Is there a Doctor in the house

[Bait O' Eggs]

At first I didnt notice the problem, then all of a sudden I found myself out in the garage making tuna gear in my pajamas. I have never been tuna fishing and I already have quite a few jigs

Today I made up a couple dozen :shocked: cedar plugs and got the base color on the jigs. I painted the blue one below and was not happy with the results and ordered a better airbrush so I could improve my quality.

Please help me, I think I have tuna fever!!!!!!


Here are the cedar plugs mostly unpainted (a few in the back have a base color on them)




All of them are painted here with a base color




This is the only one I have the scales painted over the base coat




Tuna feathers, I have one rotating on one of my rod drying motors as the finish dries. The rest are watching

[OceanBlue]

Oh Nooooooo... someone help BOE before it's too late..

Naw, nevermind! He'd never forgive us!

Leave some of your cedar plugs natural :smile:

[corrirod]

Leave some of your cedar plugs with me. :tongue:

[Mark Mc]

Hey BOE, I'm sure you could get a few folks to do the "R & D" for ya. How about making up some shorties (4 inches)? Also, can you do a dark purple, with a little black on the back? Good going! - Mark

[Mr. Fisherman]

Have you checked them for balance yet?
They will tend to run favoring one side up, not sure if it makes a difference or not but I read an article that stated that you should check the plugs if possible before you buy them as the ones that run right out fish the others significantly. Is it true? I'd be happy to run a federally funded research project to find out... :grin:

By the way, you are planning to bring some of this surplus tackle Halibut fishing right?

Drop me a line...

[Pilar]

Roy, you amaze me.

Like MarkMc said, try a smaller, say 4" model. I never see them in a smaller size and I think smaller might work better.

Do the jigs still have 3 eyes?

[Bait O' Eggs]

No self respecting fish catching jig only has 2 eyes You told me the eye was important so I figure 3 must be better than 2 and make the jig 3 sided so there is always an eye pointed in the direction of the fish

shorter plugs would be a lot easier so I guess I now gotta make a batch of little guys. Will making a batch of shorter plugs make me better? I think I feel a fix coming soon

next I will be making plugs out of hemlock, fir, redwood, birch, alder, maple ..... to see which one fishes better [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img] At least I have room to run with the addiction. Wait till I post a picture of the plug with the golden eyes I ordered, inset in the lead head. [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

[Uglygreen]

Purple is the #1 color... Don't see any purple?

UG

[Miss B Haven]

Purple- we don't need no stinking purple! Don't forget Mexican Flag guys- one of the tops! Keta scored on ebay this weekend!

[Bait O' Eggs]

UG - their is purple paint on the counter, I planned on paiting purple scales over the black plugs,

I should paint a plug purple and put a black scale on it. maybe just leave it plain, maybe....

was going to put green scales on the yellow plugs, and yellow scales on the green plugs, wasnt sure which way would look better.

Dont ask me why I painted some flourescent orange, it just looks fishy to me

Still playing with the paint, I just figured out how to make and put he plugs together in a reasonable amount of time.

I wonder how feathers off the cedar plug would look [img]graemlins/idea.gif[/img]

[Miss B Haven]

BOE- latest thing I saw in the catalogue (Offshore Anglers/Boaters World) is a Sea Stricker cedar plug with a skirt off the back. The ones I saw had a pretty long skirt (6-8 inches?). Don't think I want that with the hook clear up in the plug. But.... it would sure be easy to slip an Octopus Hoochie up over the bottom of that plug. Say a 4-5 inch hoochie with 2-3 inches squeezed up over the plug!

PS- you pull any of those cedars around in the river at 7 knots or so yet? They should dance like a man with his hair on fire. :shocked: [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img] :grin:

Stop me before I EBAY Again.

Left batch are 12" and I got them for $11.05
Right batch is mixed with 2 smaller Zookers for $15.71

[ 04-29-2003, 09:26 AM: Message edited by: Keta ]

[edsr]

BOE - Those look great! Where are you getting the lead heads from? Do you have any idea how much they weigh? How are you attaching the lead to the heads?

I turned several from white oak last night that are about the size of a commercial plug that BaitBoy loaned me, approx. 6" but don't have a source for the heads.

edsr

[edsr]

BOE - Yes, would like to get some heads from you and get together to make up a mold. Do you want some oak bodies? I don't know how these will fish - if there would be any difference between cedar and the oak - anyway let me know

edsr

[Bait O' Eggs]

ED, I made a mold for the lead heads and pour them myself. Making the tools to make the pieces is almost as much fun as making the lure. You just gotta figure out an economical way to do make the pieces. :smile:

I am using 90 second epoxy to glue the heads to the body. Thought about some reinforcing between the two pieces but they seem to be strong enough without any.

I would guess my lead head is about an ounce maybe a little more. I never got around to weighing them. I can tell you they are about 0.6 inches in diameter without checking.

Making the heads is the quick part, if you want some heads let me know, we can pour you up some from my mold. If you want to make your own mold I can show you how to make one in about 15 minutes complete, that will probably do 100 + pours before it falls apart.

BoE,
Plaster mold?

[Nofish]

BoE,
Boy, I think I must have come down with the same disease. Do you think maybe you could put together at "how to make a mold" presentation for this discussion board? Your stuff looks great by the way. Cheers...Nofish

[Bait O' Eggs]

Here is a pictorial on how to make a mold to pour lead.

First you need a template for the tuna plugs, I used a piece of 5/8 round stock that I shaped the nose in a bullet shape with a grinder. The line on the template is how far I placed it in the autobody bondo which is the body of the mold.


This next picture is the template next to the finished mold that has had the center heated up a few times from using it.


this is a photo of the set up prior to pouring a head


Here is the mold with the lead poured into it, I placed a piece of 1/8 inch stainless rod in the mold prior to pouring the lead, this makes the hole thru the head once I pull it out.


Here is the head with the lead removed from the mold but I have not slid out the stainless rod yet.


Here is a lathed up body that has not been sanded yet, I pre drill the hole thru the body before lathing it, then I put the centers on each end of the lathe into the predrilled hole, this keeps the hole down the center, if you try to drill the hole after it is lathed into shape, you may have a hole out of the side of the body rather than the ends


And that is how I made up the cedar plugs. And be sure and put some lubricant like cooking pam or 10-40 oil on the template before you cast it in the bondo or you will never get it out. This mold has poured probaby 30 heads in the photos and it still has a lot of life in it. When pouring to many at a time the mold gets hot and the center turns black and pieces start to flake off, I could easily get a 100 heads out of this mold before the heads started getting significantly bigger due to an increased hole size from the mold burning and flaking. The bondo does smoke a little on each pour when the hot lead is poured in it

[Miss B Haven]

OK BOE- what's that plug layin' there with the ridges turned in it? Got an idea do we ? :grin:

[Bait O' Eggs]

Mel, I wouldnt pull a fast one on you

You will see that same plug painted yellow in the first picture at the top of the thread, and you will also see a couple other shapes in those first few pictures Airbrush should arrive tomorrow then I can pretty these babies up [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img]

[edsr]

MissB - Y'all gots sharp eyes. Bet those grooves will blow a lot of bubbles.

edsr