).. I can post the demensions if you like..

Chris that's a great looking plug, the colors are great.

Interested to know how they swim?
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Rock & Sarge

If you could post the dimensions in 1 inch increments that would be great... I owe you a plug at Plugfest...

TX- chris

Here they are!!
 

1" increments from tail
Tail .610
1" .740
2" .900
3" 1.100
4" 1.300
5" 1.420
6" 1.380
7" 1.180
7 3/8" 1.100
Hooks, rear at 2.30" front at 5.75"
Eye is 1.25 from front .35 dia.
Plug is 7 3/8" long
Appears to be made of Red Cedar.

I'm gonna turn one today or tomorrow but I'll give you till sunday:rotf2:
Check the big popper revival thread, I think I put the measurements for the matching popper!! You have till next week to do that one:)

Thanks Sarge... I will be away from my shop till Sunday skiing up in NH... I can't wait to see yours... I think you have an air brush so I bet you will do a nice job with black to red gradation... i used masking tape for the red and then hand painted with Rusto black against the ridge line.

Glass eyes would be a nice addition too...

best- C

sarge-

Is your Capt Bill swimmer weighted or wt free?

No weight, but it's an unrigged one, I'll check a rigged version my buddy has, I believe they were weighted behind the front hook, that's the way I'll do mine. Also they came with two different lips and line tie, the lip I have is a high slot.
Plug does have a large thru hole 5/16" so they may have wrapped wire with the lead.

I bet Peter, VB, has one of those new in the original box. Maybe he will chime in but he can't read a ruler so he will be of no help there.:rotf2:

How cool is that? I don't think I've ever seen that color before. Thanks for resurrecting it.

Awesome pluggage, I would just like to see the pdfs of the old plugs, how is that magazine?

Just checked out the original, they were tail weighted!! Looks like about 5/16 diam. Turned one already and it's in the soup....screwed up the first blank so now it's the matching popper!!

Good news on the tail wt... I put a 1/2" long 5/16 tail wt in mine and a .2 oz belly wt just behind the 1st grommet... i will try a few wt formats once I had open water to play with

Here's a pic. of the copies I did today and the lip (high slot), and a Cap'n Bill's popper so I have a matched set! Also found a Masterlure Snook in my buddies stash, work on that tomorrow.

You must be retired! Great to have unlimited time to do the things you love.

Nice work... Are you going to airbrush the black part around the front of the block?

good old time plug
I made some of those about nine or ten years ago
one of my first attempts at copying
used some of Flaptails plugs that were borrowed from him, this was before I even knew Steve.


VB gave me some beaters
they were popular plugs

good luck and have fun duplicating them

Slip- How do they fish... I have never fished a plug that in mostly red... plenty of red headed plugs... I guess the action is most important... I can see why they sold well at Red Top in BB. They are eye catchers...

Hopefully they are not a plug that catches more fisherman than fish....

Red is good:uhuh:

Flap had one.

Nice job on that! I have a friend who swears by red/black plugs,I've done well on black and red needles. Is that a 1-1/8" swimmer lip from m&d's? Might have to try one of these,thanks for sharing

Impressive lip Sarge! You make that?

Nope, that lip came out of a box of Cap'n Bill's unrigged plugs! it's an original.

lip looks similar to the Bluestreak lip, which some people consider an A -40 basically, but slot is custom for that plug I'd say. I made a bunch of A-40 lips for some bluestreaks I made, different than Mr. Ponds A 40 lip and what is sold as A 40 lips now a days.. Maybe i will only have to put slot in different spot on lips I already have. I will have to put that on the longggggggggggg list to get the dim. from some Peter has and make a few. Got the dim.'s of the lip like width and length of the face and bottom of lip. .001's would be nice:).Thanks

I like the color combo. I have used dark red and dark purple before on nite time plugs and eels skin plugs.

How's this Prof
 

Forgot the thickness it's only .010, the back edge is dimpled for a tighter fit. Also this is the high slot, I don't have the mid/low slot available now but will get a hold of one next week and measure slot position. sorry for the crude drawing

Also thinking of doing the paint with a patch of silver scale on the midline...what do you guys think?

perfect. .010 thick. that is real thin. Now I will go measure the bluestreak.

Old Cap'n Bill's ad
 

May be of some interest!

Paul-

It looks like the red top #9 in Flaptail's set was the most used in the group... I hope that means it was the best color pattern... he had a nice set of capt bills plugs

Sarge-

The article in the Collectibles mag says the Capt Bills plug catalogs were great reads with great images and descriptions of their plug line. It would be fun to see one of these old plug catalogs from the 1950s.