Got out today and tested a few things I was thinking about for my challenge swap plugs. These were what I brought with me.
The top two are plugs I have made before with a slight tweak in body shape. I just wanted to see what happened if I swapped weight and hook holes. I liked it with the weight forward of the hook but the other way makes it hunt more and would probably make a good darter. I may make a few of both.
Next one I had to bend down the line tie and switched the back treble out from a 3/0 to a 2/0 but swam OK on top and would go deeper on a faster retrieve. Still need to mess with this one a bit more.
The next one is the Nike'ish looking one. I was surprised at this one. It had an extremely tight wiggle but was very hard to start. Almost had to snap it to get it under and even then would only get going once the entire plug was subsurface. May try adding a slightly larger metal lip on top of the lower face. Back to the drawing board for this one.
And finally the bottom one. Very happy with this one. I didn't have high hopes for this but liked it a lot.
I copied an Arcadia Reef popper. I tried some detail carving for the first time. Lots to learn there. Overall I was very pleased the way it came out. Sits with about half the mouth out of the water. Just need to figure out how I want to paint it.
Ted did you try turning the line tie on those big eyed lipless swimmers on the horizontal instead of vertical? Might be able to better adjust the swim depth that way on those? Just a thought! I made the same type of ;ipless and had more options with adjustment that way! They all look great by the way! Love your work!
I have not with this type of plug. I have done it with some other stuff like some hand carved stuff and you do get a lot more "tunability". I will give that a try on these before I make any more changes.
I'm confused though. The last swimmer you show in your hand looks like a Nike (or even more like a FW plug called the bearcat) to me. Is that the one you liked or the one that wouldn't swim for you?
The one you liked looks like a skinny musso lipless. Some things on the original that helped are making the face a touch wider than the body and lowering (or bending) the line tie a touch.
The one that struggled looks like a large Nike, which I have trouble getting to swim other than in current (makes sense since he built it for the canal). The next size down nike, like Paul reproduced, is a better still water swimmer (bigger face).
The popper is the nutz. Was it an offcenter turning or "hand carve"?
The one you liked looks like a skinny musso lipless. Some things on the original that helped are making the face a touch wider than the body and lowering (or bending) the line tie a touch.
The one that struggled looks like a large Nike, which I have trouble getting to swim other than in current (makes sense since he built it for the canal). The next size down nike, like Paul reproduced, is a better still water swimmer (bigger face).
The popper is the nutz. Was it an offcenter turning or "hand carve"?
The popper is handcarved but unlike anything Ive done before. All the stuff I've handcarved before was just a profile cutout then a topdown view cutout. Kind of easy and nothing over complicated. This one has for lack of a better term, compound curves. They kind of go in two different directions at once. I had to do some of the roughing out with the drum sander. It all came together rather quickly and evenly to my surprise. I'm almost afraid to paint it because something has to go wrong. The power will go out when I put it on the spinner or something. I was afraid that the way the tail hanger was set up that it would turn the plug over but It sits very nice and is pretty stable. It is weighted on the belly hanger. They say that all their lures [Arcadia Reef] are hand made from wood. I have no idea how they do it and keep everything so consistent.
Hybrid Mode
