Slip,
These are "proof of concept" or prototypes that indeed work and work well. You can opt to work these as slow or slower than a needlefish, or you can troll them at 14 knots! You can watch them slowly sink and wobble as they drop, or scoot them over the surface like an Exorcit missle.
The amount of time it takes to make these would result in a prohibitively expensive lure, however if we can find a way to make them in plastic with the same behavioral characteristics that would be another story.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that there might be thousands of proven lure designs that have worked for decades, but there is plenty of room for inovative new designs. Bucktail jigs are great (as you know) and they have been around forever, however, bucktails tiped with some of the new plastic curly tails are sometimes far better.
The giant Spook-like stick offering from Tattoo was the product of countless prototypes that just didn't have that magic action. When he found the right balance, length and action the lure practically manufactured fish.
When you compare the action of a Habs popper to many of the other wooden topwater poppers you find a distinctly different pop, splash and productivity that's hard to surpass.
I'm not a woodworker, nor do I have the time to experiment with making new offerings, but if I had the time and resources, you can bet I would be making surface offerings with props fore and aft, I would be making the fattest pikies you ever saw, and I would be making a wooden version of a bunker spoon for slow trolling applications.
Like a mad scientist I would experiment with wooden lures that had holes drilled through them to create contrails of bubbles. I would try to make a wooden or plastic squid lure that runs under the surface, suspends and can be worked at various depths.
There are still a few more weeks of winter left, why don't you shade tree plug makers let your imaginations run wild and come up with some unique new offerings...I'll be happy to be your test pilot
Mike
Hybrid Mode
