Originality When You Build.

[BigFish]

More a curious question than anything else.....how many of you guys go for an original look to your plugs when you build? When I am sitting home my mind is always working...looking for something that might be new or different.....something that sets my plugs apart from anyone elses. Be it the body style, paint...whatever! How does your mind work when you are turning something new? Lets talk about how your creative juices flow especially during winter...the season to turn!

[Backbeach Jake]

With all the builders past and present, it's getting real hard to find something that hasn't been done. So I combine things. Squid needles are one example, but I believe Steelehead did one before me based on a Norris. I make a little sandeel needle too. Try to give the impression of a mid-sized sandeel in color shape and sparkle. I'm sure that's been done to death too. Sometimes it's just bringing back a plug that was never understood in the first place. Tagger is the black-belt king of that. Look at that Floyd Roman, Tagger has shown us hows and whys of a very simple,yet very sophisticated lure. And Capesams I'll never be there. Original ? Not much hasn't been covered, but with a better understanding of how and why they work, maybe we can take a little here and there and make something new.

[ThrowingTimber]

I look to the past to inspire stuff Im doing now. I take those proven designs and try to apply them, by modifying them to suit locations I fish now. Case n point. I went to an auction, picked up a jerry sylvester flaptail that was a beater. Took it home disected it, and made some with similar specs (slightly larger). I fished them last fall and did well, but the action was not as close as the action on the original as I liked, because I was using dif. wood. I went back and modified my processes to get an action that was more true to the way the original swam, what I have now I feel mimics the action of the original close enough for me, as I'm using all dif. materials. I'm happy with the changes I've made and it functions the way I'd wanted it to now. Good topic Larry.

[capesams]

love the old guy's,cream of the crop elder's of bait builder's...men who invented the wheel..it ain't broke so I go with the flow,,cept a few upgrades now an then on the hardware. I thank you plug maker's of the by gone day's as we'd still be using smelly dead fish for bait today.

[Tagger]

I still consider myself a student of salty ghost that lived and fished years ago .. Sometimes its another builder steering me a certain way.. I do have an orig. project going but it will stay hidden .. I need lightweight batteries and small solinoids with digi lense attached to live feed board on beach ... whoops said to much already ..

[thefishingfreak]

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Tagger

.. I need lightweight batteries and small solinoids with digi lense attached to live feed board on beach ... whoops said to much already ..

Tagga, i got some old spring wind up motors if ya can use e'm .

[jklett]

I am pretty new to plugbuilding so I'm copying stuff that I know works until I get a handle on what makes these things tick. Once I understand how changes affect the action and whatnot I'll be able to make what I'm really looking for. Will my stuff will ever be truly "original"? Probably not seeing as almost everything has been done before at one point. Honestly I don't care if it is or not, as long as it catches fish. I've already learned a ton from all you guys and want to thank you for the help(both directly and through posts to others).