Metal lip swimmer

What the lip does

A slot is cut across the head of the body and a metal plate, usually stainless steel and sometimes brass, is seated in it and held with epoxy, a pin, or both. The line tie is either a hole through the part of the lip that stands proud of the wood, or a loop set into the nose just above it.

Water striking the underside of that plate pushes the head down. Because the body is buoyant and the pressure across the lip is never perfectly even, the head is also pushed to one side, then the other, and the plug rolls from side to side as it comes. The tail swings a long way, the body shows its flank, and at the slow speeds this family is fished at, that flash and roll is what a fish detects first.

Two settings decide the whole character of the plug. The angle of the lip relative to the body sets depth and effort: closer to horizontal means shallower, gentler and tolerant of speed, steeper means deeper, harder rolling and quicker to fail. The position of the line tie sets how much the plug digs, with a tie on the lip pulling the nose down more than a tie on the nose.

Fishing it

Find the slowest speed at which the plug still tracks, then fish at that speed. You should feel a distinct beat through the blank, a regular thump on each roll. If you cannot feel anything, you are either below the speed at which the lip bites or above the speed at which it holds.

• Cast, let it settle for a second, and begin before slack builds up, because the plug needs tension to start.
• Keep the rod tip low and to one side. Raising it lifts the plug toward the surface, which is a legitimate way to steer it over a bar.
• In a slow moving tide, you may not need to reel much at all: hold the line tight and let the current supply the water speed.
• Takes are often a slow heavy pull rather than a hit. Keep reeling until the weight is solid instead of striking at the first touch.

Tuning the lip

This is the one family in the register that can be re engineered at the water's edge with a pair of pliers. Work in small steps, hold the lip close to the wood so the pressure is not taken by the slot, and test after each change at the speed you actually intend to fish.

• Bend the lip down, that is, increase its angle to the water: the plug digs deeper, rolls harder, and blows out at a lower speed.
• Bend the lip up: it runs shallower with a lighter roll and tolerates more speed and more chop.
• Plug tracking off to one side: bend the line tie a small amount toward the opposite side, in the same way a diving lure is trued.
• Plug rolling right over: it is running too hard for the speed. Take angle out of the lip, or slow down.

Test alongside you in clear shallow water with the rod tip low, where you can watch the plug rather than guess. Ten minutes spent doing this in daylight is worth more than any change of color at night.

Where it earns its keep

Calm to moderate water, at night, over shallow ground: a beach, a sand flat, a boulder field, the back of a bay, a slow moving tide against a marsh bank. The combination of a big profile, a slow speed and a small amount of disturbance is close to ideal for a striped bass hunting in the dark, which is why this family has been the backbone of night fishing on the northeast coast for generations.

It has a hard limit. Put it in fast current or heavy white water and it will rise, skate and go dead, which anglers call blowing out. That is not a defect and it is not fixed by reeling harder. It is the water telling you to change families, to a darter that needs that current, or to a weighted needlefish that ignores it.

Upkeep and failure points

The lip slot

The slot is a cut straight into the head, which makes it the most likely way for water to get inside the plug. A hairline crack in the finish along the lip is worth sealing the same evening it appears.

A loose lip

If the lip can be moved by hand, the plug is re tuning itself on every cast and nothing you do to it will hold. Re seat it or retire it.

A waterlogged body

A plug that has taken on water floats lower, swims flat and feels dead. Compare it at rest against a known good plug of the same model: the difference in how each one sits is usually obvious before you ever put a scale on them. The reason wood does this, and what a builder does about it, is on wood and finish.