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4:57 pm
October 1, 2008
Offline
I've been making my own SW and FW wood plugs for about 3+ years now. Mostly spooks and poppers but I've also made some prop baits and some bomber minnow style baits. Naturally taking the plunge into muskie fishing has opened up a whole new world for me to learn about. I've bought and fished a few Mantas over the last 3-4 weeks and love the action and the "almost" suspending nature of the shallow manta. I want to build one from wood that will suspend an not sink when paused. Obviously, attempting to get that action will be a difficult task.
I've turned and sloped some blanks, drilled them and will thru-wire them. I have some lexan lips for the rear of the plug. Has anyone tried this? What did you learn? My biggest challenge is location of and how much lead to put in the plug. Any advice or pics of your work is much appreciated.
Thanks
10:24 pm
Mike, do you use this site?
http://www.lurebuilding.nl/indexeng.html
Lots of ideas on there. There used to be a Manta on there somewhere. I'll search for it and let you know if I find it.
As for my plugmaking thoughts I would use a heavier wood than we are used to in SW. I know that AYC and RC are the norm is SW but Maple and other hardwoods are what many of the better gliders are made of. If you do use maple you will find that it is heavy enough to stay down and will slow rise. Since it's heavier than our SW staple woods it's a good choice. As for neutral buoyancy it's not really necessary but if you did want to do it with Maple it would be pretty easy. Just tape the lead where you think it needs to be and when you get both the neutral buoyancy and the lure stays in the position you want you are golden.
As for through wire it's not totally necessary either. Our SW plugs have to be made to withstand a 30,40 and even a 50 fish day. If you catch that many muskies in a season you are a god.:) I would use long screweyes and run them in on a severe angle with good epoxy on the threads and totally seal the plug. Just my thoughts.....anything you might think of feel free to give me a call.
11:15 pm
October 1, 2008
Offline
Dave
Thanks for the help. I do have and use 2" & 2.5" .092 SS screw eyes with 2 ton epoxy on some plugs. I would prefer that for these muskie plugs for sure. I just didn't want to lose a fish on a hook pulling with bites so rare. 😮 Useing screw eyes will help with the lead placement for sure as well as bending the front eye down. WOW! I was on that lurebuildiing site about 2 years ago and forgot all about it since I wasn't muskie fishing at the time. I'm on it now.
Thanks the feedback
11:29 pm
Mike you're no going to have a musky pull the screw eye out unless you forget to epoxy them in and even then it's unlikely. Again, run them in at and angle and they are in for good. In fact, some of the best needlefish I used in the 80's were screweyed and we just screwed them back up after the stripers would screw them down. And this would happen after 10 or so fish. If you catch 10 muskies in a day you're doing something.
You'll be fine with the screweyes. Again, if you have any questions you can call me.
11:52 pm
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