Donnie Specs/questions

[chefchris401]

so had some luck this year fishing the beachmaster donnie jr size and want to turn some once i can set back up.

but lengths have me confused, from what ive read the Jr is 6" and senior is 7.5", but the BM version the JR is 7.5" and the senior is 8.5" or maybe 8". did Bobby do his version and Im just mixing em up?

anyone have the actual specs for the JR version?

The BM version seems to be around 7.5" long, one single belly slug about 2/3 the way back, in front of the second belly hook hole. This is the version I want to build as its the one i fished and did well with.

Thanks guys.

Thanks paul for the lip specs too.

[ProfessorM]

I have been lucky enough to get my hands on pretty much all the plugs Donnie made, thanks Tobias, and Danny made. I measured and documented them all.
The Jr.'s were 6" and the Sr. were 7 3/8" to 7.5" long.. BM may have made his own version but same relative shape.
The Musso Jr. was 6" long. The hooks were, measuring from the front, front 1.25" rear hook 3 and 15/16" back. The belly wgt. is 15/16's in front of the rear hook or 3.0" from front. It is 3/8 dia. and 3/4" long.
But you may want the Sr. size since that is the length you liked from BM. Let me know and i will look up the specs.

[chefchris401]

Yeah Paul, it's the 7.5" version i like

BM calls the 7.5" version the Jr and larger one the senior

I'll try and post a pic later on the computer

If you have specs on the 7.5" that would be awesome
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[pbadad]

Chris I have been wanting to build both. I'm looking to do divers so I plan to use maple and walnut blanks since I have plenty of scrap ,from work.

[Swimmer]

Paul are you saying the belly weight on the juniir that is 3" from the front is 3/4" long and is perpendicular from the belly of the lure? So the center drilled hole goes through the weight?
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[ProfessorM]

Yes. That is how he did it.
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[chefchris401]

heres the BM versions.

the white/pink version is his Jr, but the musso SR. Bobby did divers and surface versions, the divers have the bent lip sides and the surface ones dont, probably two different lips too, just havent checked.

the blue one is BM Sr donny, which is 8.5".

Paul I would love the specs on the musso senior 7.5" version.

[Swimmer]

Those are conrad lips, right Chris?
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Looking over the pics, some were Conrads, some were not.

[BigFish]

Look like pikie 3 lips?

[stripermaineiac]

The lips with the bent tips are also the original Atom P- 40 lips used when Bob changed to plastic way back.

[JLH]

I've only seen one of the BMs and it was 7.5" so I guess it was his JR. That one did have a pikie 3 lip.
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[ProfessorM]

7.5 long OAL

.850 dia. at front, lip side

.460 dia. at rear side end

largest dia. is 1.36 dia. which is at the wgt.

from the front, lip side, measuring to the rear
first hook 1.75 back 1.20 dia. at that point

Belly Wgt. 3.875 back 1.360 dia. at that point

Rear hook 4.875 back 1.23 dia. at that point

He used a 3/8 dia. belly wgt. that was 7/8 long

His large surface swimmer used a #2 lefty low slot mounted above center of plug. Pichney's surface swimmer used the#3 Pikie lip but the lip slot was lower on the lip compared to all the ones available nowadays. I cut my own slot in the commercially available lips. All the other Musso's Pine, Maple, Rattler, used #3 Pikie lips but not cupped.

1st pic You can see the lip and line tie locations on all but the rattler style Sr's and Jr's

2nd pic you can see lip and line tie for the Sr. surface swimmer on right. I think the plug on left is a pine

3rd pic you can see a Sr. Musso surface swimmer on the top x ray. bottom is a Danny Conrad

hope this helps. Good luck

[ProfessorM]

Looking at your pics it seems that he used no wgt in the large one and only cupped the lip on the small one. The lip is mounted higher on the smaller one and looks to be on center on the larger one. His belly wgt also looks to be in the middle of the plug, Musso's was off center toward the back.

Looks like there was some tweeking done by BM to fit what he wanted it to do and I think his Jr. is basically a Musso Sr. clone tweeked and the larger one is a creation all to itself designed by BM wanting a larger plug. Hey smart move take a proven great plug and size it up to fit your need.

I found a few more pics I had. If you look at the far left there is a larger slopeheaded plug Musso made. It was a troller I believe. It is larger than his Sr.'s. Maybe BM copied that plug to make his Sr. plug. I do not have any info on that plug for some reason, even though I had it in my possession.

[JLH]

The ones that I had built had either a pikie 3 lip or a lefty 2 high slot lip. Both caught fish but I really liked the way they swam with the lefty 2 high slot lip. Those would get a few feet subsurface but didn’t have as aggressive of a wiggle to them as the ones with the pikie 3 lip which did have the advantage of getting down a little bit deeper if that is what you are going for. I started on a few more with the left 2 high slot and a little more belly weight than I used last year this weekend. Not built exactly to the specs posted but pretty close.

Around how far back on the senior was the cut for the sloped head on the rattler? Looks like it might be around 3” from the front of the plug? I might give one of those a shot.

[numbskull]

I'll second JLH's experience with the large Pine built with the smaller lefty 2 lip.
It is a better plug in current than the original pine.

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by JLH

Around how far back on the senior was the cut for the sloped head on the rattler?

3.5"