The Conrad

A few months back while talking with legendary luremaker Don Musso for the Super Strike pre-loaded Super ‘N’ Fish Lure of the Month column, we got off topic and started discussing Conrad plugs. I knew of the Conrad, but had never fished them. I didn’t know anything about how they swam, how deep they ran or where and what applications to fish them. “You need to fish them,” Don told me. “They run deep and were very effective at Race Point.”

That was all I needed to hear. I had to get one. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Few plug builders make the Conrad, and the plugs sporadically available on eBay or the Buy-Sell-Trade forums on some fishing websites were either too “well-loved” or priced as collectibles. So I abandoned the hunt, figuring maybe down the road I’ll find one.

Just this month, as I was gathering info for a Local Luremakers post, I saw that RuRu Lures makes a Conrad. I contacted Billy Riker to talk about the company  and I brought up the Conrad, noting that not many builders seem to make them these days.

“They’re very much a niche plug,” Billy said, “and most guys don’t have many spots they can fish them.” Conrads are made of maple – a dense wood – have weight added and have a nearly central line tie. All of these elements make for a plug that gets deep fast. “Within the first couple cranks, the plug is down three feet,” Riker said. “A Conrad can dive as much as eight to ten feet.”

There aren’t a great number of surfcasting locations where this water is accessible, though the tips of jetties, inlets and deeper coves are all potentially good Conrad spots.

I dug up more info about the Conrad on Russ Comeau’s Bassdozer.com. The Conrad was originally made by Danny Pichney, who had a request from a surfcaster named Conrad Malicoat on Cape Cod for a heavy plug that could reach the “Second Rip” off Provincetown. Russ writes that a super slow retrieve allows the lure to get deep and perform a rolling sweep. The plug caught plenty of bass back in the day, and likely still does for the anglers who pack this classic plug style in their plug bags.

UPDATE 2/13/12

After posting this, Steve Musso of Super Strike lures dropped me a message with a link to a thread on Surfrats.com, that tells a different history of the Conrad Plug. As it turns out, Conrad Malicoat was  actually the innovator his namesake plug style. Conrad modified an Atom 40 plug by flattening the nose and making some adjustments to the weighting to get the plug to dig deeper. One night an angler found one of these plugs on the beach and took it Danny Pichney who reproduced the lure. For more info on the Conrad’s history, check out the thread on Surfrats HERE.