Something constructive

[eastendlu]

Man those look sweet George I will be talking to you soon about a question you asked me over a year ago i have an answer

[NIB]

Very nice work as usual Geo.You are a great inspiration.I hope you keep it up..
I have a Question for ya.
Why did you decide to go with 2 belly hooks on the small swimmer instead of one.One hook allows you to go 3/0.With 2 your limited to maybe a 1/0 or Maybe 2/0 front 1/0 back.

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by NIB

Very nice work as usual Geo.You are a great inspiration.I hope you keep it up..
I have a Question for ya.
Why did you decide to go with 2 belly hooks on the small swimmer instead of one.One hook allows you to go 3/0.With 2 your limited to maybe a 1/0 or Maybe 2/0 front 1/0 back.

These will carry 1/0's. Not expecting anything massive on them....more of a "something to toss while walking the dog" kind of a plug .

I got a theory that danny/donny style surface swimmers balance better with two hooks and a central pivot point (ie weight). I also think the two belly hooks do a better job of hooking both fish that nudge the plug half heartedly and the ones that hit hard from the nose (I'm pretty sure the lip of the plug often deflects the fish off the front hook). I'm still undecided if I like compensating for the lack of a tail hook by using a small tail weight or not.....it tends to make the tail swing more once the plug gets moving but also require slightly more speed to keep it working. Plugs that use a surfster lip are different. BF's Prey, for example, has a great action with the one belly hook.

Subsurface I'm OK with one belly hook. One hook and a weight behind seems to give the plug more of a wag from the head as opposed to a pivot around the belly (which is also why surfsters do well in that setup). Interestingly, Sauerkraut (on those rare occasions when he can't fish his beloved snakes) will use needles with only a single belly hook and no tail hook (which goes to show how important balance actually is) and catches enough large fish that way to embarrass me and all my hard formed "theories".

[steelhead]

Virtually the same dimensions as Numbskull's.
I won't be walking a dog, so I guess that means I can catch big fish.

[numbskull]

Very nice.

For anyone else interested, these were the dimensions I used.....

".......I got it wrong. Mine are 5''long, 3/4" at the nose, 1 1/8" at the belly. 1'' to first hook, 3.5" to second. wt is at 2 5/8" (I don't recall how much....forgot to write it down) and a 1/2 size M&D small tail weight. Used AWC since I had it (but didn't particularly like it....would use pine next time). The lip is a small lefty low slot, which is placed a shade above midline. The unrigged epoxied plug weighs 1.5 oz. Have not fished it yet."

I think the weight was 5-6 grams.

[NIB]

Geo,Thanks for the breakdown.I hope folks realize how much information is in that post..Builders and non builders could use to gain so much by understanding the basic's on how plugs work.Then again it might be to much info for some..
Tony Spina at Lex used to tail weight a lot of his designs.They where dogs on our flat water.When you had a little wind or white water they would shine.He made quite a few and different little 2 hook designs. I used to add a belly weight to some of em to stabilize em.They used to be some of my favorite plugs..Hahn also makes a little swimmer.Mine are from the old runs..They too had the two hook design but he used a little cupped blade.with no weight if I remember right.They worked good when flat.
Them little plugs cast amazingly well especially when tail weighted.Your going to fool some good fish wit em.Whether or not you can land em on 1/0's will be the fun part.I can recall one about 25 lbs standing on his tail and spitting one back at me one day before sunrise..Hooks where chewed up like a pretzel..I enjoyed the show most of all.You catch thousands of fish ,the details all meld into one..I can still see that fish laughin at me..
Skippy uses them owners on his plugs not.They won't bend,they might pull out, they are heavier.Something to look into..

[numbskull]

I've got another "observation" I stumbled across yesterday. I always assumed that the less weight in a surface swimming plug, the easier it would swim and the slower you could work it. Wrong again. Turns out with those skinny donnys I made, they swim at a much slower retrieve with 14 grams in them they they do with 8 grams. What I think is happening is that when the plug floats higher, some of the force (ie retrieve speed) is used up overcoming it's buoyancy before the plug develops its action. Go too slow and the plug just skims the surface without working. The plug sitting deeper in the surface film can start working sooner. This also explains something that puzzled me for years. The best surface swimmer I ever had was a beat-up Lupo with oversized (3/0) belly trebles. It would waterlog on the first cast, but outfish anything else I owned by a ton. It now occurs to me that it must have been sitting much deeper than my other less beat up Beachmasters, and working at a slower speed. Not sure this is right, but something to try in any case.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by eastendlu

Man those look sweet George I will be talking to you soon about a question you asked me over a year ago i have an answer

secret