Stick with basswood or pine to start.
Shaping the body is child's play. Figuring out balance, weighting, lip size, position, and angle, line tie position, and hook details are the real work. Getting a desired action (as opposed to accepting the action you get) takes effort.
Consider a laminated plug (like they do with balsa minnows) as it gives you more control of the innards. Indeed, using foil finished, proprionate sealed balsa is probably the time proven best way to build these sort of plugs. Balsa sheets are easy to find (not cheap) and you can build plugs without power tools. Rapala has been pretty successful using this method of building. No reason you couldn't use synthetic material (like the swim bait guys) as well. Tackleunderground is a good site to browse through if you go that route.
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