Shaping Jitterbug Plugs

[aaron4mvp]

I was wondering if any of you make jitterbug type lures?

If you do, what do you use to shape the mouth where the jitterbug bill goes. I bought some lips from lure parts online and was wondering what to use to shape the lure so the bill fits against it.

I was thinking maybe a band saw or end of the belt sander, but thought maybe somebody has a different way of doing it?

[diemai]

@ aaron4mvp

I've made a few before , ..turned them down on a lathe out of buoyant abachewood , .......made them in a kind of elongated teardrop shape , also a bit tapered towards the rounded nose .

Sanded down the lip plane on a sanding disc freehanded , ...should sit at 45° to the blanks center axis .

The shaping of the nose on the lathe requires planful processing , ........if it becomes tapered and rounded too pronounced , the sanded 45° plane might become too short for all the mounting screws covering it , ...or , ...in other words , ....you might have to sand off quite a bit of material from the nose to achieve a sufficiently long plane for coverage of the screws .

For my first one I've used stainless steel lips , but found these to be too heavy , ...my Jitterbugs would never float up level this way but head-down , ........since I go for aluminium lips exclusively .

But I've also made Jitterbug-style lures out of rectangular timberboards , ...these also worked fine , ...have a look in my gallery :

http://www.tackleund...tyle-topwaters/

Please check next(or previous ??) pictures as well .

Good luck , diemai

Edited April 24, 2012 by diemai

[garyo1954]

Went out and played around on this today.

First pic should give you an idea of the length.

I left the tag ends on so that I could take it from the lathe to a table saw, or miter box and cut the 45 degree angles.

The two halves will allow the use of a thru wire design.

Good pics of the 45 degree angle.I've also left a flat surface at the top and bottom.

That, and the taper, can be sanded or shaped.

You can there is about a 1" width for mounting the front lip.

Hope this gives you some good ideas. Good luck!

[woodNfish]

 You can go and buy a jitterbug to use as a reference, and you will see that the lip is not at 45 degrees. It is closer to 30 degrees. You cn also see photos on the tackle websites like bass pro and cabelas, etc.