Building a Mahogany Needlefish

[Stripercoast1]

1st, 1 1/2 inch square blank in the centers
2nd, Brought to round
3rd, Head and body shaped
4th, eel skin groove cut and body finish sanded

[Stripercoast1]

5th, ready for through drill on the drill press
6th, through drill successfull, Mahogany is 1 of the hardest woods to do this with. The grain will push the bit, and sometimes cause it to pop out the side.
7th, using an 1/8 inch bit through drill the eye locations.
8th, 1/2 inch eye bore

[VSdreams]

Wow, nice, can't wait to see the finished pics!

[Stripercoast1]

Boring the weight holes, this will be a sinker so the bores are 1/2 inch.
Next is the bore for the hook swivle, I locate this directly under the eye as I believe Bass target the eye when they hit.
Then come cutting the squares from the ends.
Boring the tail weight location in the jig
Bottom picture has 3 needles in differant stages of completion. Lower is a 12 inch floating Super Needle, ready for the primer and paint stages.
Middle is the floating version of the one in the tutorial, note the smaller weight bores.
Top is the one in the series ready for a bath in a 50/50 cut of Denatured alchohol and soar varnish. After it is dried it gets the weighting, and a high grade exterior wood filler. After sanding its ready for paint

[Stripercoast1]

finished product

[speedy]

finished product

nicely dun bro

[jigfreak]

Great step by step instruction, thanks for showing us.
About how long does it take you to do a needlefish from start to finish?

[finchaser]

Very nice work

[Stripercoast1]

About how long does it take you to do a needlefish from start to finish?

I usually batch them in lots of 10 to 15 per size.
This makes lathe time and every step a little faster.
If I went start to finsh 1 at a time, without consideration for time for sealer to dry, I would say 1 hour total labor time. I also dry my paint coats with a hair dryer set on high heat low air flow. E-tex is probably the most time consuming step, as I dont use a spinner and use the hang, flip and drip method. I can do way more plugs at one sitting this way. The spinner I used before could handle 15 at a time. I generally do 30 at once now.

Metal lip series coming soon, with theories on setting up a plug body for differant actions by using differant weighting options and lip sizes.

[surfstix1963]

Very nice work and tutorial Thanks.

[crosseyedbass]

It is amazing to see the product go from start to finish. Thanks for sharing.

[DarkSkies]

Nice pics and attached descriptions Ed. I think when ya post up like that, it makes it less intimidating for the new guys who are thinking about jumping in but aren't quite sure how to go about it.

Thanks for sharing with us!

[albiealert]

Nice work. Do you make them from any other wood than mahogany. I'm assuming the heavier wood makes them hard to stay on top? You did say the 12" one was a floating one, though. How do they float in the water as opposed to something made of cedar?

[Stripercoast1]

I like the mahogany for its density and ease of weighting. It is also a very durable wood when it comes to the water.
I weight the floaters to be submerged by 3/4 meaning most of the plug is just below the surface and floats level. In fact I weight my sinkers to do the same, they sink with a natural horizontal attitude.
Slow steady retrieve brings them in on a straight line track, the deadliest feature of a horizontal attitude is when you twitch the tip, it acts like a spook, both on top and below surface with the sinkers.
Ever watch a school of needles?
Dark you remember that night?

[DarkSkies]

^^ Yup, I can remember it like it was yesterday, Ed. You're one of the few people that can catch a needlefish by hand in the dark. Amazing talent.

[cowherder]

Very nice work, thanks for sharing!

[speedy]

finished product

that is a great pic