Posts: 6
| I'm an East Coast saltwater fisherman (stripers and blue fish), plug builder and fly tyer. Other than my annual two week trip to the Adirondack mountains where I chase smallies and Northern Pike. Your creative thinking and amazing paint work puts most every traditional saltwater plug builders to shame. My typical saltwater plug is turned on a lathe and thru wired. Atom 40's, pikies, Dannies, jointed eel plugs, needle fish, etc.
I had been thinking of making a lipless swimmer over the winter and when I found this site, you guys gave me the nudge. The first one I made didn't work particularly well, so I put a lip on it and it came to life. The second and third ones I began to get the hang of it a bit better, at least to the point where the last one sank slowly and level and wiggled when it was retrieved, twitched like a wounded fish when it was twitched.
Going back to the one I added a lip to, I can report that the first 5 casts I made with it resulted in 5 keeper sized bass. Then last night I lost it to what was probably a lifetime fish. I've never had one of my Duo Lock snaps fail. Last nite, it got ripped open....
So now I'm hooked on making this style of plug, and I have a few very basic questions about assembly and finish sequence. I cut, sand and drill all the pieces of the plug, drill the holes for the screws. Then I've pre-assembled everything and weight balanced. Then taken everything apart and sealed the pieces. Here's where I get messed up. I've been reassembling and painting. Then putting on a sealer coat of Envirotex Lite epoxy. What happens is that the joints get all mucked up and I have to go in with a fine point Exacto knife and clean them all out. So my question is, should I be painting the plug segments and finish coating them separately before final assembly? If this is the case, then I re-drill the holes for the little thru rod that goes thru the screw eyes from the adjacent segment?
Once I figure out how to post pics, I'll post a few of my saltwater plugs and the few jointed swimmer I've made so far. |
A40.JPG (92KB - 122 downloads)
