Is this the Place?

[Tagger]

no pics guys ??? .. George what is that Pichney plug you speak of ,,. I saw a real long thin danny type i wondered if it was pichney ??

[Tagger]

Looks pichney .. minus eye .. I like this long thin stuff .. I think fish are more keyed into it with present bait available ..

[Tagger]

George is the blue tape one the pichney ? ... love that Pred/Head bottle ..

[mfm22]

Is the lipless going to be tweaked ? I was hoping to get to some sort of lipless .
I'm going to try and conjure up an original musso

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by mfm22

Is the lipless going to be tweaked ? I was hoping to get to some sort of lipless .
I'm going to try and conjure up an original musso

The slope on the head of the lipless is too much. The weighting is a guess (essentially like his bottle but without the tail weight). I don't have an original. If you get a large one (the medium is different) let me know.

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by Tagger

George is the blue tape one the pichney ? ... love that Pred/Head bottle ..

The taped one is a small version of my "skinny donny" swimmer.
The bottle darter is too aggressive and needs different face angles.

[WoodyCT]

Originally Posted by Tagger

Looks pichney .. minus eye .. I like this long thin stuff .. I think fish are more keyed into it with present bait available ..

I'm thinking that is a Salty kit plug because of the eye, paint, newness factor. BMs were all blind I believe.

DP Eelis for comparison. Non-sloped 5.75" and 7". Sloped 5.75" and 7".

[mfm22]

from what i have heard Don's favorite lipless was a smaller one

[Diggin Jiggin]

Good morning everyone. George reading your posts makes me realize just how much of the science behind this I don't know.

I wanted to try some of the big donny surface plugs. I didn't have pine so I made a prototype of white cedar and 1 of basswood that I hadn;t been using for anything. After tweaking the weighting I got the basswood one weighted to do what I want. I'm sure its not set up 'correctly' but it looks like it will work where I will fish it. I guess until I get it into some moving water I won't really know for sure. Its amazing how much current changes how a plug works.

My current project is a polaris. I made some bigger ones last year for the canal and when you really leaned into a cast they'd get that slight wobble that costs you 20 yards.. I gotta get that figured out.

I had 2 smaller 5 1/2 inch ones that I used a bunch last fall that cast great. At the end of the year I brought them into the shop so I could copy them this winter. When I went to look at them yesterday the epoxy had lifted off the paint. Thats the only 2 plugs it happened to, so frustrating..

[Tagger]

Help I'm not seeing variables ... p.s. thanks for DP eely pics ..

[Tagger]

That big DP danny .. When I made that I had to bend the eye down like a bastadge to get it to swim decent. The orig I copied from (wich had been fished) the eye was bent the same way ..

[WoodyCT]

Originally Posted by Tagger

Help I'm not seeing variables ... p.s. thanks for DP eely pics ..

I was comparing corresponding features of the BM and the Problem Child that could affect the PC's performance.

Line tie angle. Tail flag vs. no tail hook. Etc...

G- Did you check the amount of lip protrusion below the chin on the BM and PC?

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by WoodyCT

G- Did you check the amount of lip protrusion below the chin on the BM and PC?

Yup, and I swam it with several different lips, tail flag, no tail flag, loop up, loop down, full tail weight, 1/2 tail weight, 6x and 4x hooks, and 8 grams of extra belly weight.

The BM is a heavier plug it turns out, by about 1/2 an oz (when compared to the original Pichney I based mine on and about 3/8-1/4 oz when compared to the other large BM ss I own). The forward 1/2 of the BM has a slight concavity to it, and the weight seems marginally further forward. I think this lets the head of the plug come down more easily and start working sooner.

My plug (and the original Pichney) sits level and a bit higher. This means the slope of the belly to nose planes the plug up, before the lip gets enough grab to pull it down. Hence the plug "plows" before it swims, particularly as the line angle gets steeper. A deeper lip or a bent up line tie (which is why it is up in the picture) helps some, but not enough. I plan to retry with a higher wire slot lip, a chin weight, and/or a much bigger than original belly weight. I also need to swim the original and see if it shared the problem (and xray the BM to see why it is so much heavier than the other BM's I've xrayed).

This is an issue most guys who fish spinning tackle would never notice. The plug swims fine at medium speeds. But I want stuff that swims fine at lower speeds since I have more confidence fishing that way in the dark. It is very hard to retrieve that slow with a big spinner.

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by Diggin Jiggin

When I went to look at them yesterday the epoxy had lifted off the paint. Thats the only 2 plugs it happened to, so frustrating..

Probably you know this already, but for those that don't you can salvage them by warming them with a heat gun. The epoxy will soften and come right off. Works for rod guides and reel seats, too.

[Tagger]

Originally Posted by Diggin Jiggin

At the end of the year I brought them into the shop so I could copy them this winter. When I went to look at them yesterday the epoxy had lifted off the paint. Thats the only 2 plugs it happened to, so frustrating..

I have a Nike I made .. looks like its in a plastic bag ... mirror coat ?

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by Tagger

no pics guys ??? .. George what is that Pichney plug you speak of ,,. I saw a real long thin danny type i wondered if it was pichney ??

Pichney made an eely, and BM copied it (that is what you just posted).....those are common and the plugs you are thinking about. Turns out Musso made one, too. Mike asked me about it earlier this winter. I told him it didn't exist as far as I knew. Two days letter the link to the Musso articles appeared and lo and behold there it was!

Using the picture, and what I've learned about Musso from copying his plugs I was able to make a good guess how it was set up. When the weight came out right, and the plug floated as I thought it should I was pretty sure I had it. Yesterday when I swam it I became sure. There is a jointed version as well....got one in sealer to test soon.