Something constructive

[Tagger]

Originally Posted by numbskull

I've got another "observation" I stumbled across yesterday. I always assumed that the less weight in a surface swimming plug, the easier it would swim and the slower you could work it. Wrong again. Turns out with those skinny donnys I made, they swim at a much slower retrieve with 14 grams in them they they do with 8 grams. What I think is happening is that when the plug floats higher, some of the force (ie retrieve speed) is used up overcoming it's buoyancy before the plug develops its action. Go too slow and the plug just skims the surface without working. The plug sitting deeper in the surface film can start working sooner. This also explains something that puzzled me for years. The best surface swimmer I ever had was a beat-up Lupo with oversized (3/0) belly trebles. It would waterlog on the first cast, but outfish anything else I owned by a ton. It now occurs to me that it must have been sitting much deeper than my other less beat up Beachmasters, and working at a slower speed. Not sure this is right, but something to try in any case.

That makes absolutely perfect sense to me .. sitting lower in the water = more resistance = less pull for more action ..That finding is worth 1 million pretty paint jobs .. Once again its how the plug sits at rest in the water. Thank you George .. You make my brain hurt but its worth it .. I'm totally sold on your finding ...

[Jigman]

Originally Posted by Tagger

That makes absolutely perfect sense to me .. sitting lower in the water = more resistance = less pull for more action .....

That was my thought too. Lower in the water you have all of the lip and part of the nose of the plug working against the water. If the plug sits high, less of the face of the plug to work along with the lip.

Jigman

[Rockfish9]

All this kind of falls in line with something that I have been working on for years, It's a 9" jointed eel plug that I first made in the late 80's,I stoped making plugs for a few years so it went to the back burner.. that one was a piece of crap, eventualy, I narrowed it down and made it vey slim ( 3/4") and used a surfster lip, it sat in the water with the nose hanging straight down, it looked totaly like junk, but man did it fish, it's biggest downfall was in casting, it flew like a helicopter... last year I began experimenting with laminating cedar to maple,by doing so, I could fatten the plug to 7/8".... I found the perfect balance, now using a pikie #1 lip and sparcly weighting the mid section and tail, I have a plug that sits just above the surface,, perfecly level fishes great and casts well, I've eliminated the tail hook, for obvious reasons.... I've never actualy shown the plug alone, I have ,in the past posted pictures with it in a fishes maw...If I make it to plug fest, I'll show it to those that ask...

BTW, I epoxy seal this plug ( it is the only one that I do this way) to eliminate any issues with the difference in sealing the maple and cedar, it also helps seal the gorilla glue, although I have used it in the past on needlefish without issue...