Needlefish Plug History Presentation

[DZ]

Needlefish History

No doubt many of you are aware that I am a nut about needlefish plugs. I've probably been fishing them for as long as anyone on this board. Since they've appeared in the surf during the 1980s they have probably taken more 50 pound plus stripers than any other plug.
A full chapter of my book project, "The Snowstorm Blitz", is devoted to the development and history of the first needlefish plugs. In conjunction with the Snowstorm Blitz power point presentation I gave last January I have been working on a new presentation about Needlefish plug history. It will be shown this upcoming winter at a time and place to be determined.
I have many photos that I will use for this event but I'm looking for more. Anyone who has a photo of a striped bass of 45 or more pounds and taken on a needlefish and would allow that photo to be used in my presentation is encouraged to contact me.
Thanks for any help and looking forward to seeing some of you at my new presentation.
DZ

[JHABS]

Should be able to come up with a Few..............

[Flaptail]

In Woolner & Lyman's book of Striped Bass fishing, ( the original version that came with pics of plugs hanging in netting on the cover) there is a plate with pictures of many different Striper Plugs and one is a Boone Bait Needle in Black with White chevrons down each side. I had the pleasure of seeing and holding that plug on a visit to Mr. Woolner's house in Shrewsbury MA. 30 years ago, along with a few others in that picture. In the late seventies and early eighties I along with some other surfcasters from Worcester ( my hometown and hometown to some if not the greatest surfcasters ever to hit an Atlantic beach) made a pilgrimage to Block Island at Thanksgiving for a few years in a row. We took Boones and early Gibbs ( with 3 trebles and screw eyes, no wire through) needles and they were the number one plug to use. We even had to make some on island when we ran out of the store bought jobs. I believe but have never really done any research into it, that Boone was the first commercial builder of needlefish. Sadly Contemporary Boone products are way inferior to what was available then. Gibbs ( John) copied the Boones and modified it as there was a patent on the Boone design. ( This was related to me by John himself). I have ( if you go into the "Some Plugs" thread) a collection of early Gibbs large, six inch and some of the Boone oldies. The Best Boone color we had at the Block back then was the EEL color to which we fastened black hackles to the rear treble which made it all the better. Would love to see your presentation on this subject and thanks for doing it. Flap. Oh yeah, cameras were verboten as bananas on our trips so we have, at least I don't, no pics. Just memeories of tr#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g up steep embankments with 30 pounders over our backs at the Block.

[Flaptail]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that needlefish ( the Boone versions) were being used by Woolner and his cronies since the fifties. The book I mentioned before with the picture of the black needle with white chevrons is dated 1957.

[DZ]

Thanks John - I knew you'd have a few photos. Flap - good gouge... I cover the Block pretty well complete with "who copied who". Some great stories behind each needlefish...
DZ

[Pete F.]

An interesting tale accompanies these items for sale on Ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...117885534&rd=1

[bassmaster]

dz I have a 45lb bass on one of my needles , the pic sucks but size and rulers dont lie.
Your welcome to it

[CANAL RAT]

heres one persons view on the history of the needlefish its a very good read
http://www.bassdozer.com/articles/surf_needlefish.shtml

[NIB]

my friend got a 49 on a homemade needle here in NJ.we used to burn em wit a torch an clear coat em.we called em chicken sticks.I'll see if i can make a copy an send it to ya.i would love to be able to see ur presantation but its kinda a long drive for me if u could do it in conjunction with some of the shows up there maybe i will swing it.

[NIB]

Originally posted by bassmaster
dz I have a 45lb bass on one of my needles , the pic sucks but size and rulers dont lie.
Your welcome to it

Add to that the one that got busted up.

[steelhead]

What's the title of Woolner and Lyman's book?

[theSURF121]

A 63+ was taken in November of 90' by Tom Rinaldi on a yellow Superstrike needle. Somewhere in Southampton (might have been Shinnecock). Fish was caught under a bright late morning sun!

[Flaptail]

Steelhead, "Striped Bass Fishing" of course, go to the early 80's edition for pic of needle. I will post a collection of early needles over on my Son of some plugs thread for you.

[steelhead]

Thanks. Looking forward to seeing them!!!!

[Mike P]

Originally posted by theSURF121
A 63+ was taken in November of 90' by Tom Rinaldi on a yellow Superstrike needle. Somewhere in Southampton (might have been Shinnecock). Fish was caught under a bright late morning sun!

SuperStrike had an ad somewhere (maybe in one of those two annual magazines "Doc" Muller published several years back) with a picture of Rinaldi's fish. I believe it was 64-1/2 lbs and was caught in Shinnecock.

[bassmaster]

Originally posted by steelhead
Thanks. Looking forward to seeing them!!!!

any time Youw ant to come here to the cave You are welcome
I will show You some very special wood made in the 70's

[steelhead]

I be callin' soon. Got to figure out the Holiday schedule with only one car... Other car blew motor in upstate New York taking son back to college after Thanksgiving break. Bolt backed out of crankshaft, crank spun, pistons hit valves, very ugly... Still trying to figure out when we're getiing it back. NOTE TO SELF: Take fly rod and do some steelheading next time I'm there.

[bassmaster]

ouch

[proflection]

Here is the picture of Tom Rinald's 63.12 lb. Striper
http://www.superstrikelures.com/products.nf.htm

[Duke41]

Little Bit of Needlefish History:
Who knows how long ago the first needlefish was made and who really cares? They may have been made for a long, long time, but they were unknown on the striper coast until a few were innocently taken to Block Island from Cape Cod in the late seventies. Then all hell broke loose and the needlefish was reborn into modernity. Would you like to hear how it happened?

My bassin' crew summered over on the Cape as usual, and the locals up there kept telling us this one summer about these stupid-looking Boone's needlefish that the guys fishing Buzzards Bay (across from the Coast Guard Station) were starting to use on big bass. We had never seen a needlefish before, and they looked totally ridiculous when we first saw them. Looked just like pencils with hooks. But we bought a few anyway, before we go to travel back down the coast with the autumn line storms. They were Boone's with brown backs (looked like a stick of poo) and olive green/light blue back combo (which looked nice). You can never have enough lures you know, and you really don't want to ever get caught in a blitz without having at least a few of every plug ever known to mankind. Helps you function better, you know.

By the time we got to Block Island, we were doing well with plastic lip plugs and eels. I don't know why, but I decided to try a needlefish. Well, we started to ton out with them. It was ridiculous though. You see, the Boone's were soft white pine and they had SCREW EYE HOOK HOLDERS. It was unreal, like a nightmare. You would beach a mid-40, screw everything back together. Cast it out and beach another one. Screw it back, beach it, screw it in...well you get the idea. You were afraid to look at the needlefish once the sun came up out of horror of how flimsy a plug you were actually using to tong big bass. Well, it was quite unacceptable to us, so we called Donny Musso of Super Strike fame and told him what we needed. He made the first Super Strike needlefish for us out of maple. He express-mailed them to us.

Charlie Dodge was the island's resident sharpie, and his mom worked in the post office. So Charlie alerted his mom about suspicious-looking packages being addressed to us, and Dodge had a habit of finding out from Mrs. Dodge whenever a package of new needlefish came over in the post box on the afternoon ferry. Of course, Dodge would always take his cut.

When we used the very first batch that night, the paint was still tacky. The first ones, Donny made the swivels and hooks too light. We bigged up the hooks, but the cows were still pulling apart the swivels like they were cotton candy. So the next morning we had to pull the through-wires out and re-rig with bigger swivels and hooks. Once we did that, we cowed out like there was no future. We let Donny know of whatever modifications were required, such as to replace the original two belly hooks with only one central belly hook. (Note: The three Super Strike needlefish for auction in this lot are these.) Donny fed us a lifeline of needlefish as we worked the coast that fall. The next year, Donny contracted for the injection mold for the plastic needlefish. Some of the first ones curled up on the ends like ripe bananas. After a while, he got them straightened out, and the rest is, as they say, history.

The Super Strikes are the "original" modern day needlefish plugs and still work the best for moderate to heavy surf and sweeping tides. The Super Strikes do not work as well in calmer, slower water. For progressively heavier surf, stronger sweeps, and harder blows, we drilled and loaded the Super Strikes with light, medium and heavy loads. When you hefted the heavy load in your hand, it almost felt like solid lead. You could cast this into the worst seas that King Neptune could throw at you, and still slew out on big bass with it!

As I am aware of it, the Gibbs needlefish came out with the first models of their wooden needlefish about a year or two later. Gibbs had the Gibbs heavy screw eyes, and they didn't fish quite right to me. Still, for a lot of anglers, the Gibbs were the only needlefish they could get, and they caught a lot of big bass on them. They were lighter and floated higher than other needlefish I was using. They were best to me for slack tides, light surf, and especially in cut-off kinds of tide pools up close to shore. (Note: The three Gibbs needlefish for auction in this lot are these.) The next year, Gibbs came out with a better shape and a through-wired model that was and still does work very well in shallower, calmer, slower water than the Super Strike. There were no other brands or models out there around this time that I am aware of, just these two models (the Super Strike and the screw-eye Gibbs), plus the older, flimsy Boones.

The best needlefish color by far was fluorescent green back with white belly. Also, all black. Fluorescent pink backs were also okay on Block Island, but fluorescent pink backs were far more deadly in the Cape. A shocking fluorescent chartreuse always seemed to drive bass insane during those sleep-deprived, incoherent moments right at first light. MACKEREL was hot, hot, hot. The fact that mackerel was so hot often makes me very suspicious whenever people say that needlefish were designed to imitate sand eels and therefore only work when sand eels are present. I am not too sure I absolutely agree with that theory. Yes, they do work exceptionally well in the presence of sand eels, but I have caught enough big bass on them throughout the years whenever conditions seem right for them - which usually means a HEAVY SWEEP. By the way, although they do catch small bass or blues, I believe that it is the larger bass that exhibit a special fondness for needles.

Neither Donny nor Gibbs were entirely tuned into the best colors (to me) in the beginning - the glaring day glow green, pink or chartreuse colors. Although we asked Donny to do the complex mackerel patterns for us in blue, green and fluorescent green mackerel, I guess we just never got around to telling Donny just how good the shocking day glow colors were...so we would spray them up ourselves in the backyard when no one was looking our way. Although some of the lures below are yellow, they are not the bright, blazing hot chartreuse we painted ourselves.

At some time not long thereafter, Danny Pinchney, a legendary wood plug maker from Long Island who has passed on, came out with an assortment of needlefish ranging from stubby little needlefish drilled full of lead and nicknamed the "Pocket Rocket" was about 4" long, no belly hooks, just a large single O' Shaughnessy tail hook with long saddle hackles on it. Danny also produced his full-sized 6" needlefish at this time. There have never been too many of them made by Danny is my impression (which may be mistaken) and they are very rare as I understand it. (Note: The three Danny needlefish for auction in this lot are these.)

Shortly thereafter, Super Strike came out with his uniquely-designed little football-shaped needlefish called the "Bullet". It casts well, and holds well in a moderate surf. Although the Bullet is a fair producer, I would never recommend that you remove the hooks, slide an eelskin over it, and use rodwrapping thread to tie it down in the recessed eye sockets. Never tie a double length of heavy mono to the back hookholder before you slide the skin on. The mono will never prevent the eelskin tail from fouling the belly treble too much. Never replace only the belly hook (no tail hook) with a larger size treble. It just won't work - and if you somehow get it to work, never tell anybody. It is our little secret, okay?

As far as getting the proper action out of any and all varieties of needlefish, bending the wire eye up or down will allow you to tune your lure for the correct action. As you experiment by twisting the eye up or down, you are looking for an eye position at which the lure almost - but never quite - becomes unstable and unbalanced for the surf and sweep conditions you are fishing. Take ten minutes out of your fishing for proper tuning. It will bring out your needle's best fish-catching action.

That's it for now. I hope you have enjoyed reading a little bit about needlefish history.

Working in wood and being early models or prototypes, particularly the Danny and Super Strike models may display slight manufacturing, finishing and natural blemishes in the wood. These small manufacturing and natural marks in many ways enhance the appeal of the lures, and make them more like modern age fishing folk art (which I feel they are) rather than having the look of mass-produced commercial items.

[bassmaster]

a little conflict there, as I was told from Tonys Dad who made needles back then, that afew of his desighns were taken off cape to be made in quanity.

[Karl F]

Ol' Capt. Andy can give ya a little history on them, from before that, as well.

[Flaptail]

The push started in the NY/NJ area in my way of thinking. In Bob Post's book "Reading the Water" there are a few hints. In both Kib Bramhall and Hank Schauer's chapter's they mention a gentlemen well known to Martha's Vineyard fisherman, Segie De Somov, the Mad Russian as he was called. Schauer recalls an incident where he watched Somov casting plugs like "lead weighted Clothespins" painted white or black for night or day fishing. Schauer described them like "Spoffords Needlefish". That was in the fifties or early sixties.

Like Somov, Tim Coleman wrote in the late 70's or early 80's of making stubby needlefish lures of all white or all black with corresponding hackles on each and doing quite well on them. Could Tim Coleman have heard of the Mad Russian and his "Lead weighted Clothespins"? Might just be. If I see Tim at any shows this year I am going to make a point to ask him.

Musso's wooden Needles were a real advance with the styling and that particular cut at the eye that makes that thing actually swim underwater. A product of a great Striper mind.

[bassmaster]

Flap why dont You write a book............

[steelhead]

Hey Flaptail, Those Needles on the other thread were terrific. Especially the color on the sand worm needle!!! Thanks for posting them! You got any Musso Needles? Is that with the eye that is let into the side of the plug on a small flat surface?

[Flaptail]

All I got in Musso in wood are a couple deep swimming plugs and a darter. All the needles I got are Plastique.

[steelhead]

Are the profiles like the old woodden ones?

[Mike P]

I think the needles that Tim Coleman copied were Pinchley's "Pocket Rockets". I have a few, and Tim ran pictures of his homemade single hook needles in the NE Fisherman. They looked a lot alike.

[Back Beach]

A number of the new yorkers I was friendly with had early variations of needlefish plugs they made themselves. Nate Piazza had numerous variations that he made , and before he passed on, he was kind enough to give me a small bundle of them. They are styled like the Musso plugs, and I am not certain who's version came first. I know Nate was fishing in the late 50's, but we never discussed the origin of the plugs. He had another needle that was about 7" long and weighted, but had a broad body and pronounced red eyes on it. The one I had prior to losing it resembled a large beachmaster needle, but was much heavier. The first modern super strikes were being fished by a guy named Carmine, who was second to none as far as surf fishermen go. I remember he was up the cape in the early 80's fishing the plastic versions of the musso plugs. Prior to the modern conventional needlefish, a number of cape sharpies simply used a big black pencil popper either alone, or with a redgill dropper.

[Flaptail]

Actually on the cape in the 70's we used to break the lips off of Rebels and fish them across the tops of shallow bars at night like a needlefish.