Gone Bananas
 

Slipknot, Cape Sam, Tagger, et al...........After 10 years away, you guys got me back into my workshop. Thanks.

NICE!

That's SICK!!! Can you give some dimensions, etc.? Looks like you did it freehand.

Cool stuff!

Nice looking lure. What wood?sinking, floating?

Very nice.

sweet!

Awesome stuff.:hihi: :kewl:

Holy S$%#^.. back in the wood shop where you belong,, what a waste,,,now you gotta make up for the down time .. Very interesting shape.. does it have a name ? is it a knock off of something eles ? great work ..

Awesome Banana Boat! :heybaby:

It is a "Frech Banana". Jack Frech published a series of plug building articles @1975 (reprinted @ 1989) in " The Fisherman" magazine. This a copy of his final plug. It is pine, 7 1/2" long, heavily loaded, and floats upright even with the surface, sort of a planer-style plug, not unlike the modern sluggo design. I have no idea how well it fishes, and his weighting instructions seemed too much, so I'm not even sure I've got it right. With a bandsaw, spokeshave, and rasp it is not too difficult to build, though some sort of carver's vise/jig is helpful. I think you could also do away with the hand tools and shape it after bandsawing with a rotary sander instead. If anyone has ever fished one of the originals (NIB maybe?), please pm me I'd appreciate any info that would help fine tune the weighting. Thanks.

http://highhillstriperclub.com/articles_darters.htm Had this article on him.. Don't really know much about him .. thats a pretty neat design ..

very nice pc o fruit...great job...some day I'll pull out all those print's and give them a good lookin over..scuttlebutt has it when those were printed that they changed some of the dimention's to throw people off as to how the real ones were made....throwing a stick in the spoke's of remake's sort of speak......now I don't know to trust them or not.

No eyes George?

i've missed your posts, flap. weclome back.
_Z_

I like the name.

EXCELLANT!
ifthat's not a mullet banana, I don't know what is :btu:

I have one like that wit a metal lip.I have seen an had some that a Old NJ builder billy West did that where similar also.its funny the one i have is painted in a similar color.i rarely (never)fish it cause it does not fit in my bag.its no dougt a copy offa the frech article.

Ditto :hihi:

Me too.

Hi Everyone, I am new to StriperTalk and am looking forward to contributing as I can to the community. At present, however, I am in need of a little help!

It is my friend's birthday this Saturday- he's helped me to learn about how to fish the surf and the bays and to make my own equipment.

I want to give back in some way and came across these pictures of the Frech banana plug- they look alot like one of the plugs my friend had made long ago under the tutelage of HIS mentor. I was thinking it would be a great present to give him the formal schematic for this plug, especially considering that he lost this very plug that he had made as a kid (snapped off at night in late October and he went swimming for it in some heavy surf and couldn't come up with it, by way of illustrating that this was something of real value to him).

If anyone can help direct me to the right place, I would be grateful indeed! I know from researching it that the Fisherman published Frech's articles in 1988, but I haven't had luck so far finding a copy.

Many thanks for your help!

Just PM me your address and I'll send it along with some corrections you will need. I won't be able to mail it until tomorrow, however.

:spin: :wiggle:

:claps: :claps: :claps:
You the man!!!

no bananas on my boat...:laugha:

no! but there are a couple of fruits.

Hey George,
How did you make out with the Jack Frech Banana plug?
Did you ever fish it with any results?
I just found all my 15 articles from Jack and thought I would also post a
few of his plugs! Hope you enjoy a nice used one with glass eyes and a New decal eye that has never hit the water.
VB

Anyone have all the articles on a computer ?
I'd love to have them in digital format.

Bill

I have them in a pdf format but they are 10,000 KB, it is a huge file. If you can accept something that large, pm me your email.

Tom

LOL, I think this was the first plug I posted on this site. They work very well, once you get the weight right.