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Finished Plugs

8K views 40 replies 17 participants last post by  Mark P 
#1 ·
I finished a few. Top picture has a freshwater popper, swimmer, and spook. Then onto a larger swimmer, Roc Ballerinas, and Heddon Woodpeckers. Second picture is an assortment of Pencils.
Line Metal Surface lure Recreation Fin


Surface lure Spoon lure Fishing lure Fish hook Fishing bait
 
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#2 ·
Woodpeckers !!! COOL !

We gotta talk about this.
I did a few a number of years ago and went through hell trying to get em to consistently swim well. It seemed that every one needed to be weighted differently with the locations from 2/3 from the back to in the arse.

How did you weight yours ??
 
#4 ·
Those 2 are from a batch of 5. Each is a little different and I'm narrowing it down to the style on the right. I'm determined to make it swim right. I'm experimenting with weighting so I get them to sit at about 1:30. I started with a tail weight, found it wasn't enough and drilled & poured a little more lead about a inch in from the tail. I got it floating right in a bucket. It floated slightly different with paint and epoxy. I hope it floats just right in salt water.
 
#7 ·
I think Heddon stopped making them in the 1930's. I made one last year and weighted it like a pencil. Best I could tell, you can fish it like a pencil or a popper. These I tried to weight so they would work more like a popper. I might have it wrong, but my impression of how a pencil should float is nose at 1:00. Popper with nose closer to 2:00. It's a fun plug to make, and I've tried some different variations. I did find that you need to leave the tail blunt. If not, when you pour tail weight in it wants to curl. Also, the nose needs to be beefy enough to keep from breaking/cracking when onto a fish, and you don't want the nose to split when installing the nose grommet. Overall, a fun plug that needs lots of sea trials until I figure it out. I'll make some more with various weighting and experiment this year.
 
#14 ·
Kinda ironic, that I made a version of the woodpecker and never knew it.
Stood at my lathe 25 years ago, and just came up with it.
Mine is differant in some ways.
I use Mahogany exclusivly for it.
It dances like a pencil with a high tip slap. then I drop to side arm and hammer jerk to send water flyin.
I like mine to hang with about a 22.5 angle in the water.
I'll post up the batch I'm painting right now.
 
#15 ·
So..............................
I'm home alone, workin on plugs. The wife is workin and the kid is chasin tail.
I decided to turn one.
First pic, round out. 2nd pic rough collar location. 3rd pic, collar sloped. 4th pic, collor hollowed.
More to come when they are done.
 

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#17 ·
I found an original add. $10.20 per dozen....:dizzy:
Font Rectangle Airline Marine mammal Fin

With the shape of the tail, it doesn't look like it was originally tail weighted. Don't know, but they might have relied on wood type, and placement of the hooks to provide weight. 2 belly hooks on a 4 1/2 inch plug??? I wonder how many times they got hung up on each other? Having lots of wood up front, with a sharply tapered tail and hooks back there might be the trick.:a_dreaming: I think the lathe is getting fired up this weekend.
 
#19 ·
I think the lathe is getting fired up this weekend.
You got me thinking about it again too. Let's play around and see what we can figure out. You spin some, I'll do the same, maybe we can figure out what works and what doesn't.
I'd like to find a way to make them so they act consistently the same right out of the shop without tons of tinkering on each individual one.

I'll go dig around and see if I can find any of the ones I did way back. (they ain't pretty, they were from my pre-airbrush, urethane topcoat days and that's been a decent clip of time).

To start I'll run a few from AYC, 6" long, single belly treble, tied Siwash tail
 
#23 ·
Gunny, you'll get a kick out of this.

I've been doing the bell pencil for about 4 years. It was first designed back in the winter of 2004. Gary2 (Hull) and I spent an afternoon brainstorming it. We never did quite agree.

The top plug in the picture was what he came up with that afternoon. It's the only one of that design we ever made. I turned it, he machined, painted, weighted and finished it. It never went any farther than this one plug. What's particularly interesting about it is that it's one of the first plugs to use his hanger system. To the best of my memory this is the first time there's ever been a picture taken of it.

Looks like you came up with that pattern independently but you ran with it :a_goodjob:

The other plug we made that day was my take on the bell idea, the second plug in the picture. It's the design I stayed with and which evolved over the past few years to be the bottom plug, which is the pattern I make now, the Bell Pencil.

The squid pattern was the midway point in the plugs evolution.

Material property Metal Light fixture Font Ceiling
 
#25 ·
Just goes to show, evil minds.................................
I first came up with mine in 94/95. I sold over 500 through a couple of SoCo tackle shops.
Then my entire shop was stolen in 96.
2 lathes, 2 cabinet saws, Shopsmith Mark 5 complete, 3 bandsaws, shapers, joiners, planers, widebelt sanders, 127 custom rods complete with Penn reels, from greenie 710's to Internationals, 400 duck/goose decoys, many of them custom cork bodies.
I'd go on but I'm starting to tear up.
 
#26 ·
Ouch Gunny That is life time of equipment and Tackle that an Insurance companiy re-imbursement can never make up for. It would kill me to lose that much equipment. There is nothing worse in the world than a thief.
 
#27 ·
Did I fail to mention that I had transferred the insurance onto the new shop in Rhode Island from the old shop in Connecticut, therefore not covered by the theft.
I knew/know who was responsible, did the right thing, called the cops. No proof could be found at any of the locations searched, owned by the 3 guy's that were well known to the local law enforcers.
Funny though, all I did was make a few off handed comments to some folks familiar with them, and all of a sudden they move away.
Seems they didn't know about my background as a Special Ops Sniper.
To this day I would love to happen upon them at the end of Quonney on a new moon high change.
 
#30 ·
Funny though, all I did was make a few off handed comments to some folks familiar with them, and all of a sudden they move away.
Seems they didn't know about my background as a Special Ops Sniper.
To this day I would love to happen upon them at the end of Quonney on a new moon high change.
2 Things:
1. Life is long

2. Karma is a bitch.
 
#28 ·
Dude! That is the number one suckiest "Got my stuff ripped off" thing I've ever heard :10186:

I hope you get to find these guys someday and when it happens you have something hard and heavy with you. I hear that shattered, crushed elbow joints are incredibly painful and never heal correctly.
 
#29 ·
My heart just dropped that is the worst. Thieves are the lowest form of humanity. That is awful. Hammurabi's code for those Bastards. Karma has a way of getting to people that get you. I just want to once be Karma.
 
#39 ·
My Woodpeckers are ready. Same as the original 4 1/2" long birch.

View attachment 11619
I love the 3rd one down in that picture. These are real interesting to me. They seem like a mix of a pencil/ needlefish / jitterbug. I am wondering if you just give these a straight, slow retrieve if they'll swim like a needlefish but also bubble up some water ot if you need to work them more like a pencil? When I go fresh water one of my favorite plugs is a red and white jitterbug so perhaps that is my calling to these plugs. I'd have to think one of these in a squid color could be deadly...

Nice stuff
:a_goodjob:
 
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