plug roll

[Swimmer]

What is generally found to be the issue when the plug rolls and not twitches from side to side? A little roll is not problematic, because bait fish appear to do that themselves, and the swimmer I have been working on is swimming pretty good. Is the weight to far back or what? Is recessing the weight further into the diameter of the plug the answer? I am being anal about this, because I want to be able to withstand the scutiny of my fellow hobbyist and plugmakers with thw quality of my work, not just its fishability. Truthfully I would like to make the plug so it doesn't roll at all. I dont mind the experimenting, trial and error, but trying to understand this issue is difficult. I am not making excuses when I say this, but I cant be the only one who wonders about this issue.

[BigFish]

Not enough keel....proper weight placement Frank! This can be achieved with the obvious which is more lead or properly placed weight or more subtly with addition of a larger hook or an additional hook (that would be 2 belly hooks) and this depends on the size of the plug. I am guessing you just need to experiment with your weighting?

[Swimmer]

That what I am going to continue doing. I wwish their was an equation or something you could apply to help with the problem.
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What the plug is doing is not unattractive I am just trying to perfect its design.

[BigFish]

Remember wood desnsity varies from piece to piece......find your happy medium! Because its wood and the density varies you may have some that swim a bit deeper than others....and this can be corrected with the loop bending up or down or lip tuning but I never find it to be an issue that is glaring.

[Swimmer]

I think I am being overly picky, but I want my work to stack up against everyone here.

[iamskippy]

Maybe post a vid and we can help/
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[numbskull]

Try a narrower lip

[iamskippy]

Try putting a slight bend on the corners of the lip like a lefty
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[Swimmer]

Thank you, take all the suggestions anyonehas
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[Raven]

watch an injured baitfish die...


all they do is roll... then for a second they make a valiant correction
which fades, then they go back to rolling
and making small curves.... as their endurance is almost lost.

that is hard to duplicate (with retrieve) on a non rolling plug
"sometimes..."

although the lip design idea is probably best! (no argument)
see if you can preserve a slight amount of roll -> as a goal
...............
same as wolf packs look for that "difficult to see"
signal of a deer or buffalo that indicates a health flaw
or a slightly weakened condition... then they separate that
individual from the herd. (for dinner )

[Swimmer]

Originally Posted by numbskull

Try a narrower lip

That never crossed my mind George. Will get a few pikey 2's for chits and giggles.
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[Livefreeordie]

New here, and not yet a good plug builder, but....

I had a similar question about roll that I asked on another site's builder's forum, and did not get a decisive answer...

So, I cut out 6 bodies from same piece of poplar dowel, and put 3 different lips on, so that I ended up with 2 with a wide square lip, 2 with narrower flat lip with semi-circle end, and 2 w/narrower lip w/bevel.

The wider square lip definitely had the most roll.

All the bodies were pretty d@mn close in shape, weight placement, etc.

[pbadad]

As what Larry suggested Frank, KEEL weight. One way I tried is to make shallow depth weights. I make them say 1/2 wide X 1/4" deep and 1/2 X 1/8". Lowers the center of gravity.along with hook weight i.e. 6X trebles. Not to get too crazy over roll. Like mentioned above, dying bait fish never swim straight. I do realize this non roll concept is for your own knowledge. We as plug builders sometimes get crazy ideas. That's the fun of building and expirementing.