Rockfish9 Sand Eel Swimmer...Look Right?

[blondterror]

I have made this design and mine sit in the water just like yours does and they swim great... nice work

BT

[Eric Roach]

Thanks, Chris.

I got a chance to swim it in the local estuary early this morning and I'd love some feedback on what I found:

• The nose dipped considerably on the retrieve (even when bending down the eye), raising the rear of the lure to wiggle on the surface, which I would guess is part of this metal-lip's designed action(?)
• Retrieving it quickly sent it sub-surface, but on a crawl it wouldn't wobble. The retrieval rate in which it worked well on the surface had a narrow margin for error -- a concern because I really couldn't feel the wobble through the rod when it was swimming well...I imagine I'd have a hard time knowing if it was swimming correctly at night. Should this lure swim at a crawl?

Here are some other points about the model I built:

• The rigged weight is 1.725 oz.
• I used a 4.2 gram belly weight (the recipe calls for 4)...seems negligible to me.
• I used Spro swivels approximately 7/8" long...I wonder if these are too heavy for the lure and might be affecting the ease in which it starts to wobble(?)
• I re-calipered the dimensions, they are real close. [Nose is .6999" (.688" called for), hip is 1.069" (1.063" called for), tail is .492" (.500" called for).]

[numbskull]

If you want a swimmer to work at a crawl, use a low slot lip and weight it to sit deeper in the water. It will roll a lot so paint it solid and loose the eyes. It will not be stable at speed, but it will fish better than anything else you can build. It will run slightly subsurface even with the eye bent down. Don't sweat it, just fish it and hang on.

The plug you are showing is light for its size and uses a high slot lip (usually used for a plug meant to run subsurface). That will pull the nose down and send the tail up. It will take significant retrieve speed to overcome the buoyancy and get this to happen and the plug to start working. The same plug will work as a surface plug set up with a low slot lip and swim at a slower speed. Sinking it deeper in the surface film will slow its action down which is good by night.

Search for a thread labeled "something constructive" from a few years back where this is discussed some.

[Eric Roach]

Thank you so much, George. I read the thread you referenced - very helpful for metal lip design. One question from the below quote:

Originally Posted by numbskull

If you want a swimmer to work at a crawl, use a low slot lip and weight it to sit deeper in the water...

In your opinion -- for this particular design -- do you think it's better to use additional lead or a denser wood to have it sit deeper in the surface film?