Squarebill Vs Roundbill

[moguy1973]

Is it balsa or a different bouyant wood?

[fishinwrench]

Can you still get those old style vinyl skirts, and do you like them better than silicone ?

[Chief Grey Bear]

Vinyl sucks!!!!! Worst skirt material ever!!

http://www.barlowstackle.com/3-Silicone-Pro-Silicone-Fishing-Skirts-P789C115.aspx

Here is my skirt of choice. On some plugs they may be a litttle long but with a little trimming they work better than any other. I'll take silicone over live rubber now days.

My only complaint is that the flat silicone is only on the outside strands. The inside strands are round. It doesn't seem to affect the performance.

[Gavin]

Round bill seems to run better in current. Like the Mann's 1 minus and Baby 1 minus a bit. Gets bigger bites than the wee craw but not near as many. The wee craw has a unique wide wobble action. Nothing else quite like it in my swimming pool. Al's baits do work pretty well when he breaks them out. Goofy looking but he catches fish with them. Boat position & accurate casts don't hurt his odds.

[countryred]

Square bills tend to catch on cover, for just a second, and pop free. That fast burst causes a reaction strike. A rounded bill tend to go around cover, if it can. They both can be worked through heavy cover. I love working a Bagley killer b 2 through laydown logs on heavy line in the spring. I liked the square bills more for fishing upriver in the summer and fall.

The old alphabet plug craze in the 70's made square bills popular. They kinda faded away until the Late 90's when Clunn, KVD, and other guys had tournament wins.

[Al Agnew]

The wood is whatever fairly soft wood I can find, but not balsa. Last few batches I made, I think were from poplar dowels. It does need to be fairly light and buoyant...I made one batch out of a wood that was heavy enough that the lures nearly sank, and they didn't wobble well.

For my lures I disagree with Chief...the vinyl skirts still work best. They don't get tangled up as bad as silicone or living rubber, and the base of the skirt isn't as bulky as rubber or the silicone skirts made the same way. Silicone is my second choice. And my supply of vinyl skirts is almost gone.

The way these lures come over logs there isn't any kind of catching and then popping free, they just slide right over. Since they are running shallow enough that I can usually see it happen, I often imitate that darting action when a square bill pops free by twitching the lure just as it clears the log.

The old guy who first showed me the trick of the skirt on the belly hook, way back when I was a teenager, often fished his by casting to a likely spot and just letting the thing sit until the rings had totally disappeared. Then he'd just barely twitch it, just enough to wiggle the skirt without moving it at all. Wait about 10 seconds and do it again. And then finally crank it in about medium speed. I've had times when that was the only way you could catch fish on it, but it takes more patience than I usually have.

[fishinwrench]

Been awhile, but don't the vinyl skirts float like a cork ?

The buoyancy of the vinyl might be a key to the silly thing. Better guard the ones you have left and hoard any that you can still find.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Compared to Al's pic, this silicone doesn't look near as tangled to me.

I think silicone performs far and above vinyl when it comes to action. While reeling it will pulse. Stop and it will dance and swim around the bait. One of my favorite things to do is let it set for a few seconds before I begin the retrieve. The silicone will spread wide open and flex in the water. And the slightest twitch will ad a ton of life.

[Al Agnew]

Chief, I agree with you that silicone is livelier...but the silicone skirts that aren't just the strands with the rubber o-ring but have a "head" on one end just don't work for my lures, the head portion is too bulky and too loose on the hook, and my lures just don't wobble right with them. They work a lot better with the ones with the rubber o-ring (I don't depend upon the o-ring but tie them on with a couple loops of heavy mono), but those seem to tangle pretty badly. Vinyl still works best for MY lures, but overall I agree that silicone is far superior.

By the way...I'm still trying to find the perfect deep-diving crankbait/belly hook skirt. I'm no longer in love with a full skirt like that on a Wiggle Wart, it just seems to kill the wobble too much. Right now I'm happiest with a sparse silicone skirt on a Norman Middle N.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Well I did think to myself when I saw your pic that you needed to put a shorter shank hook on the belly. That one on the left has a bit of room to it.

Not to sound like I am critiquing your work. I have had to change hooks before. It's just me and it may not make any difference but I don't like the look of a skirt hanging free of the plug. I like for there to be contact.