Surfcasters from the Heyday of Cape Cod, to the Cows of Block Island and
to the Jersey Shore still enjoy the thrill of Handmade Wooden Plugs...

by Tom Vassallo

Every sharpies' bag seems to hold a myriad of plastics and metals in every size and shape you can possibly imagine. It is no mystery that when the schoolies start hitting the beach, everyone is looking to slap on the day's favorite production plug that lit up yesterday's text messages and Facebook pages all over the beach. But nearly every one of those plastic plug owes its design and heritage to a couple of old wooden baits rooted in the surfcasting history of Long Island and Block Island as far back as the 1940's to the historic bass blitzes of the mid to late 1970's on Cape Cod.

Possibly the true father of the wooden striper plug was none other than Stan Gibbs. In the 1940's, unhappy with the quality and hardiness of fishing lures for striped bass, he began carving his own lures out of pine. Gibbs is credited with creating the classic "Pencil Popper". After being hounded by many anglers to carve more plugs, he started his own lure business in 1948. He later developed other models including the Polaris (a thin neck popper) and a classic Darter. He ran the business until he sold it in 1976. Gibbs Lures are still a hot seller and available in many Bait & Tackle shops today.

Later, in the 1970's, there was a machinist and mechanic who worked for Con Edison, and when he wasn't working, he was on the sands of Long Island searching for those big cows. Well this guy just couldn't find plugs with the action he wanted either, so he decided that he would create plugs for himself that would float and swim how he felt they should. That mechanic was Danny Pichney. He was a great surf guy and he would create classic lures that would be copied and modified by many...but never surpassed in their ability to lure those large cows to bite when nothing else worked. This led to Danny being considered one of the world's leading surf anglers and he was definitely one of the "fathers" of modern plug making.

Danny Pichney's designs included shapes such as the Needlefish, Conrad, Straight Eel,  Jointed Eel, Surface Swimmer, Sub-Surface Swimmer, Deep Swimmer, Troller, Darter, Forty and Slopehead Deep Swimmer. Many of the swimmers featured a metal lip which would control the depth and movement of the retrieve. Nearly forty years later, "Danny's", needlefish and other Pichney designs are found in every serious striper angler's bag.

About 15 years later another angler, Donny Musso, was creating surface plugs as well. His plugs created a wake and had a "flopping" action that mimicked a dying baitfish. In 1983, Musso designed a unique wooden needlefish that was tapered on both ends. He built it using a "wire-thru" construction. He built this beefier needlefish lure for a friend who had seen anglers fishing with them up in Cape Cod and landing monster cows.  Musso's company became "Super Strike Lures" and nearly thirty years later, they are still making and selling high quality plugs.

Most anglers will agree that nothing floats or rides on the surface better than a wooden plug and there are still many craftsmen who design, build and sell wooden plugs based on the early models created by the men mentioned earlier. If you were to narrow down these plug bodies to the most essential few, they would include the "danny" swimmer, the needlefish, the pencil popper and the thin neck popper. It's a great idea to carry at least one of each in your box or bag. Most of them come in both larger and smaller versions for when the cows are around or when there seem to only be schoolies around.

In New Jersey there are quite a few small lure builders who keep this fishing heritage alive. They offer models similar to the designs of Gibbs, Pichney and Musso. One local builder is Bob Brennan of Black Label Plugs in Lanoka Harbor. FishinJersey.com has been featuring samples of Bob's craftsmanship in promotional drawings and they are proven to cast well, ride well in the surf and catch striped bass!

Just recently I developed an itch to create a few of my own wooden plugs. When researching on the web, I happened upon a company called "Salty's Wooden Fishing Lure Building Kits for Saltwater & Freshwater Fishing". You can find them at http://www.saltybugger.com. They sell a wide variety of kits and hardware for building and painting striper plugs not unlike the classics built by Stan Gibbs, Danny Pichney and Donny Musso. I will be building a few different models this winter to have ready for the bass blitzes next spring and fall. There are quite a few instructional videos on YouTube and Salty's has some great step-by-step instructions on their site for putting together their kits.

Every striper angler should experience the heart-stopping action of a bass exploding on a top water wooden plug. The only thing that could make that experience better is doing it with a plug built locally. Or better yet, on those long cold winter days ahead, you could try putting together some of your own creations to try out next season. Hope you all have a wonderful Holiday and a Happy, Healthy New Year!