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RiverMan

anyone successfully built a large flatfish?

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I'm thinking about a slight modification to a flatfish for salmon and wondered how hard it is to make a flatfish from wood. Quite some time ago I tried carving some flatfish from wood but never did get around to weighting them.....I am thinking a large size, like 6" long flatfish. Anyone ever built them successfully?

jed

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Jed,

Are you talking about one of Worden's Original Flatfish, or one of the similar lures? Cause I would like to lend any assistance that I can. I actually just bought one from Steve's Archery and Fishing here in Walla Walla, pretty much because it was on clearance. It was either the M2 or the T50. I think it's made out of plastic however. Not sure how it would be in wood. Probably would have to be a really light wood, like balsa. Maybe pine or cedar.

"The Complete Book of Lurecraft" actually has a couple of patterns that the author created to imitate or reproduce the action of a Flatfish.

Brock

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Jed,

I believe you can achieve similar action as the flatfish in a big bait without having the carve the rather complicated shape of the original flat fish. I made a large bait based on the South Bend Teas-Oreno that I used for saltwater, it swam 'almost' as good as the original.

I have also seen a salmon bait called a Nelson Banana plug that was shaped a lot like a big Teas-Oreno.

I know the Flatfish and Teas-Oreno swim differently, but I think the Teas-Oreno is easier to make.

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The only Flatfish I own is a small two inch version so I am not sure of the exact action of a full-sized flatfish but I am assuming it is like a Teas-Oreno or a Canadin Wiggler but a wider S swin pattern.

I have built a six inch Teas-Oreno type lure, it had more of a snake type swiming action, but that was the action I was going for. It was also very heavily weighted to add casting distance.

I am no expert, but I have come up with about five different kinds of lipless swimming lures from two to six inches. The one constant I have found is it is all in the shape of the face of the lure. Think of the face of the lure like the diving lip of a crank bait, action is mainly a result of lip angle, size and line tie placement (plus proper weighting). I think if you duplicate the face of the flatfish on a thin round bodied lure you will be able to get very close to the action you want. I would also weight the lure near the front to assure the face sits with the proper angle in the water.

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I have been messing around with this one for a while now. It's not a true flatfish but I built it with it in mind. I need to move the line tie closer to bottom of the lip and I think that will solve some of its problems. It really digs in and heads for the bottom quickly, but rolls out real fast when you get a steady retrieve going. Its around 4 1/2" and about 1.25 oz. Thru-wired with .062 s/s weld wire and has 2/0 hooks.

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I have a friend who bought a lot of stuff from the estate of Charlie Helin (the originator of the Flatfish) several years ago. Included where both drawings and wooden patterns of many, many Flatfish models. They were used for the original wooden versions and the Canadian made Quickfish. If you are interested I could give you his name, address and phone. He doesn't own a computer.

Mitch

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