Origin of Canal Special ?

[gone fishin]

Tagger - I think it was a Gibbs thing. came out with it just about showtime a few years ago.

[capesams]

yup! made just for old man gibbs himself...never got on the market, although some were sold out of his shop, they were made in his later years so he could use them to fish with....around 3oz..

[MAC]

3 1/8 oz

[capesams]

27/8's

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by capesams

yup! made just for old man gibbs himself...never got on the market, although some were sold out of his shop, they were made in his later years so he could use them to fish with....around 3oz..

Steve, they were always available after 1975 commercially, that's when I first saw them in a shop. Red top was the only shop that he would make them available to until Johnny bought and ran the shop that is across from Quintals by the Bourne rotary ( Cape Cod Charlie's) that only lasted a couple years. You could get them from the get go at the shop ( Stan's house and cottage factory) where he sold the seconds and one of a kinds that hung on the wire over the counter there before 1975.

[Flaptail]

Bing! History time. It was Stan himself. He wanted something that would move a little more on the surface on a running tide (especially minus tide days when the wa-wa really goes up to 5 knots) it had to plane up quickly ( which his pencil popper won't do) and cast a bit further ( the special weighs 3-1/2 oz as opposed to the reg. pp at 2-3/4) it has the same arse weight as the 3-1/2 oz Polaris ( so does the 2-1/4 0z polaris and thats why that size sucks for the canal in my humble opinion) He started making those in the early 70's. His son John and he experimented with dfferent sizes ( John used a slightly shorter and stubbier version) but commercially only the 3-1/2 oz is and was available.

A lot of big bass fell to them. My good friend Stiff-tip has a 54-1/2 pounder on a yellow scale CC Special taken in September 1989 at pole 155. I was given that plug for my collection, signed by him with the date he caught it and poundage. ( it was my plug and he stole it from me one morning while casting to breaking bass at Playland so he felt after he caught that fish he had to give it back)

[numbskull]

Whether its true or not I can't say, but someone told me Gibbs didn't really like the plug, rather he preferred the regular pencil popper and made the Canal special only because it cast further and "guys demanded it".

For steelhead's sake the dimensions (of a recent Gibbs version) are

Length 7 5/8
nose 5/8 and cut at 45 degrees
tail 1/2
belly 1 1/8, widest at about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches fom the tail
slope 5 3/4 measured fron the line tie, not the tip of the sloped nose.
belly hook 3 3/4 from tail

It sinks, whereas the equivalent pencil popper floats vertically with about 3/4 inch of nose showing, which makes them real buggers to snag and retrieve after you break 'em off.
Incidentally, I know that at the show people were talking about weighting the Canal special with a second weight ahead of the hook. Anybody want to fess up about that?

Here's a picture.

[Flaptail]

Good morning George! The original had no weight up front. Stan liked the plug but it wasn't his favorite, he really liked the Polaris.

[steelhead]

This history and rememberances are always fantastic! Love it! Thanks Guys!!!!

[Tagger]

Awesome to have all this at your finger tips .. thanks guys