so tell me - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

Karl F · 03-26-2005, 08:12 AM

I had an interesting conversation at the show with somebody who has been fishing and making plugs since before we were in diapers. I know where your coming from Dave... but this gent said something to me.. he said the action of the plug, is only as good as the guy swimming it, he claimed it's up to the angler to impart the action he wants into the plug.... I'm still chewing on that one... I agree to a point,but...shouldn't the plug have some of the required action, built into it?

.... but I am like young grasshopper kung-fu.... still searching and confused...
Tests, everytime we throw one it's a test..... do I have to study for this test?

make plugs, fish eels, catch more fish

that's my Thought of the Day

bassmaster · 03-26-2005, 11:15 AM

good replys guys, im glad this thred is taken the good way

to funny on the pics.
karl, that guy is smart and that is true. you can tweak some plugs that swim like poop to swim better or at its optimum performance.
its an art all in its self to tune a plug. there are tricks that will throw you off as far as tuning goes. such as the sweet spot. Im saying that You may want the plug to stay on top yet you will bent the eye up( now U think that the plug will dive) Yet now You have taken the roll out of the plug and now You are bending the lip down, and then You tweak the eye and lip to get the action You want.
solid colors are great due to the fact that You wont have to worry about roll and get many a type of action out of the plug.
so if you want the slow snake like flaptail likes and talks about or the wiggle like i like most the time then these tweaks will put you on the road to fish.
as far as a danny goes. if you really want a plug to stay on top this is when You would jump to a phat body lure to keep the lure up on top and yet swim great and true along with it being able to dive. I have built some of these only for my self out of another wood other than ayc and pregnated the wood with epoxy and then prime paint. so its all in how far you want to run with it.
Dave>)))'>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

steelhead · 03-26-2005, 11:36 AM

I've been doing this for about a year now. This winter I made a batch of swimmers with all the same body profile. Then I added diffferent weights and lips to them. There were about 18 in total in the first batch. I was amazed at how differently they all swim and moved and how much I could manipulate their action, and attitude in the water by fiddling with their lips and line tie angles. I've since done two more generations of the same plug, playing with wood type, weights and body profile. Again, eye opening. I still don't know which ones will catch fish, but I've learned so much about what does what relative to action in the water. (Not that I can remember it all. It's kind of like info overload at certain points.) I made these guys dive, roll, wobble, wiggle, swim like a snake. I've also learned that certain lips need to be trimmed and reshaped a bit to get a particular action that I'm looking for. Here's what I've learned for sure... There are clearly rules of thumb. After that, it's sort of an art and a bit of black magic that you build on as you go.

I'm lovin' it and can't wait to see how the fish vote this spring!!!!

bassmaster · 03-26-2005, 02:03 PM

GREAT POSTS. keepem coming......
howelsedo others tweakanddo things thathelp themlearn

Christian · 03-26-2005, 03:01 PM

when im testing my needles i bring slivers of lead flashing, and shove em in the through wire hole till i get what i want, then when i get home i put a drop of 5 min epoxy in the hole.

BigFish · 03-26-2005, 03:32 PM

I had the opportunity a couple of times last season to have BM give me a "how-to" on how to fish some plugs and he knows his stuff!

bassmaster · 03-26-2005, 04:26 PM

how else do others test there plugs,ya donthave to build to reply.
keepem coming, this is good thred

I will fish bass river wheniwantto see a plug swim, its good as ithas fast water at the mouth on the flood.
andwhen on the sand i will test wood, I really love a swell and working wood in it. when I wasmaking pikes all I did was fish them all year to find the best time of day and year for them to work. Me thinks the danny out fishes pikes though cept in spring when herring and shad are around. and that blue and silver is a top color along with olive and gold.
found that at sun up yellow is killer along with all white....