Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post

numbskull · 01-14-2014, 07:27 PM

I've not built Joe's design and I would defer to his expertise on getting it to swim. His approach is different than mine and uses a high slot lip to counteract the buoyancy of the light plug (an approach CCBC first used with surfsters and guys like Bassmaster and RM Smith use on their "dannys"). Obviously it can work well.

The other extreme is a similar shaped plug I call a skinny donny. It is about 7.5" long, 1.2" wide, and uses a low slot midsized donny lip that is mounted a bit above midline. It carries as much as 15-17grams of weight a bit behind midpoint. It weighs around 2.75-3oz and casts very well. Floats level with tail just under and water line above midline at head. It is made of AYC. It can't carry anything more than cut 3/0 hooks. I have to bend the line tie way down to keep it near the top, even with a low slot lip. It rolls something awful…..it will do a 360 degree barrel roll with a twitch of the rod tip. Nobody would intentionally choose to build such a poor swimmer. It has taken more large fish than anything else I build, including 3 fish over 40 lbs.

The plug only works at a crawl, so slow it is actually hard to fish on spinning tackle. I suspect the reason it works is a combination of its length and weight that slows its action because of lateral water pressure. In spite of this increased lateral resistance, the plug starts swimming at very slow speed because it does not require any forward motion to overcome buoyancy and get the lip down and moving.

Lighter plugs tend to skate a bit along the surface until they get enough bite to overcome the buoyancy of the head and start working. This is why light swimmers with high slot lips often use fat bellies to keep them on top and lever the tail up as you start retrieving them (getting the tail up drops lateral water resistance and lets them swim sooner but with a faster wag).

As for your question on weighting swimmers, it depends on how fast an action you want. The weight acts like a pivot point. For any given buoyancy, the more central the mass the more the plug will wag, the more the mass is distributed end to end the slower the action (this usually means a tail weight and more forward belly weight and front hook). Obviously you can also slow action by sinking the plug more or lengthening it to increase lateral resistance. I don't get all scientific about what wood I use. Mostly I use pine, less often AYC or Basswood. I just adjust the weight scheme and hook placement to get what I want.

Truth is, however, that the fish see these plugs differently than we do and often an action that seems undesirable to you will fish better than you expect. In addition, the action of these plugs changes over the distance of the retrieve (because of the angle to the rod tip). Finally, day vs night, current vs still, and rough vs calm all matter. So best not to over think it, too much.

01-14-2014, 07:27 PM	#10
numbskull Oblivious // Grunt, Grunt Master iTrader: (0) Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: over the hill Posts: 6,682	I've not built Joe's design and I would defer to his expertise on getting it to swim. His approach is different than mine and uses a high slot lip to counteract the buoyancy of the light plug (an approach CCBC first used with surfsters and guys like Bassmaster and RM Smith use on their "dannys"). Obviously it can work well. The other extreme is a similar shaped plug I call a skinny donny. It is about 7.5" long, 1.2" wide, and uses a low slot midsized donny lip that is mounted a bit above midline. It carries as much as 15-17grams of weight a bit behind midpoint. It weighs around 2.75-3oz and casts very well. Floats level with tail just under and water line above midline at head. It is made of AYC. It can't carry anything more than cut 3/0 hooks. I have to bend the line tie way down to keep it near the top, even with a low slot lip. It rolls something awful…..it will do a 360 degree barrel roll with a twitch of the rod tip. Nobody would intentionally choose to build such a poor swimmer. It has taken more large fish than anything else I build, including 3 fish over 40 lbs. The plug only works at a crawl, so slow it is actually hard to fish on spinning tackle. I suspect the reason it works is a combination of its length and weight that slows its action because of lateral water pressure. In spite of this increased lateral resistance, the plug starts swimming at very slow speed because it does not require any forward motion to overcome buoyancy and get the lip down and moving. Lighter plugs tend to skate a bit along the surface until they get enough bite to overcome the buoyancy of the head and start working. This is why light swimmers with high slot lips often use fat bellies to keep them on top and lever the tail up as you start retrieving them (getting the tail up drops lateral water resistance and lets them swim sooner but with a faster wag). As for your question on weighting swimmers, it depends on how fast an action you want. The weight acts like a pivot point. For any given buoyancy, the more central the mass the more the plug will wag, the more the mass is distributed end to end the slower the action (this usually means a tail weight and more forward belly weight and front hook). Obviously you can also slow action by sinking the plug more or lengthening it to increase lateral resistance. I don't get all scientific about what wood I use. Mostly I use pine, less often AYC or Basswood. I just adjust the weight scheme and hook placement to get what I want. Truth is, however, that the fish see these plugs differently than we do and often an action that seems undesirable to you will fish better than you expect. In addition, the action of these plugs changes over the distance of the retrieve (because of the angle to the rod tip). Finally, day vs night, current vs still, and rough vs calm all matter. So best not to over think it, too much.