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Yo Eddy, this info from a pm I sent to g4b may help:
The body of this surface swimmer is identical to the pine swimmer. I've not xrayed it yet but I expect the weighting to be slightly less. I have never seen a Maple, though I did turn one out of Maple that I havent fished much. I did not weight it.
The plugs are 7.5" long and presumably made of pine.
1st hook is 1 7/8" from the nose
weight is 3 7/8" from nose
2nd hook is 4 7/8 " from nose
Diameter at nose is .86" (same as the lefty 2 lip)
Diameter at first hook is 1.2"
max diameter is 1.4" and located 3 5/8" from the nose
Diameter at second hook is 1.26"
Diameter at tail is .52"
The weight in the Pine version is 3/8 diameter x 3/4" height. I used a 14 gram weight but think this may be more than the original (my finished plugs come out at 3.4 oz). The SS weight is probably 1/4 oz less than the pine.
The SS without hooks weighs 2.75 oz, the pine 2.9 oz
Rigged with old 3/0 mustads they float level, with the water level even or slightly over the high lip slot and just over the tail wire
The lip on the Pine is a Pikie 3
The lip on the Surface Swimmer a midslot lefty 2
The bassdozer article suggests the lip on the Maple is similar to that on the pine.
Both lip slots on the plugs I have measured are located 5/32 (.31") below the top of the head which puts them about a 1/16" above mid line. (The SS pictured in the bassdozer article looks to have the lip mounted at midline and projecting further beneath the plug.......some of the Jr surface swimmers seem set up the same.....probably he made a change somewhere along the line, but when, which way, and why I have no idea).
The pine will swim subsurface a few feet (much like an Atom). It worked well in rough water and moderate current for me. Got me my best fish last year.
The surface swimmer I built (over weighted it seems) took a little more oomph to get it swimming than I like, but accounted for several 25-30# fish before a bluefish took it from me.
Both plugs cast well....probably because of the shape and behind center weight.
If I was building a plug for the canal, I'd consider trying a hybrid version using the pine setup but a high slot lefty lip instead of the standard pikie lip....I think it would swim well in fast current that way.
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Hybrid Mode
