That is what I'll remember most about Bob Pond, he had such an inquisitive and enthusiastic mind. Fish, fishing, plugs, jigs.......always thinking and working at figuring things out, trying something new and different.

Well I'm headin out to the shop an do some turnin an look at some old pics an such. Quite a surprise. Ron

Headed down the basement to do some drilling...I will check in later!

I made the plug as wide as the lip at the widest point which is where the rear taper starts. I like the one I did from pine the best. That is the yellow one. I made the others from cypress and they weigh exactly the same as the pine one. Swim is different. I know I should have expected it but it surprised me how different. I can get the pine one to swim subsurface and is pretty stable but the cypress ones won't leave the top. They are also pretty unstable and will roll out if cranked hard but leave a big wake with alot of tail wag. These are my first attempts at a forty and at least I have somewhere to go from here. I wish I had access to some of the older plugs like you guys seem to have. Trying to find them let alone people to bounce ideas off here is difficult at best here.

No ProfMoriarty this am?? Hmmmmm?:confused:

Had to get my beauty sleep and just got home from church and the house looks like a bomb went off so wife is on my butt to help clean up the remnants of hurricane Caitlin that went thru here on Friday morning. Also just finished putting up the Barbie dream house so here I am late as usual.
Lips well Lu mentioned water jet. I have tried for a while to get some done down at WHOI as they have one but no luck so far. I also know someone who knows someone that owns a place that does that so I am still at work on it. The dies are too expensive for someone to buy if they are not going to go into business and now there are several doing it so not worth trying to make a business venture out of it. So I just make a few here and there for my self and a few friends and live with that. But I am not giving up on the water jet thing. The bending is very simple it is the outline that takes me the most time so water jet would be perfect, if I can get it down to a reasonable cost. Just this week I took regular Pikie 3 lips and just recut the lip slot where is should be for Pichney surface swimmers. Should work perfect.

Ted ... you can borrow mine for models ,,either pic up at fest or since your working on them now ,I could mail em .. should copy the jr. to for future referrence,, fatter,,stubbier than bm and others ..

How's Barbie doing now adays ? Is she feeling the recession ? What kind of house ?

friggin 3 story with elevator, hot tub, and a toilet that flushes with sound effects. Got a corvette in the drive too. I am curious how she gets the $$$ to afford the dig's, but I have an idea.

I have a bud that just got an EDM says he wants to make me some as a test and then make more for me at 50 cents a piece.Have to get over to see him.

I have 3 wire EDM's at work. Have been trying to get one of the guys in engineering to write some programs but the machines are always busy doing dies.

That would be great. I would love to at least take a look at some at plugfest.

Also I hope what I wrote did not come across wrong. When I said trying to bounce ideas off someone here is difficult, I meant here where I'm at in PA not here in this forum. Everyone here has always been helpful to me.

Have you tried bending the line tie up to get them down? If no go, try tweaking the lip upwards a touch.

I tried playing with the line tie a little. Not much help. Also tried swapping out the 3/0 that are on there with 4/0 and not much different either. May go a bit higher with my lipslot on another and see what happens. Also if I can find some AYC big enough I may try one with that and see what happens. I will try bending the lip up a bit as you suggested.

you go girl. sounds like a very nice friend to have. I have no tool and die friends anymore. I'm stuck making them by hand right now, which is ok for me, but feel bad when i can't get enough to supply all my friends.

that is the problem for me too. The darn CNC machines are alway busy making my boss money and not doing fun 3 axis stuff for me so I am stuck figuring out ways to do it the old fashion way that doesn't take an eternity, so as to make it worth while to bother.

The Cape Cod tackle small danny lip has worked well for me. Use them on a 1 1/2 oz danny that I do. Dont know how it matches up with the dannys you were thinking about, but it might be worth a try.

Jigman

lu, wheres the paint shaker pics? :confused:

looking forward to seeing it :uhuh:

LOL i will take them later today and post them up.

I've ran into that with some musso's.

I wanted to try both pine and basswood just for kick's and although the weight came up the same the basswood version seem to be a little more sluggish (or so I thought), which might not be a bad thing.

Included a basswood proto on the next round and wasn't sure if it was me or not but I thought it swam a little sluggish again, compared to the pine. Might be the sealer absorption although the weight is the same OR its just how that wood reacts.

or it's just me.

From this weekend.

Figured I would try out a couple different kinds of spooks. offset vs. non-offset, narrower vs fatter head etc.

I fished some traditional ones I made last year when I would stay out until first light and the water was flat. walked nicely just couldn't cast em.

Also, two pencils and two polaris's I gave away for Christmas. I was going for squid but I think I end up with linoleum flooring. :uhuh:

Spooks can be decent casters, but will not cast as well as a pencil or a regular popper. You can increase their casting distance some by making them more aerodynamic. If you try increasing the lead you'll make them harder to walk. If you are after a topwater, daytime plug that will cast real well, stick with a pencil or polaris popper.

Jigman

I have to disagree with Jigman based on my personal experience. A spook I make casts equally as well as my pencil and absolutely slays fish equally, if not better, than my pencils. Aerodynamic is the key as Jigman said. Jigman, I have never fished the famous JigSmith but many of my friends have.....I know that sucker is a fish slayer but I would imagine it must cast very well??:confused:

Hence messing with a few different shapes.

Not looking for the distance of a pencil. Just seeing what I can get out of them with a little compromising. I also haven't fished one of your spooks or your collaboration spooks but have been inspired by just the design.

Larry,

That spook casts well, just not as well as a pencil. If I am going for distance, I'm thinking pencil.

Jigman

I wish I had a spook that cast like a pencil .. When the fish are out past the middle of the canal its pencil time or a good casting popper . I think the action on a spook is more enticing though..

I find it difficult to work a spook far,far out so a long cast usually isn't needed myself. I like pencils for distance also, or even polaris.

I agree tagger, the action of a spook is probably more enticing to a bass.

All look great . Nicely done.

Speaking of spooks here is what I have settled on from a few years of fiddling around. For me first was the Youzui Hydro pencil,which to me is a spook , but I luv that plug and used it a lot so then I tried to make something similar thus the white thing. Worked good but kept tinkering. Then I was lucky enough to get one of Andrews plugs and really liked that, low line tie. So I tried to combine the jigman and the youzuri together. I sanded off the paint on the hydro pencil to find the weight basically in the middle of the plug. It also was pretty much where jigman put his belly weight so I settled on that location and drilled and weighted the plug perpendicular to the hooks and bottom of the plug. You can see weight hole in pic. I put lead flush from one side to other. A lot of work but I like the results. I did real well on the plug last year so that is what it will be. I much prefer it out of red cedar too. It cast's great but I am fishing it out of a boat, which to me is the optimum way to fish any spook. Standing with rod tip on the water to me gets the best action..
I also can't say enough good things about the howdy as it is my best catcher every spring, also made of red cedar. Fish can't resist that plug in spring:uhuh: Flap used to laugh at me out in our tin boats on the flats because I would verbally defy the fish to hit that plug. They just could not resit. I t was like crack for fish.

Those are awesome P.

noticed the weight hole when you first posted and it got me thinking :smash: Is the older version with out the lower line tie weighted side to side as well? I tried weighing a needle from side to side last year but up forward behind the eyes.

Lots of times while on the rocks I will still fish spooks with my rod tip down making angled sweeps. A lot less violent (which I like) then fishing them as a pencil but from a boat is ideal.

yes the white one is side to side too. I like to fish them side to side very slowly with a little pause as they slow to a stop before they head back the other way, when the fish seem a little fussy. They just can not lay off the plug at that speed, same technique with the howdy too. All in the wrist and forearm. More of a quick snap than a sweep for me. If you don't feel like you are getting tennis elbow then you aren't doing it right.:uhuh:

Thanks Paul ,, I've never fished that Youzui,, another plug I'll have to buy .. :smash:

Thanks again .. Numby yells at me for fishing a spook like that :fury:,, I'll snap the rod up once in a while but prefer to keep the nose down in the water .. Either popping the rod down or to the side ..

Thanks a million, Paul. I'd never have thought of that, but once shown ,makes perfect sense. Yaw inducing weighting. Brilliant!

Not that brilliant Fred. I stole, copied idea.:) I just sanded the paint of the plastic Youzuri, saw where the weight was and gave it a try in that location. Sandpaper, now that is brilliant.

I also prefer to work a spook with the rod tip down and to the side. If the plug is far out, there is current, or there are decent waves, then you'll usually have to work the spook with the rod tip up. I like to mix it up some, work it slow, fast for a short bit, dead stop, move again. Its all good :uhuh: Also agree that its hard to work a spook as well when it is far out. On most days, they are more enticing to stripers than a pencil. Have had several cases where bluefish were blitzing and trashing pencils, put on a spook and work it slow at the edge of the school and start pulling a few stripers out too.

Jigman

Dang spooks
 

Anyone find an optimal action on them things?

I made this great big one outta pine with a little tail weight and no belly lead, and I love it's big lazy zig zags, and even occasional dives and jumps, but dang if I haven't raised a single fish on it.:huh:

I'm hoping it's just cuz I haven't put it in front of something big enough to eat it...

Perhaps long coasting zig zags aren't what it takes...

Good morning. Gets later and later each week.

Woody, in my experience decent bass like big lazy slow spooks more than the splashy faster kind. Hard to make yourself work them slow, however, particularly when things are slow and you are searching (same issue arises with swimmers).

Got a big thrill out of F Pintauro's articles about Musso. 2 weeks ago Back Beach was telling me how the "Musso" eely was such a great lure for him at the Race years back. I told him the only eelys I knew of were the BM and Pichney (a style plug I fished years ago a bit but left me underwhelmed). Also they are forward weighted and don't look like fast water plugs to me, so I was surprised (and a little skeptical) they were a hot item at the Race. Accordingly my eyes popped out when lo and behold there is a picture of one in Frank's article. That and a Musso bottle darter, and some lipless swimmers.
Certainly got the juices flowing. Here are some prototypes (next to a copy of a musso pine sr).

Just sitting in the back of the classroom, George. My usual seat.
I've been working on some long and skinnys myself, shooting for a sandeel.
Figured how to hydro without water or other liquid yesterday. Now I don't have to redry my spun wood. The plug orients just about as forcefully as in water.
I'll be drilling and slotting this afternoon

No comments on the patched misdrills, by the way. The darter deflected when I through drilled the weight, the lipless swimmer I forgot was off center drilled.

Epoxy and 1/8" dowel cures many ills.


The other lesson for the week is that soft maple is a SPONGE. Had a darter go from 2.1 to 2.9 oz (2.8 after drying) after 6 hours soak, and a wad go from 2.0-2.8, though it dried down to 2.4. Sort of wrecks havoc with any attempt to weight it before you seal it.

Flat smooth table, Fred? I'm all ears.