Who am I ...
 

Bob Pond made a small run of loaded Atom Jrs. that weighed in at 2 3/4 ounces .. The thing sank like a stone and hardly swam if at all .. I tied it on and was plugging and a good fish took it and I used the waves to beach a 51# bass . This gets even better.. 1 yr. later 2 miles further down the beach ,,I went out to the back pond to fetch my eels out of my eel cart .. The gate was open and my eels were gone . Either someone stole them or somebody let them go . All I could do was plug fish ,my second choice at the time . I noticed my old friend the loaded Atom Jr the previous source of my 51pounder . I snipped off my eel hook and tied it on . I had been casting and retrieving 15 minutes when I hooked up and landed another 51 pounder. I had only used the plug twice and pulled in 2 51 pounders .. I never fished that sinking Atom Jr. again ..

Frank the schoolie filleter Daignault...

do I win a Tagger eelskin swimmer :D:D:D

frank d?

yea .. just read that today in "trophy striper"... makes me want to build one ..

Eddie are you kidding. I was going to say Frank Z.



Who am I?
Someone who should have used that plug more:huh:

Oh..
I was hoping it would make you say give RiR one... :fishslap:

Thats a great story Tagger. Those plugs do work very nice. Bob gave me a dozen of both colors to give a try up here in Maine.I still use them from time to time and they're great in fast currents. I'm workin on a few to see if I can match the swimmin motion of them in fast water.

you have some of the limited production 2 3/4 ounce Atom Jrs. ??? I have 1 very treasured 2 ounce Jr. . I thinking of knocking it off and boosting the weight .. Got Xray ? .. those are white ceadar .. no ?

LOL. The book I have says 3 oz. Just this week I dug it out because I too have been thinking about it for years. Anybody actually have one?

Hi Tagger. Yes I have some of them. Bob was always a very good freind and from when I ist met him in the 60's he always gave me the oportunity to try his ideas out up here in Maine. Including some of his older proto's. The stuff I'm working on now is a mix of cedar and mahogany as the density of the wood helps balance the loading with lead. hardest part I'm finding is placement in the bodies.I have loads of different Atoms and am working hard to duplicate the actions as they work better tham almost all the new stuff out there.If I can come up withthe magic mix that Bob had but with the new woods of today well I'll trade you some. so far the balance point is the hardest as the casting and the action really affect each other with the different materials . They don't give the same weight by volume. Less wood more to balance an so on. I even have some of Bobs old hardware that I'm using which does help

I ass ume they are tail weighted but may be pushed up .. If you need xrays of those specials I can vouch for honesty of Numbskull to get it back to you .. maybe post in this thread .. also ass sume white ceadar on those .. Numby , my book says "Loaded at around 2 3/4 ounces " top of pg. 62..The Trophy Striper .. I noticed the Atom Jr. lip looks the same as used in the full size 40 .. Atom Jr. also much plumper than BM knock off of it,, skinny arse tail though .. ..

Tagger can you post a pic of the one you have.

This is what I have.

2 sizes wood atomjr
I have the small one 1.9oz
and an unfinished body from the larger one
shown with a BM atom jr

the little one I have has a small thin weight pushed alongside the through wire (1.25"x 3/16" pushed in from the tail and abutting the back belly hook).

the lip is pretty close to one #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& sells, though I think the larger version may have carried a bigger lip.

Eddy.........."I once had a dandy loaded plug: a loaded Junior Atom, a type Bob Pond made only a few of. Three ounces it weighed and sank like a rock." Rest of the story is the same. Page 177, "Striper Surf", FD.

Stripermaineiac, if you are willing to send me one I'll gladly xray it and return it. If not, could you please tell us what your originals weighed and what size lip they carried. Thanks.

Eddie, I have some of those wooden bodies and a bunch of the lips. Sounds like that plug worked because the bass was deep and luck.

Hi Tagger.I'll have to dig them out. I'm in the middle of renovatin my garage for a shop. Made a mistake and tried to fix the retaining wall and my current occupation is ground hog.Both septic and electric in the way so the diggin is all by hand. Big downside is the guy who built this place was a very close relative to tim the Tool man.When I'm done I'll try to dig them out. Funy part is was that Bob thought they were a mistake as they spent most of their time in the sand instead of swimmin so he stopped after the ist run. he gave them to me while he was gettin rid of some what he called junk while cleanin the shop as I have a narrow gut I fish that has a rippin current.He tried the idea again as a request in the styro bodies plus in the P-40 in the early 80's for use in the race.Only did a few of those also.You may want to keep an eye out as he also did a few small reverse juniors the same way.Only about a dozen of those exist.Some of the protoe I have have the weight wrapped around the wire. He used fly tying flat lead a lot in the beginning.As for the wood he used well some are cedar and some are pine. What type I'm not sure. I have 2 protos that weigh different and neither is weighted.almost 1/2 oz different.I'm hoping someday to be able to put a complete display of his stuff together and take it to the shows. I chase the stuff all over the place.Bob's grandson may even have some of the spec paperwork on them if I can reach him I'll see what he has.

Numb...I beleive mike cc has both in his shop hanging up..small one-4.5" theres about and the med. size one...6-1/8"..1-1/8 body dia..2.30 oz..I have the med. size one and copied the small one from the one he has, but didn't get the chance to ray it.

Reading between the lines in that story might tell you that the action that we see as looking "fishy" in a plug might be the furthest thing from what a real fish actually swims like. Instead of all these wide wagging swimmers that we all think are so sexy, maybe a tighter, mild undulation is the key to more fish on wood? Maybe why so many big fish whack needles. :huh:

I recalled it wrong. The small Atom Jr has a 3/16 x 1 1/4" weight pushed in from the tail along the wire with its front end just reaching the back belly hook hole.........it is NOT between the hooks as I had suggested earlier.

Pleeez do that and bring it to "PLUGFEST" next year ,, I'll pay your way in and buy you lunch..:btu:.. Alot of people would love to see your collection ..

This is it Islander ... I called it 2 ounce ,, I actually weighed and it was 1.9 ounces as Numby stated . Length is 6 3/16" and diam. is 1.18 . Other pic compares lips Jr. vs 40.. kind of tough ,, these lips have been bent all over the place ..

I have Bob Pond questions ..

1. When Bob Pond made plugs on the road was his mobile shop a van or a trailer ?
2. I've heard he parked along side the canal and made/sold plugs .. Where exactly was that location .. cape side ,,mainland ? Herring run ?
2A . In my pic the 2 atom 40's are different one has a round ball nose ,,, one is kind of flat .. I was once told one was made in the factory the other in the mobile shop .. True ? and wich is wich ..

Better have a big wallet:rotf2::buds:

:hihi:lunch at Plugfest is free ,,,, ssshhhh

that has always been my thinking. A reason why I am not a big fan of jointed plugs as the action always seemed too much, too exaggerated, to me. I am probably wrong though:huh:

I would think the radius nosed one was made at factory as it probably took more time and additional finishing if I had to guess. Mobile shop. Cool. My old boss drove a mobile machine shop in the Korean war. Camp to camp fixing things.

that trailer you speak of was his home on the mainland side....where he made the first 400 wood plugs..flat faced first as in the white one you have....then the round nose after ...the jr's came along in 47, then it was plastic from 48 on.There's a interview with Bob from the day he started onward in a book called hunting an fishing collectibles.

Do you know where his home was .. I wonder if that book can be gotten back issue .. I think thats expensive .. the one Peter gets no ?

his home was the trailer and it was in a trailer park in buzzards bay.

and yes they have back issues, but you have to buy 2 years worth..at a 135.00 for the 2 volumes.....

Thanks tagger for posting. I had the gold one that you have, and the green and gold Numby had.

Well the trailer spent a lot of time this side of the Canal. Mostly in a couple of the camp grounds. by the time the 60's came around he spent almost as much time in his van on the road as the trailer. He was also traveling a lot more by then also. Bob had several models out by 47. One marked Pond pending another Atom pending and some marked pat pending. The lighter one had the ist lips that were hand bent and weren.t stamped. It took a couple yrs for the bugs to get worked out of the stamping.The glass eyed ones realy did exist and the eyes were the same as the Creek Chub pikies. There's only a handfull of them out there. The one you have on the right is from the van but he also made the other in it once things got going. The P-40 was the lure that took the winning fish in the 46 derby or the 47. Bob even put an insert in the plugs in 47 advertising this.Every vehicle Bob owned was a rolling plug shop loaded with plugs to fill orders ang others to try. The 40's led to the 2 hook juniors. then came the small reverse witch turned to the 40 reverse shortly after he turned to plastic.Many of the early plugs had no weight in them at all. As it is now there are so many shades ,colors ,weights ,models and sizes that is hard to say if all can be collected. If some one came to Bob with an idea eventually he made it for them.I have over 2 dozen different p-40's .Ad to this the 51's,reverse,juniors,eel skin models,popers,splashers,talkin,spittin,lure ali,metals,jigs,and well you get the idea Bob tried just about everything.The fun part is matching the boxes to the lures of the time as he also switched them as supplies ran out. But If I can I'll get as many as possible in display cases by the next plugfest

Bingo! A winner in aisle 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:humpty: