Big snowday here in RI today so I spent a good part of the day making plugs. I was finishing up about 10 needlefish and began work on a half dozen pencil poppers. I also tied up a bunch of tails to go on all these plugs.
Tails DO make a difference. You don't see them on a lot of commercial plugs these days because of the added expense. On many of my plugs like my 
poppers, I will simply go with bucktail on a treble hook (see photo at left). That seems to do the trick. On my needlefish plugs, I like to use a combination of bucktail and hackle for enhanced action (see photo at right). I tie a Deceiver-type tail. To do this, saddle hackle is tied with two feathers on each side of my hook. Then bucktail is added below and above. The main colors that I use are the base colors of the plug which is generally white or black. One more note here....I love the 9175 single Mustad hooks (#5/0 or 6/0) for needlefish tails. These are sold at http://www.njtackle.com/
poppers, I will simply go with bucktail on a treble hook (see photo at left). That seems to do the trick. On my needlefish plugs, I like to use a combination of bucktail and hackle for enhanced action (see photo at right). I tie a Deceiver-type tail. To do this, saddle hackle is tied with two feathers on each side of my hook. Then bucktail is added below and above. The main colors that I use are the base colors of the plug which is generally white or black. One more note here....I love the 9175 single Mustad hooks (#5/0 or 6/0) for needlefish tails. These are sold at http://www.njtackle.com/ Whether you make your own plugs or buy them, add tails. They do make your plug more effective.
