Spook Hell..........Help

[Eric Roach]

After trialing over 15 versions with different widths, shoulder placements, lead placements, eye placements, wood types and line-tie positions, I've finally found a combination that swims the way I wanted.

I really wanted to use AYC, but I had to go back to EWP to keep it under 4 ounces; the good part about that is I found I could maintain the original length of approximately 9.5" and still get a good "walk".

Thanks to everyone who offered input, especially Numbskull; of course thanks to Bernzy for the inspiration.

At rest the plug is vertical; the waterline is about 1/2" - 3/4" above the shoulder.

If anyone is interested in the design, feel free to PM me; I'll snail-mail you a copy -- just use spray adhesive to stick it to Lexan for a Vega template (my Vega template is in the pic' below with a herring-colored spook).

..and apologies again to MS for hijacking his thread.

[Muskyslayer96]

Eric,

No apologies needed in the least...you added a huge segment to my learning curve and I'll bet others. well done!!!!

With the little one taking all my time up at the moment, the spooks i made are painted, but not cleared and the season opens tomorrow....Looks like I'll be busy tonight.

great thread, and again thanks to everyone who helped me and thanks Eric for sharing your info and designs. These are my favorite posts....the willingness of the experts to help is amazing.

best of luck to everyone and there fishing season.

MS

[Muskyslayer96]

Oh yeah,

Eric, that spook is KILLER!!!!!!!!!

and the pics of your shop are out of bounds

Awesome stuff!!

MS

[Eric Roach]

Thanks for the comments, MS, and I too appreciate the willingness to share from those more experienced -- that's the main reason I stick to this site.

[Eric Roach]

Couple of minor comments:

• In the herring example, the eye is really at 1.5" from the nose.
• The rear of the plug is actually callipered at .525".
• The mushroom weight in the rear was custom made by Professor M -- I placed it in the lathe and filed the "flange" of the mushroom until it was .525". You could make your own mushroom mold out of hardwood -- or skip it altogether, I'm sure.
• The design originally had a concave taper from the shoulder to the tail. I finally took that out and was surprised what that did to help its ability to walk.
• Despite the reverse-pencil design, it actually casts pretty straight and far for a spook.
• I hand-drilled the eye recesses with a forstner -- because the eyes are so far down the taper from the shoulder I didn't want the big recesses a 90 degree drill job would create; they are deep enough so when epoxied they are nearly flush with the curve of the plug.
• The hooks on the plug are a 3/0 VMC treble and a 3/0 VMC Siwash.

[Eric Roach]

Also (and this is probably obvious), the spacing on the design shows the shoulder over 1.5" -- If you want a similar plug weight to mine (<4 oz), you'll want to adjust your duplicator to the shoulder diameter of ~ 1.46". Once I got this, I didn't want to adjust the design and cut a new template...Didn't want to mess with a good thing.

[Muskyslayer96]

Hey Fellas,

Well I'm taking some time off work to spend with my new daughter and so I had some time to finish up the spooks I posted about back in March. Well here is an update. First off thanks to everyone who posted and helped out it was a great way for me to tweak and learn some important lessons on bait building. I hope it was useful to others as well.

Here are four i finished up with a little paint and e-tex..nothing fancy and there are some flaws in the clear-coat (something I'm usually super anal and sensitive about) but I just needed to make sure my building process with a minimum of 2 E-tex coats would not effect the action of these spooks.
Final specs:
5.5 inches
Built from basswood or cedar (did not affect action a great deal)
Final weight 1 1/4 to 1 13\8 oz depending on wood used
Rigged with 2/0 trebles

My first time using basswood and I'm not real fond of it, didn't seal very well and i had some issues with bubbles around the eye sockets. I have a plan for the future, but really liked the cedar and will use it as soon as i use up the basswood.
I love the way these run when worked and am very pleased.....So pleased that I started on some 8 inchers for muskies that have very similar action...HUGE thanks again for all the help I learned a lot about the process.
Oh one last thing the pearl/pink is one I made for my new beautiful little princess
Best,
MS

[PNG]

Again congratulations on your daughter.

Ive used basswood alot and all I can say is give it a chance, it is awesome once you understand it so be patient. After the initial soak in sealer once dry do another quick dip.

What I have found is a single coat of etex is plenty any more and you run the chance of altering the plugs action. When i put the epoxy on I let it spin a bit then remove as much as I can for a thin coat. This preserves the original intended action of the lure.
Looking at the hook placement don't be afraid to move the belly hook back a bit if you find it tangles.

Lastly I really like the body shape of those plugs I think you nailed it I would love to see one in action.

[numbskull]

Neat stuff. Got a Zara look to them.

[blondterror]

here is my copy of Eric's Big Spook design... also made with EW Pine, same weighting as his design, 6X 3/0 hooks

[Eric Roach]

Very nice -- I'm glad you got a chance to mess with it. I found that it really needs more weight to keel it, as it rolls completely on the retrieve.

[WoodyCT]

It rolls on the twitch? A lot?

That should be ok as long as it glides and walks fine. Besides, the roll will help trick the fish.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Eric Roach]

It can and does roll completely over. Even without rolling over the belly hook spends a lot of time out of the water.

[WoodyCT]

Yikes- never had that happen before.

You might want to fix that.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device