The Surfwalker Challenge.....Do you Follow the Herd, or Lead your Own Way????

[DarkSkies]

Lastly are the ones I carry the most, the dented, chipped, rewired, waterlogged, and repainted, but they still perform and run pretty true, and produce.
What I'm getting at is- Do you fix up your old plugs or just throw them into a box, or do you fill in the hook holes and repair them, repaint them, have faith in them. Your old dull metals- Do you cover them with reflective tape or anything? Your new plastics are they sprayed with some clear before the first use? Am I just cheap or a hate to let go person?

I'm that way too, surfwalker.

Old reliable plugs I keep around because each one has a story to tell, to me. As I pick it up I remember if I had a nice fish on it, and re-live that fight. Just like a trusted old bird-dog or beagle that has brought many a prize back to the hunter, these plugs have served me well.

If they were junk in the first place, I'm ok to get rid of them during the winter. The good producers I'll sand down and re-paint, put new VMCs on them and split rings.

The metals I use something called "Magic Wadding" to shine them up, it's like lambswool with a metal cleaner soaked into the fibers, works pretty good. You can also dress up the metal spoons by gluing red beady eyes on them, that works sometimes too.

As for the plastics, I tend to use them as is, but a neat trick is to scuff them up a bit with fine sandpaper and spray the old ones chartreuse, black, or bright yellow, 3 colors that have produced well. I also like to swap out the rear treble on a lot of my magnum bomber types with a single bucktail siwash.

I met a guy a few years ago in MoCo, and old salt who's not too much into the newest styles of anything.

This guy not only made his own wooden plugs, he took all the plastic ones we use...bombers, redfins, magdarters, ets, and made them better, either with paint, bb's, or some modification. I was drooling as I looked over the weatherbeaten old army issue green canvas container he was using as a plug bag, and all the custom mods he made with these basic plugs.

[surfwalker]

Yeah, all my old wood is redone, sanded, painted, new hardware and stuff. Don't get me wrong, I do use new stuff too. My old plastics have been repainted. I'll have to try that magic stuff on the metals, right now I just put some Witchcraft tape on them. Old Army green (sometimes black) bags- all I use. I usually do these things in the off months, blowing off any painting or leaks that have to be done in the house.
Dark, why arn't you out there, there's some good stories waiting to happen.

Happy Trails

[vpass]

Has anyone ever painted there tins black and used them at night. I have a bunch of bluefish destroyed tins that lost their luster and thinking of painting them black. What do you guys think?

[voyager35]

Black tins are good for bass in the rips at night. Paint em black.

[storminsteve]

Has anyone ever painted there tins black and used them at night. I have a bunch of bluefish destroyed tins that lost their luster and thinking of painting them black. What do you guys think?

I always wanted to try that and see if they produce better. I am going to make a note to do it for the next new moon.
This morning I fished a small ava oo7 in the dark and caught some cocktail blues. Would love to think that with all the small bait around there are a few bass that would take it. Keeping the hope alive.