...and I'm not talking about the paint chipping off, as that doesn't really bother me. You should see the hard plastic head on my "original" Castaic ! Hardly any paint left, but its still sticking fish !

What I'm talking about is that you will notice on many of the big wooden lures such as the MS Slammer, the eyelet on the nose of the lure, as well as the eyelets where the split rings for the hooks attach, are simply large woodscrews ! I guess if nobody has ever lost a fish due to one of these pulling out, in the history of this design, then it would be a moot point....... but has this ever happenned to any of you ? I can imagine that new and and in good condition they would be much stronger than the pressure put on them during a normal battle. But what if you acidentally bang the thing into a rock, or a dock, or a tree (which I think is inevitable if you throw the thing enough) and the screw is loosened ?

Is this a real concern ???

Fish

I've never once heard of the actual eyelet coming off a wood plug, be it a Slammer, AC or Generic. I did lose a 7lber once at Margarita to a bad split ring that got bent out. If you get one strong enough to pull the eye off, let me know!

I'm sure most of those baits have the most permanent threadlock available.

I don't think theres any doubt that if you bang a plug(wooden one for sure)off of rocks or whatever you are increasing your chance of something breaking or going wrong.I know woodchucker is hurting without his 9" slammer.The whole front section from the plastic lip forward came off.That was after bouncing it off a few different hard surfaces though.It's tough on those plugs being fished at night most of the time and your trying to get as close to structure as you can.But that's to be expected,wood is a good a great material to make lures from but not as forgiving as plastic for sure.I am going to definetly check out my plugs after every use or contact with a hard surface for cracks.


On kind of the same subject,does anyone coat there plugs(wood) with an extra sealant?I was thinking of repainting one of mine and I want a good thick,glossy coat of something over it.Any suggestions?

Thanks,Trever

Here are some things to think about regarding durability of the big lures.

If you bought a 20 dollar rubber swimbait and you caught 3 fish on it before it got so ripped that you couldn't use it, how would you feel?

If you bought a 30 dollar wood hardbait and caught 50 fish on it, but it got the paint scratched up, how would you feel?

If bought a 6 dollar crankbait and you bounced it off a dock and broke it in half, how would you feel?

If you bought a 30 dollar wood hardbait and bounced it off a dock and the bill broke, how would you feel?

If you bought a 20 dollar rubber swimbait and the harness ripped in half and you lost a big bass, how would you feel?

If you bought a Tady 45 surface iron and the fish ate the paint off after 3 trips, how would you feel?

My point is this. No lure is indestricutible, and more importantly, a big fishing lure that weighs a couple ounces, is much more likely to get trashed than a small one.

I have heard of a few Slammers getting the bill broken off when people bounced them off logs, docks and rocks. That suff happens, they aren't made of kryptonite! The diff is that when you crack your 6 dollar crankbait in half, it didn't cost as much money as the Slammer did. I've bounced my bait off of plenty of rocks without ever breaking one, but stuff happens ya know?

I also hear people complain that the paint gets scratched up on their Slammers. To that I would say ... have you ever seen a wood harbait that had a better more durable paint job? I haven't.

There aren't very many wood hardbait manufacturers left in the plug making biz these days, and the difficulties of making these baits is the reason. I mean really, who is left making wood baits? MS, AC and maybe Greg Silks with the Z-Plug ... That's it. No more Generic Trout, no more TNT, and no more Castaic Hardbait (most of which were hard plastic at the end anyway).

I know it hurts when you drop some big money for a lure and something happens to it. It's happened to me more than once. But let's keep things in perspective here ;-)

To the question about repainting with clear coat. I have tried a bunch of stuff and the only one that really kicked butt for me was Aristocrat. It's a two part epoxy, extremely clear and very thick. 2 coats, applied with a brush is good. You have to turn the bait every so often for about an hour while it sets up to keep it from dripping off the lure. Pat Cochran turned me on to this stuff. It's hard to find but it works well. I use it on all my Generic Harbaits. If you search on Google.com you can find some online stores that sell it. You might find it at Home Depot or a hardware store, or you might not. I can't find it in stores anywhere around here. It's pricey but good, and one set of bottles will do a couple dozen baits at least. There are some long discussions about this in the archives of the Trophy Board as well if you search the forum.

Thanks for the info on the opoxy Rob,I'll definetly look for it and give it a try.

As far as the durability of these big lures,your right nothing is indestructable and when you use them and occasionally mis-use them it's to be expected that they will start to show the wear and tear.I've also bounced my slammer off a few rocks and have'nt had a problem,not even a slight crack.Depends on where it makes contact on the bait I think.Overall the Ms Slammer is by far the best put together and quality big bait plug to own right now,in no way am I trying to knock it's durability.Maybe Mike should look into Kryptonite though ;-)

Talking about all this sure makes me want to go fish though...work sucks!!

To heck with the fishability....my osprey has one sweeeet lookin bounce ;)!!! I could probably win some kind of contest with the height i get off of some of my bounces. I guess its time to get a slammer, now that i know they wont crack in half when i smash em into rocks (dang lopez rocks!! lol).

Joel

I know of people who use devcon 2 ton epoxy on large wooden plugs for muskie fishing, and they claim that muskie cant put a mark on them. I have never used nor know where you can buy ths epoxy but you guys might want to check it out.

----
Andrew Giaconi
AndrewGiaconi@Basserman.com
http://www.Basserman.com

Also, the devcon 2 ton epoxy will not discolor the lure or change the look of the paint.

----
Andrew Giaconi
AndrewGiaconi@Basserman.com
http://www.Basserman.com

http://www.aftosa.com/dev1.html

Only reservation I would have is that it's an actual epoxy, rather than a finish. The aristocrat is actually meant to be a clear coat finish for tables and stuff, devcon seems to be a type of glue. Would probably be fine, but I wouldn't bet my generic trout on it ;-) Sometimes those epoxies can have pretty weird reactions with stuff.
-Brian

Talk to someone about it on the tacklemaking.com forums. Everything i have heard about it has been good from there.

EDIT: I heard people talking about thinning it before applying it as a top coat.

----
Andrew Giaconi
AndrewGiaconi@Basserman.com
http://www.Basserman.com

Thanks Andrew,i've got a few baits to paint and i'm going to try a few different things.Thinning it first might work out alot better too.

Thanks again..