Surf Plugology
Metal Lip Swimmers, Plastic Lip Minnows, Needlefish, Darters, Topwaters and More

By Russ Bassdozer

This story provides information on striper surf plugs that were used during the heyday of striper surf fishing in the Northeast. Striper surf fishing hit its peak from the mid-seventies to the mid-eighties, which is about how long these plugs have been in storage. Many of these plugs are over twenty-five years old. Most are no longer made. This is a collection of plugs that you cannot normally buy off a tackle shop wall any more. I have guarded these closely, but feel it’s time to open the treasure chest, the spoils of saltwater campaigns, and share the booty with other surf anglers and plug collectors who may appreciate hearing about some of these legacies, thereby keeping the fascination of surf lore and surf lure collecting alive and handed down from generation to generation.

Before we get on to the actual lures, let’s tarry a bit upon what was happening with surf fishing back then. It was the heyday, the golden age of this sport. There was great fishing all up and down the striper coast, and there were great striper anglers dispersed along the coast also. These were guys who plied sections of New Jersey, the west end of Long Island, the western Sound, the Connecticut side of Long Island Sound, Montauk, and Point Judith and Jamestown, Rhode Island to name a few of the more proactive angler areas. Even the Cape Cod Canal was a different culture and group than the Cape Cod Outer beach gangs, of which there were several. There were maybe 2-3 dozen key guys – point persons shall we say – who came into play. In most cases, these guys were the proactive agents in surf clubs or the heavy hitters among gangs of surf anglers. Usually, they were associated with a group, held a high reputation within a region, even if they were only known to a bunch who fished together within that region. Mostly, these were isolated theaters of bass fishing, yet some of the top guys traveled around or got to know their peers in other regions. A few truly became luminaries, legends, shining stars of surfdom, and had camps of followers, almost entourages. So when I say 2-3 dozen guys up and down the coast, they are really like the representatives of 2-3 dozen clubs or gangs or tribes of guys.

Now, the Cape – Cape Cod – was a Mecca, a magnet that attracted the best and brightest – and most all of the hot shots strung along the coast line – these guys made pilgrimages to journey to the holy sands of Cape Cod. The Cape always had great fishing – but it never reached mind-blowing proportions until the mid-seventies, and it truly became the surf fishing equivalent of Camelot for a brief and shining moment in the late seventies. But prior to the mid-seventies, the Cape was more of a casual thing, more of an avid angler’s vacation retreat – and more of an individual or family thing versus a large group or surf clan kind of thing.

By the mid-seventies, when the sand eels and the super-run of cows came to the Cape, all that was to change. The run of fish on the Cape beaches in the late seventies was

unprecedented. It had never been seen on the Cape beaches before nor since. All of the disassociated surf fishing groups up and down the coast, they all tightened up, all started coming up to the Cape in hordes to get in on that run. The Cape beaches for the spring and fall runs in the late seventies, all the East Coast’s best surfcasters were shoulder-to-shoulder on the Cape. The network and information flow tightened up in the bass world of that time. Down the coast, there were 2-3 dozen guys up at the top of the striper kingdom. They knew what was going on, they had the connections in the Cape from their earlier trips or vacations, but they also had groups, clubs or gangs they belonged to, and the word would go down the grapevine within hours. As soon as guys got off the beach and aired up their beach buggy tires, the calls were going out, down the whole coast. Western Union telegraphs couldn’t transmit information that fast. By nine in the morning, people who didn’t know you, never met you, they knew what you caught that night, even before you had breakfast – and they could be on the beach shoulder-to-shoulder with you by dinner time. If you made a good catch somewhere on Thursday night, there’d be an armada of buggies that drove up from every state on the coast to be there Friday night. In time, it all became intertwined, it became massive – because the fish were huge and available in large quantities. Guys who maybe didn’t know each other, they knew about each other. They knew what each other was doing in terms of fish and tactics. It became intense, fanatical. Hundreds of the East coast’s best surf anglers were there. Forties. Fifties. Fish of a lifetime were being caught by the hundreds every night during the peak of the run. The Holy Grail was achievable to almost anyone who made the trip. Everyone wanted in on it.

It was short-lived and lasted only a few seasons. It has not happened before or since – except at Block Island. At the same time as the epic run of super-cows was to abruptly come to a halt on Cape Cod, there was equal or better fishing discovered on Block Island. Unlike Cape Cod, Block Island was not a traditional mecca of pilgrimage for surf anglers. Historically, the Cape was famous whereas the Block was unknown. However, the presence of locust-like swarms of sand eels and an abundance of huge super-cows literally encircling Block Island was discovered by myself and two friends as we journeyed home from the Cape one fall. The Cape fishing had been cut short by a powerful hurricane that flattened the sand bars, points and bowls that were holding bait and bass on the Cape’s beaches. The hurricane blew all the Cape’s cow bass out to sea. There was no way we could know it then, but that was practically the final curtain call for the Cape Cod super-cow run. Sure, the cows came back to rally for one last hurrah or two. But by and large, it was the end of Cape Cod’s legendary run. Not even a shadow of a run of such magnitude has happened on Cape Cod since then. Of course there was no way we could know that then. All we knew was that season ended way too soon for us, due to the hurricane. We were just not ready to quit yet.

We journeyed to Block Island and stumbled off the ferry into an incredible run of super-cows. The first few seasons of this run were by far the best and the peak years of this run. At first, Block Island was largely undiscovered and unfished by the crowds. There were a handful of island residents, a handful of mainlanders coming over, and us – a handful of close-knit, tight-lipped New Yorkers. Few others ever got wind of what was happening on Block Island until years later. The main focus up and down the coast continued to be the run at Cape Cod, which was petering out (although no one wanted to admit that was what was happening). Everyone kept going to the Cape, hoping it wasn’t over, anticipating the cows would come back. The cows never did.

Meanwhile, the run of super-cows on Block Island was incredible, and few anglers ever got clued into it. Within a few seasons of our fishing Block Island with only a handful of residents and mainlanders, the Block Island run became widespread knowledge among many of Rhode Island’s mainland surf anglers. Hordes of Rhode Island anglers started to spend as much time as possible on Block Island. A few were mavericks or independents. The majority of Rhode Islanders fishing Block Island were associated with two to three large surf gangs of twenty to forty anglers each.

Within another season or two, cadres of Montauk anglers became aware of and started to make the journey to Block Island, since there was a ferry connection, as Block Island is only thirty miles offshore from Montauk Point. At first, it was only a skeleton crew of pioneering Montauk anglers. From the cliffs atop Southwest Point on Block Island to the parking lot below the Montauk Lighthouse on a clear night, furtive CB radio reports could be transmitted from beach buggies on the island to beach buggies across the water. Soon, more and more diehard Montauk anglers would make the trip across to Block. Except for these two main contingents of anglers from Rhode Island and Montauk, other angler factions up and down the coast never really got in on the Block Island run to the same degree that they capitalized upon the run in Cape Cod. In fact, many surf anglers who became coastal legends on Cape Cod never made it to Block Island at all. By the mid-eighties, Block Island was petering out also. The super cows disappeared back into the sea from whence they came, and have never been seen in the surf again.

Between the mid-seventies to the mid-eighties, between Cape Cod and Block Island, it was the heyday of striper surf fishing. Now let us proceed on to the striper surf plugs which were legendary in that day. Please enjoy.

Surface Swimmers

This is the largest and heaviest of the three sizes of Danny’s Surface Swimmer. To me, it was the most productive of the three sizes, due to its magnetism to pull large-sized bass to the surface.

In terms of Danny’s plugmaking timeline, the Surface Swimmer was one of the earliest of Danny Pichney’s plug styles, along with the Conrad and Danny’s Darter. Those three were among Danny’s earliest and most successful plugs.

Danny’s Surface Swimmer was best for me leaving a wake right on the surface. It left quite a disturbance in its wake, and many large bass would take it right off the surface, ranging from hardly-visible slurps to voracious end-over-end surface explosions. This lure was a very stable swimmer and would perform equally well under a variety of conditions ranging from calm to high surf and from weak to strong currents.

Of course this plug would work at night. What was of great value with this plug, however, was its ability to raise sulking fish during daylight. Few other lures could raise fish as well during the daytime. If fish were known to be in an area, waiting for the night to feed, you could repeatedly throw Danny’s Surface Swimmer Sr. over them and ultimately draw tumultuous strikes from non-feeding fish. Such daytime situations were when Danny’s Surface Swimmer (and not much else) was at its very best.

This is truly a topwater lure. Tuned properly, it was hard to drive it under the surface, and it would not stay submerged too long. It stayed right on the surface. At times it was most exciting to see fish follow behind it and give their presence away by subtle swirls on the surface behind it. I felt they stalked it sometimes. If you were attentive and knew what to look for, it was characteristic the moment immediately before a strike to see the dorsal spikes and tail go erect, rising through the surface like the conning tower of a submarine. If you could see the the spikes come up, it was almost always a sign of commitment. Very rarely would they go back down. In that instant, the explosive strike would come as the fish unfurled all its raw power at the plug.

At the end of a long night at first light, when a flurry of daybreak action started to wane on most other lures, you could switch to this one and keep on catching into the mid-morning hours. It was “the” lure I’d go to after daybreak in order to keep on catching.

After sleeping all day, awaking in the late afternoon with the golden light of the sun going down, this was a great plug to begin the new night, using it to cover expansive flats as bass filtered up to raid bait pods in the shallows every dusk, often in only a couple feet of water. During the mullet run, this blue mullet color was exceptional on the shallow beaches, jetty pockets and bayside flats where huge bass would come right up onto shore to get at mullet pods harbored in inches of water.

Danny’s Surface Swimmer Sr. behaved a bit awkward and flighty when thrown on conventional gear. Although passable on conventional, it cast exceptionally, like a football rifled deep into the end zone, with heavy spinning gear. Whatever unbalance and waffling occurred casting on conventional, it all got ironed out and it acted like a rocket launched on heavy spinning gear.

Danny Pichney was a machinist and mechanic by trade, working for Con Edison power company. He was an incredible striped bass angler. Danny could not get the plugs with the actions and durability he desired, which inspired him to create his own plugs – so he could fish with the exact plugs he desired. In the beginning, Danny faced many obstacles – getting the lips correct, discovering how to through-wire plugs correctly – and shaping and weighting them to appear natural in the water. Obviously, Danny surmounted all the obstacles he faced, and Danny became one of the greatest plugmakers of all time.

Working in wood, Danny Pichney’s craftsmanship normally displays manufacturing, finishing and natural blemishes in the wood. These small manufacturing and natural marks in many ways enhance the appeal of the lure, making it more like custom-crafted fishing folk art (which I feel they are) rather than having the look of mass-produced commercial items.

The lures listed here were acquired directly from Danny Pichney approximately twenty-five years ago, more or less.

Special Supplement of Danny Pichney Plug Photos: Click here to see a showcase of nineteen models and eighty-four unique color/model instances in one of the largest remaining Danny Pichney plug collections in the world. There are at least a dozen more models and other paint patterns by Danny are not part of this particular collection.
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Donny made at least two sizes of his Surface Swimmer. This is the largest and heaviest size. Its surface-thrashing commotion worked like a a magnet to draw large striped bass to the surface.

Donny’s Surface Swimmer was best for me leaving a wake right on the surface. It had more of a struggling, flopping, helpless movement versus many other brands of surface swimmers. Whereas other surface swimmers could at times be hustled along as if a healthy albeit disoriented baitfish waking the surface, I tended to present Donny’s Surface Swimmer Senior more as a wounded baitfish not able to right itself flopping on the surface. This often meant a more subtler and slower presentation than other surface swimmers – just lingering there, gills gasping in its last moments before being engulfed into a cavernous maw.

Donny’s Surface Swimmer had more of an antagonizing slow-motion, wide-swinging action. More of a baitfish that couldn’t swim – just flop and thrash on the surface. That was the action I’d try to cultivate with this wood puppet. It was often the surface swimmer I opted for on calmer daybreaks or when there was rippled water as opposed to white water.

I’d often use other, faster-moving surface swimmers when bass were up, roaming and actively feeding. In between or after such flurries, bass would go down to regroup, re-energize, gain their composure, maybe stop feeding. As surface feeding frenzies tailed off and stopped, bass below would not come back up for more active surface plugs – but they would come up for slower, subtler ones. I raised a lot of bass, sometimes dozens more, by applying this tactic at the end of feeding sprees with Donny’s Surface Swimmer whereas other anglers could not raise another fish.

In order to bring out the action I desired in this plug, I’d do something different than with other surface swimmers. In this case, I would bring out longer, slower movements of the plug, and I desired to see the entire side of Donny’s Surface Swimmer roll and come out of the water on every zig or zag. I’d use the rod tip to help swing the tail of the plug as far forward as the head on each swing. This takes some practice, and an adept rod tip held high. Line tension to start the side roll momentum, and slack to let the tail coast forward. I would try to make this happen in slow motion so Donny’s Surface Swimmer kind of hangs there between each zig or zag. The whole plug should move side to side – not just the nose or tail as with other surface swimmer presentations. It looks very much like a dying fish. This slow, sweeping tactic keeps Donny’s swimmer just hanging helplessly pinned on the surface. It draws sulking bass out – just hanging there so long it infuriates bass to come up top to belt it.

Fish tended to violently explode on it from underneath without warning as opposed to following or trailing it. This unexpected and violent explosion unnerved many anglers who would choke on the hookset by reacting sharply – pulling it away from the bass. You had to have nerves of cold steel. You need to pretend absolutely nothing is happening – that it’s an uneventful walk in the park. Meanwhile your swimmer is under a hail of deadly fire. Never stop the zigzag action of the plug even when a bass is cartwheeling all over it. When bass hit a surface-thrashing bait, they often miss it. That’s part of the reason the initial strike may be so unexpected and explosive. The bass is just lashing out blindly, hoping to shock, stun and wound the bait. If it gets a grip on it, fine. If not, the bass intends to wheel around and continue the attack until successful. I do not think the bass can clearly see it because of all the surface disturbance. They usually miss it. If you keep zigzagging, they will belt you two, three, four times until you finally feel solid weight on the rod tip…and the bass is on! If you can do this, and not pull on the bass until it pulls on you, you will be in for a fight. The bass won’t stop until it has the plug in its mouth – unless you swing first. Then you will fan and put the fish back down.

Working in wood, Donny Musso’s craftsmanship may display manufacturing, finishing and natural blemishes in the wood. These small manufacturing and natural marks in many ways enhance the appeal of the lure, making it more like custom-crafted fishing folk art (which I feel they are) rather than having the look of mass-produced commercial items.

The lures listed here were acquired directly from Donny Musso approximately twenty-five years ago, more or less.
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Danny Pichney made at least three sizes of Danny’s Surface Swimmer as shown. This is the middle, most commonly-used medium size. Most all swimming plugs of this approximate “medium” size were tagged in the vernacular of the beach as the Junior (Jr.) size, no doubt a slang reference to similarity in body length to the Atom Manufacturing Company’s Atom Junior swimmer. The colloquial naming convention was that most all swimmers of any origin that were of the medium Atom Junior size were referred to as Junior (Jr.) model sizes.

In terms of Danny’s plugmaking timeline, the Surface Swimmer was one of the earliest of Danny Pichney’s plug styles, along with the Conrad and Danny’s Darter. Those three were among Danny’s earliest and most successful plugs.

Of Danny’s three Surface Swimmer sizes, his largest size Surface Swimmer Sr. excelled for jumbo bass 15 lbs and up. On the other end of the spectrum, his very smallest size Surface Swimmer was relatively rarely used, except in a back bay, estuary or light tackle beach environment. It appealed best to pre-migratory schoolies predominantly under 5 lbs and was a light tackle plug.

This medium-sized Surface Swimmer Jr. caught everything in between the other two sizes. I’d say this medium size Surface Swimmer is the single most well-known and famous of all Danny Pichney plugs. In the years since Danny’s passing, I’ve seen several commercial and fine hobbyist versions of this plug yet I dare say few perfections. This lure is the classic surface swimmer color too – all white. I’d argue an all white topwater (by day) can work equally well as any other topwater color most of the time. There was rarely an incentive for me to tie on other than all white topwaters most days. Proper action with an all white could usually command attention. Danny Pichney was a strong proponent of adding a reddish pink splash under the chin as a strike enticement.

There were a multitude of brands and models of swimming plugs that all worked well under cover of darkness. I generally preferred such other subsurface swimmers at night. Danny’s Surface Swimmer Jr. is a true topwater lure, used most often by me between false dawn and first dark. Few other swimming plugs could perform daytime duties like it. Most often I would use it for close-in infighting tight in heavy cover – jetties, sand bars, weed beds, shellfish beds, rock beds, piling, piers, sunken barges, wrecks – anything and everything that could hold a bass by day. If I had confidence a bass was there, repeatedly waking Danny’s Surface Swimmer as close as possible practically touching the cover would eventually raise a fin for me. Even after several dozen repeated casts over the same piece of cover, I had high confidence that the next cast could be the one when Danny’s Surface Swimmer Jr. would raise a bass to the top. Whether the plug just became irritating after a while or what, it worked that way. Persistence on my part as a plugger was paramount to success with this plug for me. Almost every piece of cover could and would have bass sulking on it, and it was just a matter of not giving up casting too soon. To say Danny’s Surface Swimmer Jr. holds a special place in my heart is true. It’s rewarding after forty-five minutes of plugging the same piece of cover, to see a bronze back crest the surface behind the plug.

Tremendous eye-to-lure orchestration was important to breathe life into this wood puppet. Every infinitesimal nuance of flow and ebb tugging at the plug had to be instantly addressed and played to the hilt – all visually. You needed to lose yourself in the visual contact and become the plug you saw. Like seeing yourself in a dream. Maximizing the time caught rising up the curl of a wave, shooting the tube was a high percentage strike point. Often body-surfing bass would materialize behind or beside the skittering plug, backlit by the sun in the see-through translucent curl. There’s nothing like a sheening majesty suddenly poked a third it’s body, head and shoulders out of a curler to the side of a plug, eying it up with a one-eyed glance as it surfs the wave’s force in beside the plug, bending it’s body around halfway out of the curler ahead of it, as the curler brings the plug toward the marvel now waiting suspended ahead, with only its powerful broad tail balancing it in the wave. Otherwise, you had to get the plug to climb on top of the whitewater and riding forward, like a surfer, so it didn’t wipe out, toss and tumble, which was a low percentage strike point. If you could keep it surfing, you could scuttle it across the creamy pure white topping as a wave broke, gusting the smell of freshly-churned sea foam at you as the wave collapsed in a heaving uproar on the berm.

In a crashing surf, I’d often wait for a foam carpet to cast into. By foam carpet, I mean a wave that breaks and bubbles for a distance as it comes in, essentially transforming the surface momentarily into a creamy carpet of foam. Keeping in mind, this was cover fishing, I’d wait till the wave and therefore the foam was just about to begin to carpet the outer edge of the cover. I’d have the cast in the air and the plug land just when and where the carpet began to be pulled over the cover, then wake it through the milky foam carpet, which was often the most productive moment to raise a strike under cover of the frothy foam carpet. The carpet did not last long, but dissipated in under a minute – and only one out of every so many waves produced such a foam carpet. So timing was essential.

Tuning a Danny Surface Swimmer was more trial-and-error and more time-consuming than most other plugs. You had to evaluate bending both eye and lip up and down over a wide range of angles with Danny’s Surface Swimmers, seeking the exact eye and lip angle that most made the plug look alive. Each plug came down to a judgment call. The angles you were satisfied bending one could vary noticeably from another. Bending the eye down and the lip down created a shallower, wider wallowing roll, skating across the surface. Bending the eye up and the lip up created a quicker side-to-side bustling wake, head down bulging barely under the surface, pushing water in a tight vee wake. Best action would be when the plug looked the most natural and alive as opposed to swimming mechanical and wooden. Often, the plug was pre-tuned in calm, slow water when not fishing, and final tuning was based on water and sweep during actual usage.

Usually a pair of 2/0 #35517 trebles were put on the belly. On plugs that wouldn’t tune well, a 3/0 head hook needed to be tried too. Since bass have a habit of missing a surface swimmer, and often crash it from behind, I liked a 2/0 #35517 tail treble enhanced with sparse bucktail as opposed to a single hook at rear.

Forties

This is the largest and heaviest of at least three sizes that Danny Pichney made of this wood swimmer. In the vernacular of the beach, it was dubbed “Danny’s Forty”. No doubt a slang reference to its similarity to the Atom Manufacturing Company’s Atom Forty Swimmer.

To me, it was the most productive of the three sizes that Danny made of these swimmers, and accounted for a lot of large-sized bass in its day. By adjusting the line tie and metal lip angle, this plug could be made to swim from right under the surface in calm, flat conditions to approximately 6 feet deep (or more) in rips. Many large bass would take it. This lure was very stable and would perform equally well under a variety of conditions ranging from calm to high surf and from weak to strong currents. Worked as well by day as night.

Danny’s Forty came standard with 4/0 #35517 trebles, but 5/0’s all the way around were not beyond consideration when cow bass were the quarry. The preferred tune on this plug was to bend the line eye slightly up and to slightly bend the lip upward also.

A favorite method of super sharpies was to tie an eelskin completely over it, lashing it down onto the metal lip plate where it went into the wood body, bigging up the two belly hooks to 5/0’s for swimming stability and leaving the tail hook off. Most guys wouldn’t make the effort to do this, yet the eelskin cloak accounted for some of the very largest bass caught on this plug.

Some of Danny’s other plugs – Surface Swimmers, Darters, Trollers, Conrads and Slope Heads – had been around a long time before Danny first made any of these Forties. I recall when Danny Pichney’s Forties were considered  to be “new” model lures by the beach crowd – about twenty-five years ago. So these Forty swimmers are not as old or classic models as some of Danny’s other plugs (Surface Swimmers, Darters, Trollers, Conrads, Slope Heads).

Speaking of Danny’s established lure models, Danny’s “signature” color pattern as far as I recall it are:

1. WHITE – All white. Pink chin splash.
2. HERRING – Pale blue back. Pink sides. White belly. Danny Pichney was the first (as I recall it) to make a herring pattern. Other plug makers duplicated the herring pattern in time.
3. MULLET – Royal blue back. Silver sides. White belly. Pink chin splash. Danny Pichney was a strong proponent of a red or pink chin splash as a strike inducement.
4. RAINBOW – Royal blue back over silver over orange over yellow sides. Cream white belly.

The above four are Danny’s “classic” colors I recall. Not all Danny’s plugs were common in every color. For instance it would be rare to see Danny’s Surface Swimmer in Herring color. Why not? I do not know.

Yellow with red chin splash was a fifth staple color produced by Danny, but preferred more toward the east end of Long Island and Montauk as opposed to other areas. Of course, being a custom crafter, Danny Pichney would make special runs of any requested color. From one season to the next too, Danny would get into his own changing trends of seasonal run color patterns – but the four above were Danny’s time-tested and classic stock signature colors. It’s reasonable to say, however, that any other original Danny Pichney plug colors you may come across are less common colors – and fewer plugs were produced by Danny in colors other than the above four.

The white color pattern is arguably the most productive wooden surf plug color of all time. I do believe all-white surf plugs (with or without secondary color accent markings) produce more bass than all other colors combined together. Second place behind all-white as an all-time producer are blue/white wooden surf plugs. The blue/white category includes: 1) medium, dark, royal or navy blue, and 2.) light, baby, steel or powder blue (with or without optional secondary color accents).

White was the primary productive color for many bass trips. Yet Danny’s other blue-backs (Herring, Mullet, Rainbow) each held their own. Since white was so good – and blues were also good – it was often difficult to determine which one would be the preferred color for any given trip?

They’re all top fish catchers and I found that I’d always be experimenting, switching back and forth between the four colors, looking for it to make a difference. So I’d be using say the mullet and doing well with it, yet still wanting to try the white or herring or rainbow to see if I couldn’t entice an extra fish or two into bashing that.

At times it didn’t seem to matter at all. Other times, it appeared as if one would be favored over another. Many times, it wasn’t clear whether this favoritism was real on the part of the bass – or was it just my own confidence or luck on a particular color on a particular day? Keep in mind, white was the overall long term primary producer.

So, on one hand, Danny Pichney provided four great confidence colors. On the other hand, if I was constantly juggling and judging which color was best, that could potentially distract me from other more important aspects of my presentation…so I came up with the idea of “whiting over” the other three colors, thereby putting two colors (white plus herring or mullet or rainbow) together into one plug. Now I could simply use them both at the same time in the same plug. With the white over, I could focus more on the more important aspects of my presentation, and I wasn’t as concerned whether bass preferred white versus mullet, herring or rainbow. You see, whichever one they wanted, I had confidence I was using two plug colors at once…and scoring well!

Whiting over was usually done to a rainbow or herring or mullet that had been scraped up by some bass, bashed on the head by jetty rocks, hook swing grooves worn into both sides and other perils that befall a plug. So after an alcohol rub-down, tapwater rinse and then allowing a haggard warrior to dry out before whiting it over also help re-seal the open wood pores. I really did not want the white coat to stick well, so sanding was not done to deter good adhesion of the white coat. As seen in the photo at right, the white over color was intended to wear off, exposing the underlying original blue pattern too – effectively two patterns (white plus another) in one. Many nights, the white over pattern was the one to be throwing into the endless ocean where bass waited in the darkness to pounce on it. The white over pattern looks like nothing you would ever want to pay good money for at a tackle shop, but bass often heavily favored such nondescript derelict patterns over the squeaky-clean sparkling new ones.

There were other grungy patterns too, such as the blue drip discovered accidentally and to his great dismay by one of our dear departed partners, Teddy, when the nozzle of his blue spray can malfunctioned and spew a sneeze of blue drips running atop and down the sides of his metal lip swimmer. Talk about spit hitting the fan. It appeared as if his plug had been ruined. Yet a fresh tide was starting to pull, we had to catch it, and Teddy used the blue abomination anyway – and caught bass from his first cast to last on it.

Although we had all painted “proper” neat-looking blue backs on our plugs, Teddy outfished us for the entire tide like we we worthless losers. We could not wait until the tide slacked to get off the water, mutilate the spray nozzles of our blue paint cans, and emulate the bizarre blue drip pattern before the water turned direction. What was an unpredictable mistake paint became a pattern to emulate thereafter. The blue drip held up as an awesome productive pattern ever since, kept secret. As with the white over, the blue drip would not be something you’d ever plunk down bucks to buy at a tackle shop. It was butt ugly.

But bass are dumb as rocks and don’t know they shouldn’t hit the crappy mutant-looking white over and blue drip colors harder and more often than they hit the handsome, well-kept and spotless glamour-puss plugs.
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Juniors

Danny Pichney made at least three sizes of this wood swimmer. This is the middle size. In the vernacular of the beach, it was dubbed Danny’s Pichney “Junior”. No doubt a slang reference to its similarity to the Atom Manufacturing Company’s Atom Junior.

This lure was very stable and would perform equally well under a variety of conditions ranging from calm to high surf and from weak to strong currents. Worked as well by day as night. Many striped bass would take it. It is one of the surf’s most classic lure shapes and sizes, originally popularized by the legendary Atom Manufacturing Company’s Atom Junior and the many plugs patterned along those lines.

Some of Danny’s other plugs – Surface Swimmers, Darters, Trollers, Conrads and Slope Heads – had been around a long time before Danny first made any of these Juniors. I recall when Danny Pichney’s Juniors were considered  to be “new” model lures by the beach crowd – about twenty-five years ago. So these Junior swimmers are not as old or classic models as some of Danny’s other plugs (Surface Swimmers, Darters, Trollers, Conrads, Slope Heads).

Importantly, however, the relatively late introduction of this plug filled a niche between Danny’s topwater Surface Swimmers and deeper Conrads and Slope Heads. Therefore, Danny’s Junior plug was eagerly embraced by surfmen, particularly due to its versatility within the shallow to deep medium diving range that had previously been missing from Danny’s product line.

The blue swirl color pattern was not seen in wide use by me before the introduction of Danny Pichney’s Forty and Junior plugs, which appeared later in Danny’s plugmaking timeline. Danny popularized his blue swirl color pattern (as far as I know) with the debut of Danny’s Forty and Junior swimmers. I had not seen Danny’s blue swirl pattern in wide use before this. However, once blue swirl became popular with his Junior and Forty, then the blue swirl also appeared more commonly on his other plug models too – surface swimmers, Conrads and Slope Heads are examples where I’ve seen a few blue swirls. Still, blue swirls were scarce relative to Danny’s four “signature” paints – white, herring, mullet and rainbow.

Danny made no less than three different hues of blue swirl – dark, medium and light blue swirl. Shown are two of Danny’s three blue swirls – the dark and the light. Danny’s blue swirls seem remindful of Atom Manufacturing Company’s Forty Swimmers blue swirl color, which was made with hollow molded plastic bodies at that time.

Danny’s Junior was versatile. By adjusting the line tie and metal lip angle, this plug could be made to swim from right under the surface in calm, flat conditions to approximately 6 feet deep (or more) in rips. Bending the eye down and the lip down created a shallower, wallowing roll on or under the surface. Bending the eye up and the lip up created a deeper side-to-side hunting movement. Uncovering the best action in each Pichney Junior could take some time test-swimming each one. Some of these plugs worked best when tuned shallow. Others achieved their best potential when tuned to go deep. Best action would be when the plug looked the most natural and alive as opposed to swimming mechanical and wooden. Once a plug’s prime action was unlocked, it helped to mark an S for shallow or D for Deep in black marker on the metal lip plate. This way, even though the eye may be adjusted otherwise on any given trip, you’d have a mark made on each plug designating how it truly swam best. Usually a pair of 2/0 #35517 trebles were put on the belly. The tail was enhanced with sparse bucktail, either a 2/0 #35517 or a downward-pointing 5/0 to 6/0 stainless Siwash #9510X3S single hook.

A favorite method of super sharpies was to tie an eelskin completely over it. Most guys wouldn’t make the effort to do this, yet the eelskin cloak accounted for some of the very largest bass caught on Danny’s Junior. There were actually few plugs that could ideally handle eelskins. The best skin plugs needed a consistently straight body – not curved, bulged or elliptical – but straight plug bodies. Danny’s Junior had such straight body. On Danny’s Junior, the eelskin could be secured by lashing it right to the metal lip plate where the plate protruded from the wood body, bigging up the two belly hooks to 3/0 #35517 trebles for swimming stability and leaving the tail hook off.

During early development of his Junior, Danny evaluated both a 6″ (bottom photo at right) and a shorter 5-1/2″ model (top photo at right). Overall, there were very few of the shorter 5-1/2″ Juniors ever made (if I am not mistaken) and Danny’s main path continued with only the 6″ model being made. However, as evidenced by the bite marks on both sizes shown at the right, the bass liked them both.

Astute students of plugology will recall in the history of the Atom Manufacturing Company that Atom had made two sizes of the Atom Junior – the 54 and a shorter 54B model. Mere coincidence then that Danny experimented with two sizes comparable to the 54 and 54B? Methinks not.

Original Atom Juniors were not always favored by some diehard surfmen since they were made of something like an injected plastic foam mix, which could tend to be fragile and prone to breakage. On the other hand, Danny’s wood Junior was almost indestructible. Countless formidable bass tried to destroy Danny’s Junior, but mistakenly faced the relentless steel of my gaff instead.
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Danny’s Jointed Junior (third in photo) bore a similarity to Danny’s Junior swimmer (bottom). Other traditional jointed eels (top and second) were slender-bodied and effective mainly in slow-moving water or gentle surf. Danny’s Jointed Junior was not typical of other jointed eels in that Danny’s Jointed Junior was wider-bodied and more robust to handle moderate surf and stronger flows (although the Jointed Junior also had its limitations).

Stronger and rougher water was generally not the domain of jointed eels nor the Danny Jointed Junior.

It is my impression which may be mistaken, that Danny’s Jointed Junior plug model is very rare.
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Pines

This lure is a wood Donny swimmer. Donny Musso of Super Strike Lures made at least two sizes of it. This is the larger Pine Senior size.

The Pine Senior was turned to the same 7-1/2″ wood stock shape and same belly hanger positions as three other Donny metal lip swimmers:

1. Surface Swimmer Senior
2. Troller Senior (version 2)
3. Maple Senior (deep diver)

So the same base wood stock and hangers shared among four Donny Senior models. Differences were in the weighting, wood used, and the Troller Senior (version 2) had a planed head. The Surface Swimmer Senior wore a smaller metal lip but the other three (Pine, Maple and Troller) shared the same lip.

The Pine Senior was the perfect size for 15 lb plus bass. It swam in the 3 to 6 foot range most often. So it was applicable under most any conditions or off any shoreline. It was a very stable swimmer. Due to its larger size, it tended to inspire larger bass to belt it.  Overall, a great Senior size plug with few equals in the medium-shallow range.

Donny’s Pine had a more fluid, supple S-shaped motion than most other metal lips. It tended to pivot more on its mid-point and exhibited a balanced, symmetrical and sinuous movement. A brace of 4/0 #35517 trebles hung off the belly. Almost always a sparsely-dressed bucktail single stainless Siwash enhanced the action better than a treble on the tail.
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Donny Musso of Super Strike Lures turned four different models using the identical wood shape (photo at right). These four models were referred to on the beach as:

1. Top: Donny Surface Swimmer
2. Second: Donny Pine (Medium Diver)
3. Third: Donny Maple (Deep Diver)
4. Bottom: Donny Troller

All four were referred to as the “Junior” size when necessary to distinguish them from their four bigger brothers in the “Senior” size. Each of the four Junior models were turned to the same shape, same lip, same hangers. The differences were in the lead weighting, the wood composition and the line tie pull point (plus the planed Troller head).

Donny’s Pine fished in the 3 to 6 foot level much of the time, based on tide, current and sweep – and the angle of the line tie eye and lip, which both were bendable.

Donny’s Pine, being a medium-shallow diver, you could say it was one of the most useful plugs to most surf anglers under most conditions. Few other junior-sized (approx. 6″ and 2 oz) plugs of the day worked as well as Donny’s Pine Jr. in the 3 to 6 foot depth range. It was a very stable-swimming plug. Once tuned properly by the angler, it continued to hold its tune well under stress of catching many heavy bass. It produced equally well under all conditions from calm, slow-moving through rough, fast-moving water, swells, sweeps, you name it. Overall, a great plug with few equals in the medium-shallow range.

Donny’s Pine had a more fluid, supple S-shaped motion than most other metal lips. It tended to pivot more on its mid-point and exhibited a balanced, symmetrical and sinuous movement. Almost always a sparsely-dressed bucktail single stainless Siwash enhanced the action better than a treble on the tail.

Working in wood, Donny Musso’s craftsmanship may display manufacturing, finishing and natural blemishes in the wood. These small manufacturing and natural marks in many ways enhance the appeal of the lure, making it more like custom-crafted fishing folk art (which I feel they are) rather than having the look of mass-produced commercial items.

The lure(s) listed here were acquired directly from Donny Musso approximately twenty-five years ago, more or less.
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In respectful kidding, this lure was dubbed by the beach crowd as Danny’s “Donny Bootleg” or simply the Bootleg. Danny made only one size I know of it.

The Bootleg (shown third) as well as Danny’s Junior Swimmer (shown second) were both relatively later productions (as I am aware) by Danny. They plugged an important gap in the water column between Danny’s earlier metal lips.

The Bootleg and Junior swam at shallow to medium depths in between Danny’s topwater Surface Swimmer (top) and Danny’s deep-diving Slope Head (fifth) and deep-diving Conrad (bottom). The Surface Swimmer went on to become Danny’s most legendary and well-known swimmer, albeit limited to topwater applications. The Slope Head and Conrad had few equals (except Donny’s Maple) – but they dove too deep for many shallower beaches common to New York and New Jersey for example. Hence, few anglers routinely used Slope Heads and Conrads, except off jetties and deep beaches such as in Massachusetts for example.

Danny’s Troller (shown fourth) was also a medium diver that excelled in fast, strong flows. But the Troller needed a fast flow or rip to truly activate it to its top potential, and was not a favorite plug for slow water beaches.

Getting back to the Bootleg, it became a medium-diver most suited for medium flows, and Danny’s Junior Swimmer became a general purpose shallow to medium swimmer. Both the Bootleg and Danny’s Junior swimmer were produced later (as I am aware) in Danny’s plugmaking timeline. In hindsight, you could say medium-divers are most useful to most surf anglers under most conditions. Both the Bootleg and Junior were versatile and adjustable medium-divers that (via the lip and line tie) could both be tuned different ways to swim slower or faster and shallower or deeper in the medium-diver range.

The Bootleg was kiddingly called that due to its shape and dimensions seeming similar to Donny Musso’s Pine medium-diver, which was one of the surfman’s preferred medium-divers of the day. To be fair, you can see the Bootleg (third in photo) also shares a common shape and dimensions not unlike Danny’s own Surface Swimmer (top in photo). However, sharing a shape and dimensions like Donny’s Pine is not where the Bootleg’s similarities ended. The Bootleg also had a very close action, depth and swimming movement in the water similar to Donny’s Pine. Hence, it’s name given by the beach crowd in admiration and respect to both men, Danny’s “Donny Bootleg” swimmer.
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Trollers

The Troller Senior was a huge plug, a manly plug with an extra wide girth. It accounted for most of the very largest striped bass I ever bagged on Trollers. It is a simple truth that big plugs produce big fish… and even bigger plugs produce even bigger fish. Taking logic to its conclusion, the very biggest plugs produce the very biggest bass. Some incredible fish crushed the Danny’s Troller Senior in its day. This plug is about the biggest and bulkiest metal lip striper plug I know – without jumping up into the giant jointed pike lure class.

The Troller Senior was the ideal size for cow bass, and it had the hooks to handle them. Best used on heavy conventional gear. Best used on deep beaches, inlets, jetties and channel areas. Actually most anywhere the current moved, except it dug too deeply for shallow beaches. A very stable lure with a penchant for fast-moving currents and rips. As the name implies, the Troller was a preferred boat trolling plug due to its stability in fast water or on the troll. But the name is deceptive in that it is also a great casting lure. The plug had a quick, tight vibrating movement as opposed to the more swaying, rolling movement typical of other metal lip plugs. The tight, quick, fast vibrating action of the Troller could often be enhanced by using it with a single stainless Siwash white bucktail-dressed tail hook. Despite all this talk of fast water and tight vibrating movement, the rule of thumb to fish plugs ever-so-slowly still wisely applies to the Troller in fast water.

This lure was known as Danny Pichney’s Troller. Danny made at least three sizes of it. This lure is the medium size. Most swimming plugs of this approximate “medium” size were tagged in the vernacular of the beach as the Junior (Jr.) size, no doubt a slang reference to similarity in body length to the Atom Manufacturing Company’s Atom Junior swimmer. The colloquial naming convention was that most all swimmers of any origin that were of the medium Atom Junior size were referred to as Junior (Jr.) model sizes.

Of the three Troller sizes, the largest size Troller Sr. excelled for jumbo bass 15 lbs and up. On the other end of the spectrum, Danny’s very smallest size Troller was relatively rarely used, except in a back bay, estuary or light tackle beach environment. It appealed best to pre-migratory schoolies predominantly under 5 lbs and was a light tackle plug.

Getting back to the medium-sized Troller Jr. shown here, it caught everything in between the other two sizes. It is a very stable lure with a penchant for fast-moving currents and rips. As the name implies, it was a preferred boat trolling plug due to its stability in fast water or on the troll. But the name is deceptive in that it is also a great beach and jetty casting lure. The plug had a quick, tight vibrating movement as opposed to the more swaying, rolling movement typical of Danny’s other plugs. Despite all this talk of fast water and tight vibrating movement, the rule of thumb to fish plugs ever-so-slowly still wisely applies to Danny’s Troller in fast water.

The tight, quick, fast vibrating action of the Troller could often be enhanced by using it with a single stainless Siwash white bucktail-dressed tail hook. This really caused the tail to flutter quickly.

For normal beach use, the Troller was rigged with two 2/0 #35517 trebles on the belly. For trolling and to get it deeper off beaches and jetties, a 3/0 was instead used on the head. This drove the Troller deeper and added more trolling stability.

The desired “tune” was to angle the line tie eye slightly downward. Each individual plug needed slightly more or less angle than others – but all within a narrow range of downward eye bend. Once the line tie was angled downward, the lip was angled to match the exact same downward degree as the eye. This matching eye/lip angle tended to produce the best action in each Troller – and often (but not always) the optimal angle was the same angle as the planed wood Troller head. The two Rainbow Trollers in the photo show the tune. Each subdued several hundred laudable-sized bass before being put out to stud to be used only when large cows were present.

The Rainbow color was my preferred color for Danny’s Troller. Not every model of Danny’s plug were made in this Rainbow color (or at least I have not seen every model in Rainbow). But if I had to pick only one of Danny’s plugs to use in Rainbow, or only one color Troller to use, it would be Rainbow. The color and the plug seemed to go together, an observation based on many fine fish landed on Rainbow Trollers.
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This lure was known as Donny Musso’s Troller. Donny made at least three sizes of it. This lure is the Junior size and was the smallest of Donny’s three Troller sizes. Donny also made two larger Senior sizes – one larger than the other.

The Troller Jr. was a very stable lure with a penchant for fast-moving currents and rips. As the name implies, it was a preferred boat trolling plug due to its stability in fast water or on the troll. But the name is deceptive in that it is also a great beach and jetty casting lure. The plug had a quick, tight vibrating movement as opposed to the more swaying, rolling movement typical of Danny’s other plugs. Despite all this talk of fast water and tight vibrating movement, the rule of thumb to fish plugs ever-so-slowly still wisely applies to Danny’s Troller in fast water.

The blue scallop color pattern here was my absolute favorite of Donny’s color patterns. It is a tremendously handsome and unique color to Donny as far as I know. I had not seen this pattern on any other plugs except for Donny’s plugs. As can be seen in the photo at right, the stencil used to spray the scallop, still allowed the very back to remain baby blue. This is a unique and admirable effect. Truly this can be considered a “signature color” of Donny’s, meaning I am unaware of the pattern being produced otherwise, especially not with the “pass through” type top color.

Some persons claimed the blue scallop color represented a snapper bluefish. Of course, it effectively mimics a mackerel. It was also ideal in late summer around rocks and pilings where base were gorging on the end-of-summer bounty of free-swimming blueclaw crabs.

The tight, quick, fast vibrating action of the Troller could often be enhanced by using it with a single stainless Siwash white bucktail-dressed tail hook. This really caused the tail to flutter quickly. On the belly hook hangers, Donny’s Troller was rigged with two 2/0 #35517 trebles.

The desired “tune” was to angle the line tie eye slightly downward. Once the line tie was angled downward properly, then the lip was angled upward, often matching closely to the downward degree as the eye. This matching eye/lip angle tended to produce the best action in each Troller. Donny’s Troller was a precision-made and sturdy plug. The action was repeatable for plug to plug, and it held it’s tune well despite heavy catches on it. The golden yellow Troller shows the tune. A warrior, it had caught over one hundred good-sized bass in its prime before being reserved for special occasions. On this particular plug, the metal lip is tuned almost yet not quite on the same angle as the planed wood head. Due to its elliptical shape, centered perfectly, the Donny Troller exhibited a fluid, alluring motion irresistible to bass in fast-moving water where Donny’s Troller performed its best.
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This lure is a wood Donny swimmer. Donny Musso of Super Strike Lures made at least three sizes of it. This is the largest of the three sizes. In the vernacular of the beach, it was dubbed the “Donny Troller Senior” (shown middle photo at right).

There was also a Junior Troller size (shown top photo at right), and another second version of the Troller Senior which (if I am not mistaken) was a later version made by Donny (shown middle photo at right). I believe Donny may have retired the extra large Troller Senior (version 1) when he began production of the second version of the Senior.

This lure is a wood Donny swimmer. Donny Musso of Super Strike Lures made at least three sizes of it. This is the middle of the three sizes. In the vernacular of the beach, it was dubbed the Donny Troller Senior (version 2).

The Troller Senior (version 2) was turned to the same 7-1/2″ wood stock shape and same belly hanger positions as three other Donny metal lip swimmers:

1. Surface Swimmer Senior
2. Pine Senior (medium diver)
3. Maple Senior (deep diver)

So the same base wood stock and hangers shared among four Donny Senior models. Differences were in the weighting, wood used, and the Troller Senior (version 2) had a planed head. The Surface Swimmer Senior wore a smaller metal lip but the other three (Pine, Maple and Troller) shared the same lip.

The Troller Senior (version 2) was the ideal size for 15 lb plus bass. Best used on deep beaches, inlets, jetties and channel areas. Actually most anywhere the current moved, except it dug too deeply for shallow beaches. A very stable lure with a penchant for fast-moving currents and rips. As the name implies, the Troller was a preferred boat trolling plug due to its stability in fast water or on the troll. But the name is deceptive in that it is also a great casting lure. The plug had a quick, tight vibrating movement as opposed to the more swaying, rolling movement typical of other metal lip plugs.

The tight, quick, fast vibrating action of the Troller could often be enhanced by using it with a single stainless Siwash white bucktail-dressed tail hook. Despite all this talk of fast water and tight vibrating movement, the rule of thumb to fish plugs ever-so-slowly still wisely applies to the Troller in fast water.
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Slope Heads

This lure was known in the vernacular of the beach as Danny’s Slope Head.  Danny made at least three sizes of it. This is the largest and heaviest of the three sizes. It accounted for a lot of large-sized bass in its day.

I first saw one of these in the mid-seventies, given to me by an old-timer who had retired from fishing. The Slope Head he gave me already appeared old even then, thirty years ago. In appearance, this plug looks very close to another plug, Danny’s Conrad. The obvious difference of course is the angled head as opposed to the square-cut head of the Conrad. Another less obvious but critical difference lies in the pull point or line-tie eye of the Slope Head being at a lower plane than the eye on the Conrad. Because of these differences, the Slope Head gets almost but not quite as deep as the Conrad, and the Slope Head has an even wider sway to its body-rolling movement than the Conrad.

The concept for the Slope Head was something a well-known surf angler of the time, Charlie Kay, requested from Danny. That had to be about 1970 or 1971. Charlie Kay desired a plug with action to more closely imitate the natural movements of bunker. Watching bunker, Charlie Kay noticed time and again their peculiar habit to roll and flip sideways, even appearing to spin or loop-roll at times. Charlie Kay requested Danny to imitate this bunker flipping, rolling, looping movement more closely in a plug action. Hence, the Slope Head was conceived and indeed imitates that movement.

Both the Slope Head and Conrad swim deeper than most of Danny’s other plugs – and deeper than most any other metal-lip swimming plugs for that matter. A very slow action was required to get them deep and to keep them down. If you retrieved too fast, it would upset the balance of action. Super slow would cause a wide, rolling sweep from side to side that accounted for some very large bass.

The Slope Head (and Conrad) were used most by me as jetty, tip of a bar, rip and eddy plugs. I rarely used them in a current or strong flow where I couldn’t pop them out of the flow, through the “crease” and into an eddy.

Most often, I would cast cross-tide and thumb line to freespool the Slope Head to drift out with the rip or current. By thumbing lightly, the heavy maple wood plug would lumber its way down under the surface on the drift, swimming deep into the water column due to thumb pressure and line drag as it was freespooled with the current. In this way, the Slope Head would swim “forward backward” while freespooled, getting hit as it swam outward backward on the drift. By swimming “forward backward” I mean that the tail of the heavy waddling, rolling plug actually gave the illusion of being the “front” end of a baitfish (squid, whatever) as it swung around and out on the drift. What we know as the head of the plug actually functioned as the “tail” end on the swimming freespool drift. No reeling was required (only freespooling while thumbing it) and suddenly, line would peel off the spool at a rapid rate as a fish lunged and took the plug on the drift. If that didn’t happen, I’d wait until the plug drifted into a bend or close to a prominent eddy circling next to the current line. Engage the reel, and let the plug strum until it popped out through the crease and into the eddy, where bass were often waiting. The painstakingly slow retrieve would then begin. In some strong flows or rips, the Slope Head could be freespooled almost down to the knot on a reel. With a Penn Squidder, this could be 300 yards (900 feet) of line out. It could take a long, long time to freespool and recover that much line. Many times, the circular flow of an eddy, often helped by the wind, would keep the Slope Head pinned right against the crease line all the way back where fast racing water met slack eddy water. Needless to say, the Slope Head accounted for many impressive bass strung along the crease waiting for food to flow to them. Remember, however, the Slope Head can and will (if done properly) catch as many fish on the freespool out as on the retrieve back in.

The most important part of having a good metal-lip swimmer is to take time to tune it properly in calm clear water when not fishing. Often the calm pocket of a bayside jetty at high slack tide is ideal for tuning chores. Tuning the line-tie eye up or down, and bending the metal lip up or down is crucial for bringing out the best in a plug. So is trying different tail hooks, single or treble with or without feathers or bucktail dressings. Different size belly trebles need to be considered too. This takes time, and most guys don’t do it. Every plug requires it. A few plugs will tune great. A few will never tune right no matter what you try, and most plugs will only ever be average. Take special care of the rare few that do tune well, since these will be the ones to account for most of your fish.

Does lure color matters or not? That is a question that always has and will be debated forever. I can easily debate that an expert with a white bucktail and rind can keep pace with any other color used by anyone else under any conditions. I can argue that a maven with a bone white topwater can outfish any other color used by anyone else – if the “bone” is in the hands of a man who can dance it. What’s outfishing the other colors in these cases is the skill of the angler in bringing the deer hair and pig skin or the topwater puppet to life. So action if perfected to the utmost – outweighs color.

For the rest of us mere mortals who were not born to be fishing gods breathing life into white jigs or topwaters, what color we choose does influence what fish we catch. I recall one season long ago, Danny Pichney showed off a batch of gold-backed plugs with either white or yellow bellies. I don’t recall he mentioned much about them, except someone had been doing well with them somewhere. The details were not so important at the time, and evade my memory now. Well, Danny had these gleaming golden swimmers penned up in a box like a litter of pups who needed new homes, so we adopted them. You can never have too many plugs you know, and you never want to get caught in a blitz without at least a few of every plug ever known to mankind.

We never did anything memorable with these gold-backed plugs until one spring run when someone innocently tried one. Instantly it became the hot plug that spring – both white-bellied and yellow-bellied gold-backed swimmers. What we soon realized was bass that spring were feeding on a bounty of young-of-year coldwater groundfish. Bass were spitting up bellies full of golden-hued baby pollack, cod, whiting, hake, ling, tommy cod and their finny cousin species. For some reason that spring, a tremendous biomass of these type baitfish were in the surf – and bass responded best to gold-backed plugs presumably imitating this baitfish type far better than other color plugs. So that spring was one indisputable case where color did indeed matter.

As the season went on, the golden baby pollack plugs continued to catch well, and Danny produced several variations on the gold theme. One of the most beautiful of these golden patterns was this silver-bellied, gold-backed with metallic pink lateral line shown here.

Based on what we learned that spring, we also discovered these gold-backed baits excelled well toward the end of the bass season when cold water species like whiting, ling, hake, pollack, cod, tommy cod annually returned to the beach zone.
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This lure was referred to by surfmen as Danny’s Slope Head. Danny made at least three sizes of it. This is the middle size of the three. It accounted for a lot of bass in its day. The Slope Head was one of the deepest swimming of all Danny’s plugs on a cast and retrieve (as opposed to trolling). A very slow action was required to get them deep and to keep them down. If you retrieved too fast, it would upset the balance of action. Super slow would cause a wide, rolling sweep from side to side that accounted for many fine bass.

In appearance, this plug looks very close to another plug, Danny’s Conrad. The obvious difference of course is the angled head as opposed to the square-cut head of the Conrad. Another less obvious but critical difference lies in the pull point or line-tie eye of the Slope Head being at a lower plane than the eye on the Conrad. Because of these differences, the Slope Head gets almost but not quite as deep as the Conrad, and the Slope Head has an even wider sway to its body-rolling movement than the Conrad.

The concept for the Slope Head was something a well-known surf angler of the time, Charlie Kay, requested from Danny. That had to be about 1970 or 1971. Charlie Kay desired a plug with action to more closely imitate the natural movements of bunker. Watching bunker, Charlie Kay noticed time and again their peculiar habit to roll and flip sideways, even appearing to spin or loop-roll at times. Charlie Kay requested Danny to imitate this bunker flipping, rolling, looping movement more closely in a plug action. Hence, the Slope Head was conceived and indeed imitates that movement.

As far as I know, Danny had custom-made these fish net colors in medium-sized Conrads and medium Slope Heads for an angler, Robert, who was known on the beach as “My Son” (a long story). After a few years, Danny made a batch of these which went into broader circulation. I do not recall seeing this pattern in any models except medium-sized Conrad and medium Slope Heads. I do not recall seeing any other fish net colors except for these three – black, blue and green. It is my impression which may be mistaken that a relatively limited number of these fish net color patterns were ever produced.

Both the Slope Head and Conrad swim deeper than most of Danny’s other plugs – and deeper than most any other metal-lip swimming plugs for that matter.

The Slope Head was a heavy deep swimmer, and mostly tuned to bring that out. The best “tune” with a Slope Head Jr. was often gotten by bending the eye up slightly to varying degrees. Each Slope Head could vary in the degree the eye needed to be bent up. The only way was to test-swim in calm water, trying different degrees of upward bend to the eye. The lip angle was also variable per lure. Usually the lip was bent up slightly higher than Danny bent them in the workshop. An experienced eye was required for when these two variables (eye and lip) were angled to induce the illusion of life in the wood.

The Slope Head Junior sported two 2/0 #35517 trebles on the belly and traditionally was made (possibly since the late fifties or early sixties) by Danny with a third 2/0 bucktail treble on the tail. Over many countless hours of test-swimming and repeatedly catching bass on Slope Head Juniors, it appeared to me that the preferred rolling, lazy-swaying plug movement could be enhanced with a downward-pointing sparsely-tied bucktail 5/0 or 6/0 stainless Siwash #9510X3S single hook. This was a modification uncovered by me and my bass fishing crewmates. As this practice of replacing the stock rear treble with a single hook ultimately became more widespread in time, Danny Pichney embraced the practice and switched over to stocking single O’ Shaughnessy tail hook on all his plugs later in his plugmaking timeline. Yet the constricted hook eye loop diameter of the single O’Shaughnessy did not provide as much free-swinging action as the larger hook eye on a Siwash.

All black, all yellow or black/yellow as shown here were relatively less common paints in metal lip plugs. Why? I do not know since all black was a prime producer in plastic lip minnows. Darters and bottle plugs in both mustard yellow and all black were primary colors too. However, in metal lips, blacks and yellows played second fiddle to white and blue/white patterns. Was this difference in color preference due to the fish – or the fishermen?
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Conrads

Danny named the Conrad after Conrad Malicoat of Cape Cod. Conrad originally asked Danny to make it. He wanted something heavier to cast with conventional tackle to get the distance to fish the Second Rip at P-Town. That had to be in the late fifties or early sixties. Over time, Danny made at least three sizes of Conrads. This is the largest and heaviest of the three sizes. It accounted for a lot of large-sized bass in its day. The Conrad was the deepest swimming of all Danny’s plugs on a cast and retrieve (as opposed to trolling). A very slow action was required to get them deep and to keep them down. If you retrieved too fast, it would upset the balance of action. Super slow would cause a wide, rolling sweep from side to side that accounted for some very large bass.

The Herring color shown here has a light blue back, pink lateral line and white belly. As far as I know, the Herring was a defining color by Danny. What I mean is that Danny was the first I am aware of to have this color plug. That may not be factual, there may have been this Herring plug pattern prior to Danny making them, but I had never seen any that preceded Danny’s. Over time, I did see other plugs and plug makers subsequently produce herring patterns similar to Danny’s, but Danny’s was the first I saw. Others often added silver spray lines above or below the pink line. An interesting note is later in his plugmaking days, Danny too began to produce a Herring variant with a silver spray line also. Kind of a case of Danny imitating his own imitators – or something like that. Anyway, this is Danny’s original Herring pattern, arguably the pattern most unique if not possibly original (?) to him. If Danny did not originate the Herring pattern, he surely was the one to popularize it, and it remains a common pattern today in surf plugs.

A favorite method of super sharpies was to tie an eelskin completely over the Conrad, bigging up the two belly hooks for swimming stability and leaving off the tail hook. A double length of heavy mono was knotted to the empty tail hook wire to help reduce the eelskin tail (which was left draping several inches longer than the plug) from whipping round and fouling the belly hook on a cast. There were actually few plugs that could readily handle eelskins. The best plugs for skins needed a consistently straight body – not curved, tapered, bulged or elliptical – but ideally straight such as the Conrad body. As shown in the photo at right, you had to file a shallow notch to retain the eelskin in place on a Conrad (then seal the open wood with clear nail polish or whatever). Most guys wouldn’t ever make the effort to do this. Yet for those who did, the eelskin cloak accounted for some of the very largest bass caught on Danny’s Conrad plugs.

It was preferable to use the blue mullet color plug beneath an eelskin. As the eelskin got shredded and torn up by bass in the process of catching them, the underlying blue mullet color became exposed, yet still complemented the eelskin color, whether the eelskin was rigged inside out (blue pearl white) or not.
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Danny named the Conrad after Conrad Malicoat of Cape Cod. Conrad originally asked Danny to make it. That had to be in the late fifties or early sixties. Over time, Danny made at least three sizes of Conrads. The Conrad Jr. was the middle size of the three. It accounted for a lot of bass in its day.

The Conrad Jr. was one of the greatest jetty plugs ever made. These plugs can withstand being banged up badly in a rock environment. Many other plugs do not hold up as well. The Conrad is ruggedly constructed of denser wood than most. Danny’s paint finish was not smooth as silk – but was hard as nails. One of the toughest wood plug finishes I have ever seen. The metal lip serves as a bumper guard in rocks, instead of smashing the wood head-first into rocks, which was the ruination of many other plugs used on jetties – but not the Conrad. It was the perfect jetty plug. Best of all, the Conrad Jr. gets down deep and works well in the faster rip tides found around jetties.

The Danny Pichney Peanut Conrad was made at the request of an angler, Charlie Kay, to function as a smaller yet deeper plug for the slightly deeper side pocket waters of rock jetties in the surf. It’s hefty enough to cast well for its small size, and it is excellent for spinning gear. In size, it imitates peanut bunker, mullet, northern kingfish, small blackfish, bergalls and assorted other stout bait-sized resident denizens of the surf rock jetty pockets.

Version 1 of Danny Pichney’s Peanut Conrad was fashioned along the slimmer, longer body shape of Danny Pichney’s 8″ Conrad Senior.

Danny also made a second version of the Peanut Conrad. Version 2 was fashioned along the fatter, shorter body shape of the 5-1/2″ Conrad Junior. Both Peanut Conrad versions excelled in catching bass in jetty side pockets.
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Maples

This lure is a wood Donny Maple swimmer. Donny Musso of Super Strike Lures turned four different models using the identical wood shape. These four models were referred to on the beach as Donny’s: 1) Surface Swimmer, 2) Pine medium swimmer, 3) Maple deep swimmer, and 4) Troller (version 2). All four were referred to as the “Senior” size to distinguish them from their four smaller “Junior” sizes. Each of the four Senior models were turned to the same shape and same hangers. The differences were in the lead weighting, the wood composition and the line tie pull point. Plus the Troller had a planed head, and the Surface Swimmer had a smaller metal lip than the three other models.

Many modern day surf anglers have heard of plugmaker Danny Pichney. It’s required to say Donny Musso’s work in wood was Danny’s equal – and in Donny’s case, he was much more of a perfectionist imbuing more precision, consistency and more of a polished look in the product result. Both men were masters, albeit with two different styles. However, looking back from today, it does not seem as if Donny Musso has achieved the same recognition for his wood plugs as Danny Pichney holds today. That’s unfortunate and not fair to Donny Musso. Not to pass quickly over Donny’s formidable metal lips, but surely in terms of his darters, bottle plugs, needlefish and poppers, when made in wood, there was just no contemporary equal to Donny, not even Danny.

About the gold color plugs shown at right, another plugmaker, Danny Pichney, had first painted some gold backs with yellow (top photo at right) or white bellies, which my associates and I were fortunate to acquire some. They were new colors at the time, and it’s never prudent to pass on any new plug colors. To do so can come back to haunt you. At first, these golds were ordinary in terms of fish-catching ability. We tried them from time to time over a season or two and did not do extraordinary with golds. They were not staple producers like mullet, herring and white colors. Then one spring, they proved exceptional due to baby pollack and related species in the surf. That spring, once the golds started to kick in, we asked Danny Pichney to make more gold plugs for us, and Danny innovated several additional gold-backed patterns (second and third plugs in photo at right). We also asked Donny Musso to make us some swimmers in gold (fourth plug shown in photo),

Overall, these gold plugs remained seasonally-transient producers for us, presumably based on presence of  snack-sized pollack and related cousin species, as opposed to the more constant catches made on whites and blues (plugs). Essentially, we derived a notion of two baitfish biomasses. First, inshore estuarine, shall we say warmwater bait and young-of-year in warmwater nurseries such as the Hudson and Long Island, NY bays and barrier beaches. Second, an offshore coldwater biomass of bait and young-of-year more prolific in the surf zone from Montauk Point, NY and north. Using Montauk as a demarcation point for sake of discussion, we found gold plugs were better during a longer part of the season above Montauk, whereas high catches with the gold plugs were more likely below Montauk in colder months when the offshore biomass of bait and young-of-year were more likely to be in the surf and bay zone.

Getting back to Donny’s Maple Sr, it was one of the deepest-swimming surf plugs. I know of only Danny’s Conrad and Slope Head that could achieve the same depths as Donny’s Maple. Of all the very many different metal lip swimmers, it was a significant advantage to the anglers who knew that only three surf plugs – Donny’s Maple, Danny’s Conrad and Danny’s Slope Head – achieved depths below the effective level of most all others. Most anglers rarely used such deep swimmers. They were truly in their element around deeper jetties, inlets and drop-offs.

Donny’s Maple had a more fluid, supple S-shaped motion than most other metal lips. It tended to pivot more on its mid-point and exhibited a balanced, symmetrical and sinuous movement. At the same time, it had a very wide sweep – much wider than it’s identical look-alike, Donny’s Pine swimmer. Except for weight, a Donny Pine and Donny Maple appeared identical. The only way to differentiate them was to heft one in each hand. Even still, it wasn’t easy to tell them apart. For this reason, it was helpful to mark a “P” for Pine or “M” for Maple in permanent black marker on each metal lip.

Almost always a bucktail-dressed single stainless Siwash enhanced the action of a Donny Maple better than a treble on the tail.
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Donny Musso of Super Strike Lures turned four different models using the identical shape. These four models were referred to on the beach as Donny’s: 1) Surface Swimmer, 2) Pine medium-diver, 3) Maple deep-diver, and 4) Donny Troller. All four were referred to as the “Junior” size to distinguish them from their four bigger “Senior” sizes. Each of the four models were turned to the same shape, same lip, same hangers. The differences were in the lead weighting, the wood composition and the line tie pull point (plus the planed Troller head).

Donny’s Maple (top in photo) was one of the two deepest-swimming metal lips I know, Danny’s Conrad being the other. Although different-looking, Danny’s Conrad nevertheless fished the same depth and was as Donny’s Maple.

The depth achieved by Donny’s Maple was contingent upon current and sweep – and the angle of the line tie eye and lip, which both were bendable. The length cast and amount of line free-spooled with the current before starting to retrieve also affected depth as did speed of retrieve. Usually slower translated to deeper. Donny’s Maple was weighted to have a specific gravity barely above one (1) which made it close to neutrally buoyant and prone to suspend at the depth it achieved when the retrieve was stopped to allow it to swirl in an eddy. With almost neutral buoyancy, it swung from side-to-side on its mid-body pivot point merely from water moving it when the retrieve was suspended. Ligament-tearing hits tended to happen as the swaying Maple was paused on the retrieve. The point to pause was upon detection that water pressure lightened up against the metal lip, meaning the plug just popped into a slack eddy swirl. As the water pressure eased off, reeling stopped and the Maple just swayed on its pivot point in the swirling eddy until struck.

Donny’s Maple had a wide-ranging motion. It tended to pivot more widely and slowly on its mid-point and exhibited more of a wide sway than a swim. The side-to-side swing was extreme, almost to the point it would roll over in a full-body loop, which it never quite did. To tune a Donny Maple properly, the line tie eye would be bent downward to the point the Maple would just barely be able to right itself again at the extreme upper arc of its side roll. Once the line tie angle was set, then the lip generally would be bent to the identical angle as the line tie, thereby inducing the optimum swaying action in each Maple. Almost always a sparsely-dressed bucktail single stainless Siwash enhanced the Maple action better than a treble on the tail.

Many fine fish were swayed by the deep allure Donny’s Maple could deliver. There were few other lures, except Danny’s Conrad, that could compete at the effective depth of Donny’s Maple.

A few Donny Maples came with a specific gravity less than one (1). Such Maples sunk ever so slowly, making the depth potential even greater.

For reasons unknown to me, it was not uncommon for some Donny Maples to exhibit hairline cracks in the finish within minutes of hitting the water. This could occur even with a new lure fresh off the lathe. Yet it was never known to me to affect the Maple’s fish-attracting charm in any way.
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Bull Mullet

This lure was known to me as the Bull Mullet and was acquired from New Jersey. Other than that, I know little of its origin. I recently inquired with some surf plug aficionados, and it seems this plug was likely to have been made by a person named Robby Mitchell perhaps. I have recently seen some photos of apparently the same make plug, and some copies have RM or BM stamped into the lip. This plug, however, has no stamp on it and if I am not mistaken, the plug shown here sounds to be of older origin than some of the stamped ones. However, it does sound as if Robby (or Bobby) Mitchell was perhaps the plug maker.

It’s maker may have had the legendary Creek Chub Bait Company Surfster in mind when designing the Bull Mullet. It does have the short body, planed crown, shape lines and cupped lip that brings the CCBC Surfster to my mind. However, that’s where the similarity ends since the CCBC Surfster is a true topwater walker whereas the Bull Mullet can and does swim down to modest subsurface levels.

It is quite beautiful (more than in the photo), of impeccable craftsmanship, and makes a fine addition to any surf lure collector’s harem. I have never seen any except a small handful of them. This particular one was acquired from Jersey at the time, approximately twenty years ago, more or less. I never saw more than about a dozen of them – acquired together. However, there exists the possibility they were more common than I am aware.
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Needlefish

Who knows how long ago the first needlefish was made and who really cares? They may have been made for a long, long time, but they were unknown on the striper coast until a few were innocently taken to Block Island from Cape Cod in the late seventies. Then all hell broke loose and the needlefish was reborn into modernity. Would you like to hear how it happened?

My bassin’ crew summered over on the Cape as usual, and Tony Chiarappo and Mike De Simone of Bass Run tackle shop there kept telling us this one summer about these stupid-looking Boone’s needlefish that the guys fishing Buzzards Bay (across from the Coast Guard Station) were starting to use on big bass. We had never seen a needlefish before, and they looked totally ridiculous when we first saw them. Looked just like pencils with hooks. But we bought a few anyway, before we go to travel back down the coast with the autumn line storms. They were Boone’s with brown backs (looked like a stick of poo) and olive green/light blue back combo (which looked nice). You can never have enough lures you know, and you really don’t want to ever get caught in a blitz without having at least a few of every plug ever known to mankind. Helps you function better, you know.

By the time we got to Block Island, we were doing well with plastic lip plugs and eels. I don’t know why, but I decided to try a needlefish. Well, we started to ton out with them. It was ridiculous though. You see, the Boone’s were soft white pine and they had SCREW EYE HOOK HOLDERS. It was unreal, like a nightmare. You would beach a mid-40, screw everything back together. Cast it out and beach another one. Screw it back, beach it, screw it in…well you get the idea. You were afraid to look at the needlefish once the sun came up out of horror of how flimsy a plug you were actually using to tong big bass. Well, it was quite unacceptable to us, so we called Donny Musso of Super Strike fame and told him what we needed. He made the first Super Strike needlefish for us out of maple. He express-mailed them to us.

Charlie Dodge was the island’s resident sharpie, and his mom worked in the post office. So Charlie alerted his mom about suspicious-looking packages being addressed to us, and Dodge had a habit of finding out from Mrs. Dodge whenever a package of new needlefish came over in the post box on the afternoon ferry. Of course, Dodge would always take his cut.

When we used the very first batch that night, the paint was still tacky. The first ones, Donny made the swivels and hooks too light. We bigged up the hooks, but the cows were still pulling apart the swivels like they were cotton candy. So the next morning we had to pull the through-wires out and re-rig with bigger swivels and hooks. Once we did that, we cowed out like there was no future. We let Donny know of whatever modifications were required, such as to replace the original two belly hooks with only one central belly hook. (Note: The three Super Strike needlefish shown and at right above are these.) Donny fed us a lifeline of needlefish as we worked the coast that fall. The next year, Donny contracted for the injection mold for the plastic needlefish. Some of the first ones curled up on the ends like ripe bananas. After a while, he got them straightened out, and the rest is, as they say, history.

The Super Strikes are the “original” modern day needlefish plugs and still work the best for moderate to heavy surf and sweeping tides. The Super Strikes do not work as well in calmer, slower water. For progressively heavier surf, stronger sweeps, and harder blows, we drilled and loaded the Super Strikes with light, medium and heavy loads. When you hefted the heavy load in your hand, it almost felt like solid lead. You could cast this into the worst seas that King Neptune could throw at you, and still slew out on big bass with it!

As I am aware of it, the Gibbs needlefish came out with the first models of their wooden needlefish about a year or two later. Gibbs had the Gibbs heavy screw eyes, and they didn’t fish quite right to me. Still, for a lot of anglers, the Gibbs were the only needlefish they could get, and they caught a lot of big bass on them. They were lighter and floated higher than other needlefish I was using. They were best to me for slack tides, light surf, and especially in cut-off kinds of tide pools up close to shore. (Note: The three Gibbs needlefish shown above are these.) The next year, Gibbs came out with a better shape and a through-wired model that was and still does work very well in shallower, calmer, slower water than the Super Strike.  (Note: The four Gibbs needlefish shown at right are these.) There were no other brands or models out there around this time that I am aware of, just these two models (the Super Strike and the screw-eye Gibbs), plus the older, flimsy Boones.

The best needlefish color by far was fluorescent green back with white belly. Also, all black. Fluorescent pink backs were also okay on Block Island, but fluorescent pink backs were far more deadly in the Cape. A shocking fluorescent chartreuse always seemed to drive bass insane during those sleep-deprived, incoherent moments right at first light. MACKEREL was hot, hot, hot. The fact that mackerel was so hot often makes me very suspicious whenever people say that needlefish were designed to imitate sand eels and therefore only work when sand eels are present. I am not too sure I absolutely agree with that theory. Yes, they do work exceptionally well in the presence of sand eels, but I have caught enough big bass on them throughout the years whenever conditions seem right for them – which usually means a HEAVY SWEEP. By the way, although they do catch small bass or blues, I believe that it is the larger bass that exhibit a special fondness for needles.

Neither Donny nor Gibbs were entirely tuned into the best colors (to me) in the beginning – the glaring day glow green, pink or chartreuse colors. Although we asked Donny to do the complex mackerel patterns for us in blue, green and fluorescent green mackerel, I guess we just never got around to telling Donny just how good the shocking day glow colors were…so we would spray them up ourselves in the backyard when no one was looking our way. Although some of the lures pictured here are yellow, they are not the bright, blazing hot chartreuse we painted ourselves.

At some time not long thereafter, Danny Pichney, a legendary wood plug maker from Long Island who has passed on, came out with an assortment of needlefish ranging from stubby little needlefish drilled full of lead and nicknamed the “Pocket Rocket” was about 4″ long, no belly hooks, just a large single O’ Shaughnessy tail hook with long saddle hackles on it. Danny also produced his full-sized 6″ needlefish at this time. There have never been too many of them made by Danny is my impression (which may be mistaken) and they are very rare as I understand it. (Note: Danny’s three needlefish shown above are these.)

Shortly thereafter, Super Strike came out with his uniquely-designed little football-shaped needlefish called the “Bullet” shown at right. It casts well, and holds well in a moderate surf. Although the Bullet is a fair producer, I would never recommend that you remove the hooks, slide an eelskin over it, and use rodwrapping thread to tie it down in the recessed eye sockets. Never tie a double length of heavy mono to the back hookholder before you slide the skin on. The mono will never prevent the eelskin tail from fouling the belly treble too much. Never replace only the belly hook (no tail hook) with a larger size treble. It just won’t work – and if you somehow get it to work, never tell anybody. It is our little secret, okay?

As far as getting the proper action out of any and all varieties of needlefish, bending the wire eye up or down will allow you to tune your lure for the correct action. As you experiment by twisting the eye up or down, you are looking for an eye position at which the lure almost – but never quite – becomes unstable and unbalanced for the surf and sweep conditions you are fishing. Take ten minutes out of your fishing for proper tuning. It will bring out your needle’s best fish-catching action.

That’s it for now. I hope you have enjoyed reading a little bit about needlefish history.
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This is the most famous needlefish plug of all time. The first version of this lure became popular on Block Island during the late 70’s. It was made for me and my fishing partner at that time. The rest is, as they say, history.

This is an injection-molded plastic Super Strike Lures needlefish plug designed by Donny Musso. Super Strike makes three sizes of it. This is the largest size of the three.

At one time (no longer) Super Strike made two models of this size. The Yellow Eye model is still made (but no longer in this mackerel color). The Green Eye model shown here is no longer made. The discontinued Green Eye was weighted differently and lighter to swim higher than the Yellow Eye model.

Relative to other brands and models of needlefish that debuted at the time (needlefish were “new” then), the Yellow Eye Donny was in a class by itself due to its weight and depth. No other stock needlefish competed in the Yellow Eye Donny space so to speak. It outproduced all others for me.

Other brands and models tended to be lighter and swim higher than the Yellow Eye Donny. This Green Eye Donny competed favorably in the same space as these other lighter, higher-swimming brands and models. Personally, I felt it was a superior producer relative to the others. It was more precision-made, more tunable to perfect the plug’s action, and withstood repeated cow-catching without losing its tune better than other brands and models.

Most often, the Yellow Eye Donny was the better choice and top producer for me under ordinary conditions of wind, tide, current and sweep. Only when wind and water conditions softened would the Yellow Eye Donny begin to lose its edge. That’s when I would switch over to other lighter higher-swimming needlefish, most often pulling the Green Eye Donny out for calm wind, calm water or shallow shoal water. It was the choice for wadable sand spits, sand bars where bass were up on top of the shallow spots only a few feet deep. Also shallow tidal pools formed next to, behind or downstream of extended rocky points or reefs. Such slow water pools adjacent to bars, points or reefs were often formed by slow-moving counter-tidal eddies. Bait collects in such pools – and on the high spots atop bars.

Many anglers tend to mistakenly wade right out onto such bars or into such pools. They blow out bass that were feeding in the waist-deep places where most anglers desire to stand. They don’t ever know they do it. This is one of the most common positioning errors I tend to see surf anglers make – to wade in the same spot where bass want to come up to feed. Remember, the tip of a sand bar is not a place for you to stand, it is a place for bass to feed upon, boys. In such situations, ankle-deep is the best place for you. Waist-deep is the best place for the bass. Don’t blow them out of there. This is the skinny water realm where the Green Eye Donny reigned kingly over the competition for me. These bass are rarely caught or cast to, since most guys wade out and blow them out without knowing it. Also, flatter, calmer, slower-moving water than ordinary was the realm of the Green Eye Donny.

This mackerel color was hot, hot, hot. Mackerel was one of the very best needlefish colors I have ever used. The fact that mackerel was so hot often makes me so suspicious whenever people say that needlefish were designed to imitate sand eels and therefore only work when sand eels are present. I am not too sure I absolutely agree with that theory. Yes, they do work exceptionally well in the presence of sand eels, but I have caught enough big bass on them throughout the years whenever conditions seem right for them – which usually means a CROSS SWEEP.

In fact, I go against the popular opinion held that needlefish only work in the presence of sand eels. That isn’t true in my experience. Donny’s needlefish possesses (in fact, almost perfectly) the most common baitfish profile in the ocean. Most all baitfish tend to share this profile – and Donny’s needlefish shape approximates them all. Also the “do nothing” nature of the needlefish approximates (in fact, almost perfectly) the do nothing nature of most baitfish.

In terms of lures, bass often only need the barest impression or suggestion of their food, not an ultra-realistic copy of it. To bass, the skinny shape tapered at the head and tail and gliding motion of a needlefish may be all the recognition that’s needed to trigger a <fill-in-the-blank here> baitfish species impression. Keep in mind, to fish a needle properly is to fish it on the drift (not the retrieve) and in that case, the wider tail of the needlefish appears as the wider “head” of the baitfish profile. with the line tie end representing the baitfish tail as it swims downtide.

Most baitfish essentially “do nothing” most of the day but float and slowly move along rather uneventfully. Unless bothered by a predator, of course. Then they hide in the sand or behind something. Point is, I believe the exaggerated wiggling motion on most other lures is excessive and unnatural in terms of imitating baitfish, which essentially glide along on hardly-noticeable flicks of their tails that propel them in a rather straight direction – just like a needlefish. It’s the same premise behind and presentation delivered by a leadhead bucktail jig and rind – and why the bucktail is regarded to be the best fish lure in creation.

I believe the needlefish is among the most misunderstood and misused of surf plugs. Most persons state they do not do well with them – except in the presence of sand eels – which is when the persons’ shortcomings in presenting the needlefish properly take a backseat. You do not work a needlefish. It works for you. You need a cross-sweep, and you need to slack line a needlefish, using the sweep to activate it. Any tight line or rod pull will negate the action. Any working against the flow will negate the action. Work with the flow with a slack line drift. This is a different approach than any other plug. Most other plugs float meaning have a specific gravity or buoyancy greater than one (1). Needlefish do not. Swimming plugs with a specific gravity greater than one, you always require some resistance (no matter how slight, even if just thumbing line while a plug drifts) to work the attached lip or angled darter or bottle head based on resistance to it. This resistance drives them under and wiggles them. Most guys do not understand the needlefish. Resistance they are accustomed to using to activate all other plugs instead negates a needlefish’s action. It is more like drifting a weighted nymph or sinking streamer fly for trout – but even more so since it is only a slack line drift that allows a needlefish to act like a natural baitfish swimming downtide tail-first.

Of paramount importance to ensure your needlefish will work for you (you don’t work it), is to adjust the wire eye up or down to tune your lure for the correct action. As you experiment by twisting the eye up or down, you are looking for an eye position at which the lure almost – but never quite – becomes unstable and unbalanced for the surf and sweep conditions you are fishing. This is another of the most common errors I see anglers make. Actually, I don’t see them do it. Most guys never do it to the degree it is required. Take time out of your fishing for proper tuning. It will bring out your needle’s best fish-catching action. So then when you are doing nothing, your properly-tuned needlefish is always doing something subtle just as a baitfish does to evoke smashing strikes.

As part of the manufacturing process, this lure model may tend for some of the noses to droop slightly. This may happen to some since the wire that runs through does so on a curvature, and some of the noses may tend to take on this shape. It doesn’t affect fish-catching ability. If desired, re-straighten by hand and/or compensate for it by bending the line tie eye.

This fluorescent pink color was hot, hot, hot. It’s effectiveness was first discovered by my partners and I on Cape Cod’s outer beaches in the seventies. We first used it in the original (no longer made) Rebel Windcheater F80 swimmer. This particular plug in this color became legendary on the Cape. We were let in on it by an associate, Tony “Tuna Tattoo” Prokop, so named since he had a bass tattoo on his forearm that looked far more like a tuna than a bass. Based on his sharing, both Tuna Tattoo’s crew (to whom we are forever grateful) and ours tonged the tar out of big bass by spraying hot fluorescent pink on many of or lures the next few seasons – including the very first “modern day” needlefish which began to be produced toward the end of the seventies. We tried to keep the color secret as long as possible, clandestinely spraying it ourselves. It became a midnight ritual, seen only by the eyes of the bass gods. We had a good run for a few seasons with it, yet it was not too long until fluorescent hot pink leaked out as is prone to happen. Even still, fluorescent hot pink never really ended up being widely available during its heyday. For instance, I can’t recall seeing Bombers, Cordell Red Fins or other standard lures of the day produced in hot pink back then. It does still remain to this day a stock color available via Super Strike Lures and other manufacturers do produce it today. However, this Green Eye needlefish model is no longer produced.
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These are injection-molded plastic Super Strike Lures needlefish plugs. Super Strike makes three sizes of it. This is the middle size of the three.

As part of the manufacturing process, this lure model may tend for some of the noses to droop slightly. This may happen to some since the wire that runs through does so on a curvature, and some of the noses may tend to take on this shape. It doesn’t affect fish-catching ability. If desired, re-straighten by hand and/or compensate for it by bending the line tie eye.

The white back was the best “painter” for those who desired to paint the backs (or even the entire lure) themselves.

To repaint was a simple process involving spray cans. First, always lightly sand the section you desire to repaint, whether only the back or the entire body. Just a light sanding with a fine grade abrasive. Then spray a thin white base coat of flat (not gloss) white primer. Apply one thin white base coat – as thin as possible to cover the underlying original color. Let it dry and evaluate whether it has sufficiently occluded the underlying original color. You usually don’t want the original color to “taint” through to compromise the new repaint color. That’s the purpose of the white primer – to whitewash over the original plug color. It is better to use two thin base coats if needed rather than a single thick one. In between any successive coats, always wait as long as you can – a few minutes, a few hours, a day – between coats for drying time. It’s worth the wait, boys. And do I need to tell you not to paint at night or on a humid day (unless the cows just can’t wait)? Noon time is best.

I have always been a strong proponent of flat color finishes as opposed to gloss finishes. Over time, the flat finishes seem to be the best bass catchers. Therefore I tend to seek the flattest and truest colors I can to repaint plugs. By “true” colors, I can’t put in words easily, but they would be the clearest, brightest, most visible flat colors possible. Flat finishes tend to apply thinner than gloss. So it is better if needed to use two thin color coats rather than a single thick coat. Thin coats adhere best and present themselves best. When desiring a flat finish, I do not clear coat over it.

Of course, you can simply fish these white needlefish without repainting them. The white color pattern is arguably the most productive surf plug color of all time. I do believe all-white surf plugs (with or without secondary color accent markings) produce more bass than all other colors combined together.
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Darters

In terms of Danny’s plugmaking timeline, Danny’s Darter  was one of the earliest of Danny Pichney’s plug styles, along with his Surface Swimmer and Conrad. Those three were among Danny’s earliest and most successful plugs.

Danny’s Darter became an instant success when it was introduced at Montauk Point, New York – home of the darter.It immediately became the savvy surf sharpies darter of choice. Looking at it, you could not see what made it so special, but i the water, stripers were able to spot something different – and very appealing – about Danny’s Darter.

It is a large size darter and worked well in big water on big bass.

I am aware of three sizes of Donny wood darter plus a jointed one, all shown at right.

The 5-1/2″ darter (shown bottom in photo) was the smallest and lightest with just one belly hook (plus tail hook). Whereas one of Donny’s larger size darters has been redesigned in plastic by his Super Strike Lures company, this 5-1/2″ darter has been made only in wood as far as I am aware.

Whereas Donny’s larger size darters tended to be used more in heavy sweeps such as the points and bars north of Montauk Light, I tended to use the smaller 5-1/2″ size more as a surf lure in moderate swells. I would drive the lure under, let it dart and pump against the back surge pull of a curling swell, and then dart and race it forward like a baitfish looking to feed as the wave crested past the darter’s position. Most guys did not use darters in waves like this, yet it was very productive. Key to the technique was to keep the darter hunkered down several feet deep, maintaining a consistent depth level with the darter at all times. You could let it pump in place against a back surge, keep it consistently 2-3 feet behind a curling wave face, and then drive it forward in a feeding or fleeing movement on the forward roll of the beachward surge. Next suspend it momentarily, hold, pause the darter, keeping it hunkered down and hunting side to side – without rising toward the surface. Key was to keep it working at the level where its depth caused resistance to it wanting to be that deep, constantly propelling it to dart and hunt from side to side instead of rising upward. I never let that innate desire for the darter to rise happen. Keeping the darter deeper than it wanted to be instead channeled that energy to rise into the veering, darting movement. Each side move resulted from a rising move nipped short and pulled forward instead.
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Donny made two 6-3/8″ long wood darters. This is the slimmer and lighter one.

It’s interesting that mustard yellow was not a popular color in metal lip swimmers, yet mustard was numero uno in darters and bottle plugs.

It’s hard to fathom the difference. Did fish turn up their fins at yellow metal lips yet relish yellow bottles and darters with gusto? If so, why? It’s one of the wonderful mysteries and idiosyncrasies of surf fishing for which we may never have a plausible answer.
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Donny made two 6-3/8″ long wood darters. This is the fatter and heavier one,

With hooks, it weighed in at 3 ounces and cast a long distance even into a stiff onshore breeze. This is Donny’s darter size that accounted for most of the largest fish I ever caught on Donny darters.

An important point is it had two belly hooks resulting in a higher hook-up percentage whereas the current plastic darter made by Super Strike Lures has only a single belly hook.
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I have only seen very few of these Donny jointed darters. I believe they are very rare.

This jointed darter had a violent wiggling action. I tended to use the jointed darters during the waning and waxing changes of slack water current reversals, relying on the intermittent pull of wave swells to activate its jointed wiggling motion as opposed to the more steady pull of a full strength tidal current.
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Bottle Plugs

Bottle plugs and darters go hand in hand. Like darters, bottle plugs develop a zigzagging swimming action in strong sweeping currents.

Bottle plugs are most at home off deep beaches and off sand or gravel bars that drop off quickly to deep water. A strong, steady cross-tide sweep is the ideal situation for swimming bottle plugs.
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Topwaters

The Little Neck Popper made by Super Strike is one of the most well-known and productive topwater lures for bass, bluefish and weakfish in the Northeast Atlantic. It works as well from surf or boat. Extreme long distance casting. Made of extremely durable and rugged plastic that will withstand the toothiest fish. Will work anywhere on any kind of inshore saltwater surface-feeding gamefish that takes such type lures.

Super Strike Little Neck Poppers come in multiple model weights ands lengths. To me, the 2-3/8 oz sinking swimmer was the most productive of the six models.

In general in the lure manufacturing business, this is a common phenomenon I observe that one certain size of a model outperforms other sizes of the same model. More often than not, it tends to be the original or first-made size that possesses a certain something to it – which does not always copy over to other subsequent sizes of the same model. I’ve seen this phenomenon occur even with exact computer-generated copies larger or smaller than the original and the same in every dimension except for that certain something. The French use a phrase to describe when something possesses this elusive intangible property. This desirable property is called “je n’ai sais quoi” and so often one size of a lure model possesses more of it than other sizes of the same lure model.

Not only does this model of Super Strike Little Neck pop perfectly in all kinds of surface conditions from smooth to wave-tossed, but this model has the knack to swim much like a bottle plug when retrieved between pops. There are few other poppers that do this so well. Highly effective is a three part retrieve rhythm:

1. Sweep the rod to pop it,
2. Bow the rod momentarily to pause it to let it sink under a bit,
3. Reel it to swim several feet back up to top before repeating the sequence.

One word about the all black model. Black poppers are not often used – except swimming and splashing it slowly at night. However a black popper can be deadly during daylight as well. More people should try black poppers by day. If you’ve never enjoyed the thrill of explosive surface strikes that come on a Super Strike Little Neck Popper, then you are missing the ultimate surfcasting thrill.
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This lure was called for under the roughest and wildest surf conditions when other topwaters became ineffective. The orange color was very visible under such extreme conditions. Also, a thin coat of flat white spray paint was often added to either the belly or the entire body. Sprayed on thin and without sanding first, the flat white often flecked off to reveal the underlying orange – a desirable contrast. An enormous single hook Siwash white bucktail dressed hook was attached to the tail, and a treble on the belly. It was important the treble was sized in order to mitigate catching on the fishing line as the Reverse Squid was jerked through the wild waves or tumbled about in white water.

Danny’s Reverse Squid could be cast on the heaviest tackle required under rough surf conditions. The Reverse Squid had all its weight in the rear which made it a ballistic casting plug. It excelled in the roughest and fastest-moving waters where few other topwaters could compete.

It is my impression which may be mistaken, that Danny’s Reverse Squid plug model is very rare.
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Jointed Giants

Big lures catch big bass. Large jointed lures of this kind were all generically referred to in the vernacular of the beach as jointed pikies, no doubt a slang reference to similarity in body length and similar construction to the trademarked Creek Chub Bait Company’s Jointed Pikie. The colloquial naming convention was that most all swimmers of any origin that were of this large jointed type construction were referred to by the striper brethren as jointed pikie type models.

Although these large jointed plugs could be used anywhere cow bass roam, these large jointed baits were most commonly seen on the Cape Cod beaches from the Race in Provincetown down through Nauset and Chatham in Orleans.

It was customary to use heavy conventional reels, Harnell or Harrington rods and 80 lb. test Dacron with these large jointed lures. Such outfits were also used to toss the thickest two foot long rigged eels – or the huge jointed lures.
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Big lures catch big bass. Large jointed lures of this kind were all generically referred to in the vernacular of the beach as jointed pikies, no doubt a slang reference to similarity in body length and similar construction to the trademarked Creek Chub Bait Company’s Jointed Pikie. The colloquial naming convention was that most all swimmers of any origin that were of this large jointed type construction were referred to by the striper brethren as jointed pikie type models.

Although these large jointed plugs could be used anywhere cow bass roam, these large jointed baits were most commonly seen on the Cape Cod beaches from the Race in Provincetown down through Nauset and Chatham in Orleans.

It was customary to use heavy conventional reels, Harnell or Harrington rods and 80 lb. test Dacron with these large jointed lures. Such outfits were also used to toss the thickest two foot long rigged eels – or the huge jointed lures.
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Jointed Eels

This lure was known as Danny’s Jointed Eel. Danny made at least two sizes – a 6-1/2″ size and this 7-1/2″ size.

This larger size jointed eel could be thrown with conventional tackle if need be. It was actually better-suited to beefy spinning gear. It worked best in sweeps where there was not much surf, such as on the inlet side or downtide side of ocean jetties. Most guys tended to overwork jointed eels. The trick was to barely let thejointed eel flutter and wriggle on the surface as it floated down tide. Due to the jointed action, a dead drift provided all the enticement necessary. Bass would blast it off the top as it floated overhead.  It is my impression that Danny’s Jointed Eel plug models are very rare.
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This lure was known as Danny’s Jointed Eel. Danny made at least two sizes – a 7-1/2″ size and this 6-1/2″ size.

This size was ideal for spinning tackle, for the shallow flats of the back bays, and for the calmest summer nights on the open beaches. Basically, it worked best in protected waters or when there was flat calm. Most guys tended to overwork jointed eels. The trick was to barely let the 6-1/2″ jointed eel flutter and wriggle on the surface as it floated down tide. Due to the jointed action, a dead drift provided all the enticement necessary. Bass would blast it off the top as it floated overhead.  It is my impression that Danny’s Jointed Eel plug models are very rare.
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Sand Eels

This lure was known to me as Danny’s Sand Eel swimmer.  Danny made at least two sizes – a 5-3/4″ and 7″ size. Danny also made at least two head shapes – a square head and a slope head. The square head tended to have a wider metal lip in it. The Slope Head Sand Eel, I have only seen a few. This listing is for a matched set of the square heads.

I do not know how long Danny may have made this lure type, but I did not see it myself until later in his plugmaking career. It’s my understanding at the time, over twenty years ago, that these may have been experimental or limited prototypes. Whether that’s correct or not, I myself have never seen too many. I do not know how many Danny may have made, but these were uncommon to me. It is my impression that all Danny’s Sand Eel plug models are very rare.

It is my impression (which may be mistaken) that Danny experimented making these in response to a large population boom of sand eels in the surf at one time. With so many sand eels, slender lures like plastic lip minnows and needlefish became the popular fare of surf fish and fishermen alike. So it may have been a case of Danny Pichney experimenting to match the hatch. I just do not know, but that was my impression at the time.

An important point of interest to plug collectors and surf fishing history buffs about Danny’s rare 5-3/4″ and 7″ Sand Eel Swimmer is that their size, shape and dimensions are strikingly close to the popular 6″ and 7″ plastic lip minnows (Cordell Red Fins, Rebel Windcheaters, Bomber Magnum Long A’s, for example). In fact, about as close as you can get in wood (in Danny’s style). Indeed, some anglers nicknamed and referred to Danny’s Sand Eel as the “Rebel Copy”. When held side by side, it is plain to see the similarities between Danny’s Sand Eel Swimmer compared to popular plastic lip minnows.

Plastic Lip Minnows

Seven inch plastic lip minnows are a mainstay of open beach surf fishing. Typically, heavy spinning gear is preferred over conventional gear to throw plastic lips. Often, a feather teaser dropper is tied on a swivel ahead of a plastic lip. Some trips, more fish hit the feather dropper than hit the larger swimmer.

The Rebel Windcheater models, which are no longer made, were considered by me to be the best plastic lip minnows on Cape Cod’s outer beaches. For some reason, this model swimmer was most often preferred by bass on the Cape’s outer beaches. Another important use of the Windcheater was in fast-moving rips where the Windcheater stayed very stable (other plastic lips tend to flip out and spin in strong rips) whereas the Windcheater strummed strongly in a rip, getting quite deep.

The regular Rebel Minnows were preferred by me while fishing daylight, especially with flat surf conditions. Reason is, it presented a slimmer, narrower profile under scrutiny of daylight and calm sea conditions. Also good on the quiet back beach flats at night, dusk and false dawn. The slimmer profile could draw hits by day whereas the bulkier Windcheater was the ticket by night or in white water. The bright pink sides of the Rainbow Trout color (no longer made) was an incredible color particularly at the Cape. In fact, I’d say bright pink back or sides was the best of all Cape Cod colors in its day.

The green mackerel colors, which are no longer made, were favorites on the Cape, Block Island and outer beaches in New England where tinker mackerel could be expected to appear on the beaches or in the bays.

The blue rainbow color is unique and unusual. Historically, it is a very old color pattern that I’ve seen on lures from the early 1900’s. It is not seen much on modern day lures, but I can vouch for the fact that rainbow plugs may lead to a “pot of gold”. They are a proven producer on bass.
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Who knows why fish show interest in such bright fluorescent colors? It may be a simple matter that they’re brighter, offer more contrast, are visible further underwater, more noticeable, and fish have a better chance to see your lure from a distance. I’m just speculating here, I really do not know why fish strike them, show finicky preferences for one over another, but surely they do.

My fishing crew and I surely did not invent these bright fluorescent colors. But I can say we were among the first to popularize or re-introduce the use of fluorescent patterns like these starting in the mid-seventies.

So I may stand mistaken, but I was unaware of fluorescent lure patterns like these in use on striper plugs until my crew implemented fluorescent patterns in New England and the mid-Atlantic. Standard fare at that time, most of what I had seen in use then had mostly been “traditional” colors – standard whites, yellows, blacks, blues, mackerels, blue backs, black backs for instance – but not these fluorescent type baits. Beginning since the late seventies, we started use of these fluorescent type baits, beginning by repainting standard color plugs with fluorescents ourselves.

Nowadays, fluorescents are relatively common striper color patterns. However, the relics shown here are still a tad fancier, more interesting and if I am not mistaken, rare color patterns in plastic lip minnows even today.
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My fishing crew and I surely did not invent these bright fluorescent green colors. But I can say we were among the first to popularize or re-introduce the use of fluorescent patterns like these starting in the mid-seventies.

It started with hot fluorescent dayglow pinks and soon progressed to the fluorescent lime green-backed plugs. At first we sprayed our own, and did not let on to others how effective the bass found them. But it is hard to keep such things secret long. Over time, I’d say the fluorescent green backs became the most popular fluorescent plugs.

I can recall the first night we sprayed some plugs (needlefish) entirely fluorescent green, not just the backs but the entire bodies. Use of fluorescents was new and exciting back then.

If you are not familiar with it, let me show you how it got its funny name. First, look at the three red gill stripes. That’s the chicken’s foot. Then it is easy to see the scratch lines the three toes have left down the side of the plug. I wonder when bass bite it, do they think it tastes like chicken?
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These are the floating 7″ Rebel Windcheaters with the extra wide bodies. They’re not the “thin” F40 floaters, which are still available. These are not the “new” uni-body Windcheaters either, which don’t hold the same charm over bass. These are the long ago discontinued original WIDE body hard-to-find Windcheaters with the factory glued-in lip. The lip say “REBEL Floater” on it.

These are the extra wide FLOATING 7″ Windcheaters they do not make any more.

The Rebel Windcheater models, which are no longer made, were considered by me and many others to be the best plastic lip minnows on Cape Cod’s outer beaches. In fact, one of the best Cape plugs period. For some reason, this model swimmer was most often preferred by bass on the Cape’s outer beaches from Provincetown (Race Point) right down the 40 mile stretch of outer beaches to Chatham Inlet. Who knows why bass decide to do what they do? For whatever weird reason they devour this Windcheater there – and still do. The close-mouthed Cape sharpies who knew about this plug (not everyone knew) still have a couple tucked away in their sock drawers they guard closely. As guys are using up their last ones, they are facing hard times finding more.

I wish there were some super tips to give you on those plugs – but they really fish themselves. Work best in a strong methodical sweep as opposed to a chaotic surf.

You may want to check on how solid each lip is implanted so it doesn’t get broken out by a fish or whatever. And use a sewing needle with clear epoxy on it on it to get far back in the lip cavity like a dentist filling teeth. This was something that needed to be done with some Windcheaters even brand new right off the factory floor.

Another thing – it is sometimes required to tune the line-tie eye for best action. Turning it right or left to cure an errant sideways swimmer is easily done if you are careful. However, if you need to turn the eye up or downward (usually downward enhanced a slothful swimmer) be forewarned the plastic is unforgiving and easily loosens around the eye, so be careful. If the eye does loosen or leave a cavity, carefully filling it with superglue may give some solace.

You may want to repaint one with a bright fluorescent pink back. That was an incredible color particularly at the Cape. In fact, I’d say a bright pink back on the Windcheater was the best of all Cape Cod colors in its day. Lightly sand the back, put down a thin spray of white primer. When that dries, spray the brightest flat color fluorescent dayglow pink back possible.

The green mackerel color Windcheaters were favorites on the Cape, Block Island and outer beaches in New England where tinker mackerel could be expected to appear on the beaches, in the inlets or bays. There were two green mackerel variants, one brighter green mackerel, the other a darker naturalistic Spanish Mackerel color print.

If you plan to head to P-Town, the Race, Sandwich Beach, Nauset, Pochets, Chatham Inlet or anywhere in between or thereabout, you may want to have one or two of these producers tucked in with your socks where no one else can find them.
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These are the floating 6″ Rebel Windcheaters with the extra wide bodies. They’re not the “thin” floaters, which are still available. These are not the “new” integrated lip/body Windcheaters either, which don’t hold the same charm over stripers. These are the long ago discontinued original WIDE body hard-to-find Windcheaters with the factory glued-in lip. The lip say “REBEL Made in U.S.A. Floater” on it.

These are the extra wide FLOATING 6″ Windcheaters they do not make any more.

This Rebel Windcheater model, which is no longer made, was considered by me and many others to be one of the best 6″ plastic lip swimmers ever made for the surf and bay. As the name implies – WINDCHEATERS – they cast exceptionally far. They swim deep. I’ve seen them get down deep ten feet in strong rips off ocean inlet jetties and off deeply-cut beaches with sweeping currents. Even in areas of mild or no current, they will swim deeper than most other 6″ plastic lips in your bag. As guys are using up their last ones, they are having hard times finding more.

One of their best merits is that they are extremely stable swimmers even in strong rips, undertows and chaotic surf, they hunker down and strum strongly. They will not flip out and spin like most other plastic lips in rough or fast water. They’ll vibrate your rod tip like nobody’s business – until the rod is practically yanked out of your hand. Another merit is they can easily handle stout 2/0 trebles or when fish run large, 3/0 is doable. Most other 6″ plastic lips cannot handle that.

The all black color was one of the top plastic lip minnow colors at night – and at times by day too (although few threw all black by day). Many persons blindly follow the axiom, Dark night, dark plugs. Bright night, light plugs, but that is an old wives’ tale. Some of the best nights I ever had with all black plastic lips were the brightest nights. Try black plastic lip minnows every night. If fish want black any given night, they’ll tap you on the shoulder (I mean, plug). Soon you too will dismiss the fables involving dark or light lure predictions.

This hard-to-find plug was one of the best 6″ plastic lip minnows of all time.
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These are sinking 7″ Rebel Minnows.

Many guys would hear these sinking minnows were used on the deep Cape Cod beaches. So they’d buy a few, try them on the Cape, and not do well with them.

In this case, there was no need to keep the plug secret. Everyone heard of the plug being used. Problem was they’d fish them like floating plastic lips – which was dead wrong with these sinking minnows. The secret was in the method.

The sinking Rebel Minnows were preferred by me while fishing daylight, especially with flat surf conditions. Rather than cast and retrieve them, the trick was to drift them without reeling. Simply make a quartering cast uptide (they cast like bullets), and let the sinking minnow drift back down with the tide past you. Only reel enough to take in excess slack, but never let the line come completely tight. Always have some slack play in the line. As the sinking minnow swings directly in front of you, if you know what to feel for, you will feel a pronounced tug pull tight on the line – which is the slack line snapped tight and the sinking minnow suddenly jumping, turning about face as it stems the tide and then rises slowly. This was the high percentage point to get hit – the exact moment the bottom-drifting minnow snapped tight, turned about-face and began struggling to rise up in the water column. So if there was any bottom structure, a rock, a pool or eddy where bass held, you needed to position yourself and your cast to have the sinking minnow snap about-face and rise right in front of their noses. When I say rise, it’s as much a loose line rise without line tension as possible. In fact, after a few seconds, you may desire to freespool line if it’s getting too much line tension. If no hit, simply let the plug swing on as slack a line as possible all the way downtide from you. You may need to hand-strip or freespool line to keep the tension out of it. A second high percentage hit point was at the very end of the drift as the plug washed almost up onto the beach – almost parallel to the deep shoreline. There was no line retrieval involved (except to reel in to make another cast) which is what most guys misunderstood or never knew about this deadly secret plug.

Essentially, if you know the art and subtle nuances of drifting a weightless live eel – then you know how to fish this plug. But few guys ever put two and two together. Hardly any realized the key to sinking minnow success was to drift it the same as a weightless live eel.

The 7″ Rebel Minnows came stock with 3/0 trebles. I replaced these with smaller yet far stronger 1/0 Eagle Claw #777SS 4X stainless trebles. The 1/0 #777SS 4X stainless trebles (see photo) were stronger than the stock 3/0’s and improved the sinking minnow’s action and appeal to bass.
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These are the floating 7″ Hell Cat plastic lip minnows. They were discontinued long ago.

The Hellcat came in a whole variety of sizes from 2″ inches up to 7″ inches. These are the 7″ size.

My education on the effectiveness of Hell Cats came in the mid-seventies. My fishing partners and I had some, used them here and there, but never thought much special about Hell Cats until we were witness to their effectiveness by legendary African-American surfcaster, Jerry Bernard. There was a superb morning run of 15 to 25 pound bass, and a handful of thirties and forties each morning on the back beaches of Buzzards Bay. It involved wading far out onto the sand flats, and the water was really swirling and humping. A line-up of twenty to thirty in the know was making up every morning. Although everyone was pulling in their fair share of these bass, Jerry B was the only fellow able to hook up almost every cast. Jerry B was just reeling them in, as many as fast as he was able.

As expected, Jerry B kept his bait in the water where none could glimpse what he was using. He kept it hidden well, and wasn’t talking. Everyone was a closed-mouthed type back then. So we and the other 20-30 guys in the line-up just hawked him to see what he was using to dominate the scene. He only became vulnerable whenever he unhooked a bass. Jerry B, would pull out of the line-up, dragging the bass to shore while keeping its head under water. The shore was far enough behind where we were wading so that no one could see his bait due to him backing up into the shallows so far behind us.

Now my partners and I were pretty assertive when we were being outfished. Although none of the others would wade back and walk past Jerry B at the vulnerable moment he was unhooking bass on the beach – we did walk back to the beach and pass him. The pretense was going to the truck for something, walking right past Jerry B as he knelt in the sand with his plug exposed – still stuck in the mouth of a cow. Well, we notice it’s 5-1/2″ Hellcats – and it doesn’t seem he has the diving lips on them! Well, we do this a few times, and each time, there doesn’t seem to be a lip on his Hellcat. So this goes on a few days. One of us always seem to need something from the truck a couple times each morning at the exact moments that Jerry B’s bait is exposed. Now, we’ve got a few Hellcats, and we crack the lips out of ours too, but can’t seem to catch anything. Meanwhile, Jerry B’s tonging them. It’s pretty frustrating, so we go back to what we usually used then under such conditions – a wobble-plate tin jig head and a 6″ eel-shaped soft plastic dressing, which was ideal in fluorescent lime green and fluorescent red those mornings. We’re catching our share, good sizes too, yet Jerry B’s still catching far better with the Hellcats. Something about the 5 1/2″ inch Hell Cat was truly special in fast-moving flows. I mean the water in the bay was really humping, and a cow could easily pull you out to sea if you got caught off balance. Lord knows I’m not letting go of my rod or the fish.

So this keeps on going daybreak after daybreak. By now we were dialed in real deadly deploying the swimplate eels. We’re mohawking bass. Jerry B’s still doing his one-man slaughterhouse act, and the rest of the line-up has rods doubling over all the time too. My partner and I are unhooking two huge bass on the beach, and Jerry B is too. We’re all worn out from a long night of no mercy and an extended morning of piling fish on the beach for weeks. In that moment, Jerry B eases on over to admire our fish. So, we’re talking. Jerry B’s asking what we are using, and we acknowledge we know he’s using Hell Cats. I say, “I see you like to use them without the lips?” and he says, “Nah, they’re made like crap and the cows just bust them loose – but there’s something about that Hellcat that makes me stick to using it in hard-moving water like this.”

Jerry B didn’t mind busting a few lips to authenticate why he was one of the greatest surf fishing legends of all time.

Based on that experience given to us by Jerry B, we had a new-found respect for Hell Cats. Not only did we heighten our use of the 5-1/2″ size in the back bays, but we also increased our efforts with the 7″ size after that, on the fast-moving sweeps of the outer beaches on the ocean side of the Cape.

We delightedly found the 7″ Hell Cat compared well to 7″ Rebel and 7″ Cordell Red Fin plastic lips, giving us yet another 7″ plastic lip minnow choice to entice the willing cows. Many of Cape Cod’s finest bass were landed by us on Hell Cats, thanks to Jerry B opening our eyes to them. Relatively few other anglers of that day ever used or knew how well Hell Cats worked, and the Hell Cat faded into obscurity. It was discontinued long ago.

And although it is true that cow bass could easily bust the lip out of a 5-1/2″ Hell Cat, it was not so easy for them to do that with the 7″ size – although they tried.

The Hell Cats are gone now, forgotten and lost in time as is Jerry B and many legends of endless nights drenched in sweat, sleep-deprived with autumn line storms raging and hearts racing as voracious hordes of cows would not stop eating the beach and we would not stop battling them no matter how exhausted we were. So many things of this, all of it, what happened is gone and forgotten about what bass and bass fishermen were once and never will be again.
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You can never have too many plugs in your bag since the striper is a finicky feeder that will befuddle you from night to night. The Rapala Magnum was yet another option to coerce them to eat when they’d turn their noses up at the more customary plastic lip offerings. The Rapala Magnum was a strong swimmer, and one of the few wood-bodied plastic lip minnows. Most others were plastic bodies.
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A strong plastic lip wood-bodied swimmer. It is also a great trolling plug used from a boat.

The 5″ Rebel minnow may possibly have hit the Northeast striper coast around 1963 or 1964. It may have been around for a long time before that in freshwater, but the Rebel was really the first plastic lip minnow in saltwater in the early sixties. There were two models, floating and sinking, in a few basic colors – green mackerel, blue chrome, black chrome. These were just the straight, slim profile Rebel minnow. The legendary Rebel Wind Cheaters did not come along until later.

The Rebel minnow was one of the greatest things to turn striped bass fishing around. The Rebel was a killer in itself. Without too much knowledge, you could tie one of these on, and it outdid the Junior Atom and all the basic plugs of the day. It was a revolution, a new way to fish for striped bass.

Now, I am not saying you could just buy it, tie it on and cremate bass. Most guys, they don’t know that half the plugs they buy do not swim right. Half the lips of the Rebels back then had some sort of glue growth on them, or they weren’t glued in firmly or the lips were crooked, and you had to pop them out, clean them up, and re-glue them in properly. One great thing about the Rebel was that the split rings were so strong, but at the same time, the split ring wire diameter was so heavy, they jammed in the hook hanger eyes, and got stuck, foiling the swimming action. So you had to remove all the hardware, carefully ream the hook hanger eyes out to enlarge them with an ice pick, at the same time not loosening them – then reassemble. Once you cleaned up and re-glued the lips, enlarged the hook hanger eyes, the final step was to test-swim them. Sometimes the line tie eye had to be adjusted sideways, which wasn’t such a big deal – to get true, straight swimming movement. That was the first test – to get straight, symmetrical side-to-side swimming action. The second decision was whether the eye had to be nudged upward or downward, to enhance the roll and life-like allure. This was the trickiest part since it is the step that would define the appeal that the Rebel would or would not have to bass – but it also risked loosening the eye out of the plastic, and ruining the plug. If the eye did loosen, I’d insert the red hot glowing tip on an ice pick in the wire eye for a minute, hoping the heat would re-melt the loosened plastic around the wire eye.

This doctoring is what made the Rebel such a killer. Most guys buy a plug and don’t try it first. Most would be surprised that plugs don’t swim properly at first. If you swim a plug right out of the package, and you approve of the action, so be it. That’s a rarity, and it is probably going to be an exceptional plug. However, most plugs require some work. You can almost tell which ones are going to be great fish-catchers. It seems the faster and easier a plug tunes – the better a fish-catcher it will be. A plug that behaves very moody, that needs a lot of time and work to tune it, it’s probably going to be a troublesome, moody fish-catcher too.

The 5″ Cotton Cordell Red Fin made its way to the striper coast not long after the Rebel Minnow.

At first, the Red Fin was ill-suited for striped bass duty. The original Red Fins had soft copper split rings, soft yellow brass hook hangers, soft bronze hooks and painted blue eyes. They were made for freshwater.

Fortunately, bass loved them,. However, you could not use them with the original hardware. Biggest problem was the soft copper split rings would uncurl. You’d get a hit, fight the fish a little bit, and then the line would go limp. You’d think maybe you’d dropped the fish, but then look at the plug, and see there are no hooks left on it. The split rings are gone. You could close your eyes and picture the copper split rings uncurling as easily as you would pull the lace open to untie your shoe. No matter how gingerly you played a fish, the forces of bass and surf were too powerful for the measly copper split rings that originally came on the Red Fins.

So you’d have to pull the split rings off some Rebel minnows. The Rebels had heavy duty stainless steel rings. The Rebel, the hooks would bend straight or break first. The Rebel split rings were too thick to fit through the yellow brass hook eyes on the Red Fins. So you had to ream out the brass eyes on all the Red Fins to get the stainless split rings on them. You would also put the stout saltwater hooks from the Rebels onto the Red Fins. After making those changes, the Red Fin became another story – one of glory.

The 5″ plastic lip minnows opened up a whole new paradigm of surf fishing and back bay inlet fishing. Although the Rebel minnow produced fish – and it cast more easily – it really was the Red Fin that produced better catches.

Where I found the 5″ Red Fins to be most deadly were in little corners, little folds or pockets where the bait got jammed in there, seeking sanctuary. It wasn’t big bait – just sperling and silversides and such. Most anglers of the day all used stout conventional rods. They were either bait fishermen or threw rigged eels and big wood plugs. Say someone’s just fished over this little corner, this little safe haven of sperling – with a massive Jointed Pikie, an Atom 40, an Atom Junior or some large lure like that. Then you could slip down into the water with a spinning rod and something no one else rarely used in the surf – the 5″ Red Fin that matches the hatch. Kaboom!

Even when word started to get out, people knew some of the super sharpies were relying on the 5″ Red Fins, you’d rarely see no more than a handful of guys on the beaches with these light spinning rods and Red Fins – yet they were usually the guys who had a load of fish. One of the problems that most guys had with the 5″ Red Fin was that they couldn’t cast it far. Even with only a light breeze, you weren’t going to get much beyond the first wave. A big cast is an ego booster, so most guys could not deal with the 5″ Red Fins, use a spinning rod to do that.

As the larger and more castable 7″ Red Fins and other 7″ plastic lip minnows came onto the scene, they became more popular, very popular. Guys could cast them, yet it was still considered light tackle, a step down in size but much closer to the big conventional gear that made guys comfortable. For the 7″ plastic lips, it also needed to be a spinning rod, but at least guys could get it out past the first wave. The 7″ Red Fin, guys could deal with that, use a spinning rod to do that. Yet most people, even after experiencing the success of the 7″ plastic lip minnows. they could never get it in their minds how big stripers could be caught on the flimsy-looking 5″ Red Fins. But to a rare few anglers, it had become a whole new way of surf fishing – finesse. Only a few embraced it wholeheartedly, and had it all to themselves. For them, both their quality and quantity of beach-caught fish skyrocketed using the spinning rods, lighter line and 5″ Red Fins.

A great trick was to cast straight out in front of you, and just keep the line taut as the Red Fin swung in a semi-circle down tide. Often the hit would come when the Red Fin was parallel to the bank directly downtide from you, only a second before the surf spit the plug out onto dry sand. You couldn’t do this, get these close-in hits on a short cast. You had to let it swing down, which took a lot of time, and most guys were too impatient to do it. Most guys never got out of the mode of cast, reel, cast, reel, cast again. Meanwhile, you would make one cast with the Red Fin – and just drift it, not even turning the reel handle. You couldn’t do this in a line-up – or even with one other guy downtide from you. Your plug would be down past the next guy before it got into the thin band of the shoreline strike zone. Whether fish were leisurely following along behind the plug, and belting it only when it got too shallow for them to continue to follow it – or whether the plug only got into their range within inches from the shoreline? Who can say? But you couldn’t do it on a short cast. You had to cast long, and let it swing down. Maybe your immediate presence on a short cast alarmed them – or maybe you just weren’t getting it out far enough where they were – then they would tail behind it all the way to shore. The split-second before the plug popped out onto sand forced the bass to make a decision. Ka Boom! It may have something to do with the fish conserving its energy, tailing the plug and not wanting to expend a lot of energy to strike in open water where the plug (bait) had plenty of space to evade the attack. So the fish just follows the plug (bait) until it has no more room to maneuver or evade the bass – until the bass had it pinned against the shoreline.

Another great trick that works extremely well with the 5″ Red Fin is to make it into a “Super-Vee Waker”. This is a modification that you can perform on a Red Fin that makes it into a special plug – one that will make a vee wake on the surface. This works especially wicked if there is a flat surface on the water – either flat and still, or flat and moving. It is less necessary to wake the surface when there is swirling current, rain, wind, chop, waves, rips, whitewater, backwash, water sweeping over bars or humping past jetty tips ansd so on. But under calmer surface conditions, the super vee wake of the modified Red Fin may be deadly.

Just take a cigarette lighter, being very, very careful – and turn the flame way down low. Hold it near the base of the plastic lip where it joins the body of the bait. Better to heat it too slowly than too quickly. This is more easily done on the solid-colored plastics. The chrome-painted Red Fins have a tendency to bubble up a bit. Just heat gently, and use a flat stick like a paint stirrer or straight-edged ruler to slowly bend the heated lip back toward the tail a bit. This modified Red Fin works on those super quiet nights when everything is flat and during those first and last hours of the tide when everything is easing off and moving slowly. This one almost twists and turns in place, causing explosive strikes.

The original 5″ Jointed Red Fin cremated bass, but the rear end would come off. The screw eyes had tiny screw threads, and you would wonder how the screw threads would ever hold the screws in? Yet it was not the screws that pulled out, but that the looped eyes of the screws that uncurled. The screws stayed in, they just straightened out. A twenty-five pound bass could not pull the screws out, but they could straighten them. The remedy was to heat the tip of an ice pick, and melt the plastic and push the plastic around the open end of the screw loop. The end of the loop couldn’t straighten since the little lump of melted plastic prevented it. That worked. The straight-bodied 5″ Red Fin, and now the 5″ Jointed Red Fin both proved deadly on bass on the open surf beaches. Yet most guys only ever used them for schoolies in the quiet waters of the back bays. Guys could come down the Cape Cod beaches, see some of the super sharpies silhouetted in their beach buggy headlights, see the outline of the light tackle spinning rods arced over into cow bass. Yet they’d get out of their buggies and throw the big wood plugs or the rigged eels on heavy conventional rods.

The biggest trick some nights was to simply throw the Jointed Red Fin uptide and just let it float down. Especially on some of the inlet beaches such as Nauset Inlet on the end of the outgoing, you could have 5-6 knots coming out of the back bay. It’s hard to contend with that speed of water alone. Then you add the mung and the weeds – some nights, lots and lots of weeds. So you really cannot retrieve the Red Fin at all – or else you’ll get weeds. You just throw uptide and let it float back down with the tide. The jointed Red Fins are especially good for this. As the estuary rivers and back bays empty out, there are a lot of grass shrimp and spearing floating on the tide. Both the grass shrimp and spearing float in the surface film with the tide – and the bass blast them off the surface as they float downtide. So letting the jointed Red Fins drift back down on the surface – no other plug can come close to its effectiveness in the rivers and marshes and inlets – especially among heavy weeds and mung. You can look at other guys up and down the line-up, and they have weeds draped all up and down their lines. They’re doing all the things you are not doing – like retrieving.