Conrads/Slopeheads

[luds]

I'll take one. I have a place in mind for it.

I left you a present on Wednesday.

[Canalman]

Yea Mike, I know where you mean... but I think it would just rake the bottom....

I found the present...

[numbskull]

Built some large versions this summer that fished pretty well. Weighed @4oz. The best was heavy birch/unweighted. Sexy slow wobble. Didn't get anything worth bragging about, but it took enough fish that I'm confident using it. It turns out that Pichney made the Jr version out of weighted pine and unweighted maple. I suspect he did the same with the senior version as well, since the birch one I made weighed 4oz with no weight (but the pine one was too light even after weighting it identically to an xrayed pichney, so it got a chin and tail weight to float it lower). As long as you have the shape right and adjust the weight so they float level with the tail slightly under and water above the lip slot I think you will be OK. As I'm sure you are aware, however, the conrad and slope head were two different plugs. Putting a slope head over a conrad lip might be too much (though I'd have thought it would work), as perhaps over weighting a maple version is as well. The original I weighed was @4.2oz.

[Canalman]

Thanks George,

I made mine out of AYC after trying some other woods, it took some serious lead, but it sinks slowly and the swimming action is actually really tight and rapid on a slow retrieve... I'll take a look at reducing the weight and redistributing it and see what happens. My big thing is that while I love the action, there aren't many places where one can toss a plug into water that's deep enough to handle that kind of diving without hanging. But if I can figure out how to get it to dive to around 10' then it just might be deadly. This is why I love to build plugs.

-Dave

[Canalman]

How deep did yours dive George?

[Tagger]

This is the year of the Conrad ,, I'm working on them too .. well not acually working .. Reading your misfortunes has spared me the agony ..tank u boys ..

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by Canalman

How deep did yours dive George?

I'd say 8-10 feet. You pull it down then slow it and retrieve with your rod low. The Jr seems to run less deep (and with a less appealing action to my eye).

[Backbeach Jake]

My feeble attempt swam more like an A-40 but cast really well. I need more belly weight, I think and a very closer tuned placement of lip and wire hole. Fractions are crucial with those things.