Bottle darters got their revenge! (WARNING LONG!)

[JFigliuolo]

So, I wanted to make a bunch of my bottle darters to bring to plugfest for swapping. Before I did, I wanted to ensure that they swam
like the prototype did…Well, each and every one was a turd, some smellier than others, but all turds. I was pissed, WTF?
seriously I was in shock as the proto performed beautifully. I was ready to go home and throw my lathe in the junk pile.

On the drive home (did I mention I had to drive 45 minutes round trip to get to soft water?) I started thinking about what could have
gone wrong. It all came own to weighting. The short answer is the proto had x amount of tail weight and swam pissa.
For some reason I still cannot fathom, I increased it by 30%, in the plugs, my notes, everywhere.
I just remember taking the proto apart and only seeing the original weight.
I guess I figured in my feeble mind that it was NOT the final version, as I hadn’t touched the plug in a few months.

I went home, messed a bit with weightings and finally got the plug to swim like a champ again.
As a final test I gave it a good test in some heavy current. (Trip 4 to the water) It was performing just like I had seen in the development stage.
Life was good… for about 1 minute until the plug dinging off a rock. Big old chip in the lip.
You see , the water was much lower in this spot than where I swam the plug in the design phase.
Well clearly, life sucked again, if only temporarily. Did I mention I dinged up all but 1 of the finished plugs?
Hell if they are going to die, better to die now than out on the water.

Again, on the ride home, I remembered DZ posting a picture of a bottle plug with a metal lip attached to it to stop the very problem
I was having. Back to the shop I went, I bent a metal lip to cover the head of the plug, changed the weight ever so slightly to
accommodate the weight of the lip and head back out to the water.

If your still reading, well, you need to get a life… but anyway, I digress.

I get back to the water (again 45 minutes round trip). Nirvana, I bang the piss out of that plug and it just laughs.
Swims and darts like a champ and casts pretty damn good too. Life is good yet again… for about 10 minutes.

I start to realize what a PIA it is going to be to form the lip around the head of the plug with the close bends on the lip and the
adjoining step up to the top slope. No way will I be able to make that look like anything but JUNK.

I figured that I would be able to form the metal around the head easily if that step wasn’t there, but how would it swim?
Off to the belt sander, re-bend the lip, and you guessed it, back in the car.

To make a short story long, I couldn’t tell the difference with or without the step in the lip.
I’m sure that if I could see them side by side in a controlled environment, that there is a slight difference.
I am confident however, that in fishing conditions, that a difference does not exist.

So, it’s back to the lathe, and I’ve still got some kinks to work out, but if all goes well I’ll have some at Plug Fest.

If I get around to it I’ll post some pictures when I get home tonight. Most likely be working on plugs though.

This plug has by far been the biggest challenge to date for me, more so than the bottle plugs I completed last year.