A Little Review About Homemade "skim & Swim" Lures(video)

[diemai]

Hi , folks ,

I was bored at the pond last Sunday , ......air pressure was too low and water's surface dead calm , ..........so I've thought about making a little review of these homemade old-time style plugs , ......all made more than a decade ago and proven catchers for me :

Guess , that many of the more seasoned fishermen in here might be familiar to these kinda plugs(maybe except the "Whirligig") , but I'm just thinking , that probably the younger folks , having grown up with high end Japanese lures and all kinds of plastic creatures , might not know and are really missing out the opportunities of those great fishing plugs of yesteryear .

Greetz , diemai

[SmokeyJ]

Fantastic, Diemai. I love old topwaters, and it was a new technique to me that you can keep a bass oreno in place working it with flicks. I'll have to try my hand at that.

[diemai]

Fantastic, Diemai. I love old topwaters, and it was a new technique to me that you can keep a bass oreno in place working it with flicks. I'll have to try my hand at that.

Well , ........ALMOST in place , ...it would still move towards the angler , but just a very little bit , .........on a flick or little jerk from the wrist the angled and cupped nose would cause the lure to dart downward for one or two lengths , .....

..and when the line gets slack again the buoyant tail portion would let the lure dart back to the surface tail first , ......most likely AWAY from the angler or to the sides , ....never straight up or even towards the angler(this is why it remains at one spot for a longer period of time compared to other topwater plugs) .

If you want an even better stationary topwater action to tease a located fish to strike(or just an assumed one on a likely holding spot) , go for this one , ........but it's not that versatile in it's action , ....just pops the surface right on the spot :

http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/2691-curiosity/

http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/2692-curiosity/

Also made some different versions of the "Bass Oreno" , ...these do not dive as deep since they are more buoyant , also do not wiggle quite as lively due to the more voluminous tail end , ........BUT.... they do generate more noise , commotion and bubbles when flicked on the surface :

http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/2562-cuptails/

http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/gallery/image/2563-cuptails/

Thanks a lot for your interest , ........tight lines , Dieter

[SmokeyJ]

I'll definitely give these a try and let you know how they perform. I do have a couple questions; what wood do you usually use for these types of lures, and do they have any ballast? My thought was to use some red cedar as it is readily available to me.

[diemai]

I'll definitely give these a try and let you know how they perform. I do have a couple questions; what wood do you usually use for these types of lures, and do they have any ballast? My thought was to use some red cedar as it is readily available to me.

I'm turning these topwater plugs down from abache wood , quite commonly available in European lumberyards , .......but seems to be hard to find in the US(there has been a little discussion about it in here before) .

I'm also using broomsticks of an unknown tropical wood sometimes , a higher buoancy is essential for these plugs , .....but still not quite as high as balsa wood .

Not too familar with red cedar , but I just received a piece from a friend from Tennessee , .....also familiar to American pinewood , ...guess , both timbers are suitable , provided that they are the less denser kind , thus buoyant enough .

About the "Lucky13" and the "Bass Oreno" , ...as a rule of thumb , ......at rest on the surface about 1/3 to 2/5 of their body volume should still stick out of the water , refering to a fully painted lure rigged with all hardware .

The "Whirligig" hangs a bit deeper due to a more tapered body and more metal parts .

For some reason these plugs come to to float up about level automatically without any trimming nor added ballast , .......provided that the tails are not tapered too pronounced and keeping about relations between dia. and body length .

I have put up a video some time ago displaying how to make "Lucky13's" from round timber dowels without the use of a lathe , ........the bigger ones of local pinewood shown there did not perform too well , they simply came to hang too deep , that dowel was just too dense , ..........the others of previously mentioned broomsticks are perfect , ......see the final picture in the video , that is about the way they should float up for the optimum of popping and wiggling action , .......yet just a tad deeper is just fine too , improves the diving depth a bit !

I have found out very early in my luremaking career that putting any ballast into the bellies of such oldtime plugs with integrated diving planes somewhere on their heads does not do any good , but only slow down their wiggle .

I had tried to improve the diving depth to such plugs by adding ballast , but the outcome was disappointing , .......the plug dug down a tad deeper , but the typical kinda lazy wiggle drastically decreased .

These slant or cupped head portions simply do not generate the same leverage around the toweye like an added diving bill of plastic or metal does on a minnow type hardbait , .......thus such plugs can't handle any added ballast as much , .......the integrated diving plane even centered to the body simply can't evolve enough force to move belly weights either .

good luck , Dieter

Edited July 17, 2012 by diemai