Markell

That is something I hope I never have to experience. I am guesing that Zara Spook saw it's last day of action.

chiefdano, WidowMaker pretty much nailed it. I am working on someting similar and instead of the hitch hiker, I am making a lead keeper that is part of the head. Much more time consuming in the beginning but once you have the mold, you can kick them out pretty fast.

LedHed, I attempted one mold with the RTV. Results were not good. LOL. Once I have a little free time, I will try for round 2. I have a package headed your way in the next week or so. I am throwing in a few surprises. Overkill, Tell me more about the fiberglass resin. I like the part about being "more Soupy". Have you made a mold only using the fiberglass resin? Husky, Your tutorial is the reason I tried the bondo. Thank you for putting it together.

I have been using Bondo for the past 6 months and really like it. On average, I would say I get between 30 and 50 pours per mold. The thing that destroys my molds are using pliers to take out each casting. Sometimes I put too much preassure on a certain area of the mold and a piece chips off. If you are very carefull, you may be able to extend the life. The best part of it is you go from no mold to pouring in like 15 min.

Remind me to never do a trade with you! that is an impressive set up. Reminds me of that Roland Martin show where they took the cameras in Ymamoto's shop. They had racks like that filled up with Senkos.

Masking tape will work. But it will add time to your pours.

My vote goes for the Lumaflex. Breathes very well, has a nice shine to it, very inexpensive and can be dyed. But man is it a pain to work with compared to silicone.

I have used the Do-It Round Head weedless jig mold with good success. RWR-3-AYS. Just leave out the weed guard and cut off the lead that gets in the guard part of the head. It uses 3/0 Mustad turned eye hook for all three head sizes: 1/8 3/16 and 1/4 oz. I am not sure if do-it makes a non weedless mold with the size hook you will need without modification to the mold.

This past weekend I had a funny feeling and set the hook. It felt like I was pulling in some kind of grass. It was not grass. It was a woman's bra. My partner just about fell out of the boat laughing. I released it back into the lake. I did not want to take a chance of my wife finding it in the boat! LOL

The first bait that I made was a copy of a favorite spinnerbait I used. I copied that bait as exactly as I could. I did this because I knew how mine should work. I had a reference. I knew that the component sizes were good for that size bait. That gave me a starting point and from there I experimented. This is how I learned. And I am sure how most of us got started. There may be a legal argument here but it is not a moral issue.

You retain the overall shape but the surface of the bait is smooth. I have not tried it with the sticks yet. I have had some good days with the thick trick worm. The reason I tried it was to get a bait that the smaller fish would leave alone. It did not work for that. My first fish was shorter than the bait.

Sculpey clay works well for this. It is easy to work with and after curing is hard as a rock.

I have done the same thing with my trick worm mold. I pour the trick worm black and then dip it into transparent watermelon with red flake. Makes for a good flipping bait.

Thanks for the post LP. Might want to move this one to the tutorial section.

reeves, Thanks for the input. I like the weed guard idea. how do you keep the rod in the weed guard hole? The issue that I have been trying to solve is not keeping the paint from clogging up the hook eye but to completely keep paint off the hook eye. The jig that you describe sounds like the eye is part of the design of the jig and I too would want it to be the same color as the jig. Because of the painting process I use, any paint that gets on the line tie, takes away from the looks of the jig because it is a slightly different color than the rest of the head. This has been driving me crazy. I need to completely do away with paint on the line tie. The clay will harden in the oven and turn to like a hard plastic texture once it cures. There is no cleaning needed. The cap just pops right off and you are left with a shiny clean hook eye. This has enabled me to go back to dipping into the powder instead of using small paintbrushes to avoid my problem. Much faster for me. LedHed, I have used the aluminum foil but it does not stay on well enough. The clay really works well for this. The "Splotches" you are refering to started my problem in the first place. That technique has really been popular for me. I have about 20 color schemes I have worked up using it and am trying to get the process down where I can use it exclusively.

When working with powder paint, it has been very frustrating for me trying to keep powder off and out of the hook eye. Having it plug up the eye is unacceptable and even having paint on the eye seems to drive me crazy. Any way, I have found the solution... Take a small pinch of Sculpey clay. Roll it into a ball with your fingers and bury the eye into the clay ball to for a cap. Pre heat your jigs in an oven and dip into powder. The heat will harden the clay. The clay cap and jig head will get a coating of powder. before putting the jig into the oven again to cure it, pop off the cap. So far it has worked great. My next experiment will be to plug up the weed guard hole and see if I can keep the powder out of the hole. The only issue I have found is the sculpey cures at a much lower temp than the jigs need to pre heat. You have to play around and find a comfortable working temp. The temp I have had the best success with will burn the clay but it works just fine.

Good job Jerry! The new chat is much nicer!

The Lumaflex that Supreme sells is the same as Living Rubber. They have about the same color options. Supreme pricing is much better than LR. Call them and get a color sample card and a price sheet. Supreme Corporation - (828)322-6975 I made a wrapper using a small piece of wood with 2 screws 6 inches apart. Once the material is wrapped I attach a twist tie on one end. Cut the bottom loop and you have a skirt ready to go into your collar. Once you spool off the length of material you need, grab it in the middle and double wrap it. This will cut the wrap time in half. Let me know if you find a more efficient way to do this.

Your family will be in our prayers.

3 suggestions That I have used with success with my crank baits. I am not sure how this would work with Jigs, spinner baits or large plugs but they work for my bass cranks. 1) A pocket rock/Plug knocker - Use a large weight that has a line tie molded in. Attach a removable swivel to this which will allow you to attach to your line. Send it down and it will usually pull the bait loose. Sometimes you have to shake it. I have good success with this and keep one in my pocket. 2) Get a Chalk line tool at the hardware store. Replace the string with the strongest braided line you can find. Attach a heavy weight with several strands of chain to the line. This is very compact and keeps your line free of tangles. 3) Take an old broken rod that you have laying around. Cut it to about 2 ft. and put a new tip guide on. Get a push button reel and spool it with heavy braid. Attach your weight and chain to the braid. This also keeps the line tangle free and is hard to loose because you keep it with your other rods.

WOW! That is impressive. Good job.

Thanks for the articles. What conditions do you consider to be unfavorable for cranks? My crankbait knowledge is average at best and it seems that the only time I have confidence in cranks is when the fish are active. Thanks again.

You could use Sculpey clay to make the heads. I played with this stuff a while back for jig head prototypes and once it is baked it is very durable. It comes in several dif. colors and can be sanded. Just keep in mind that if you need any weight at all, it will prabably be too light.

Jim, I do not see the need to add scent of any kind to a crankbait or a spinnerbait. with these baits the fish do not have time to taste it. With soft plastics the time between the fish picking up the bait and the hook set is much longer which gives them time to make a decision. I believe that the purpose of scent is to buy time in setting the hook. I do not believe that scent is an attractant. Scent of any kind does not play a role until the fish takes the bait(atlest for bass). I also believe that when fishing plastics we get more bites than we know about. Some are detected and some are not. Your equipment and experience plays a bigger role.

Other than stick baits, I do not like salt in my plastics. In my opinion, salt does 2 things: Adds weight and takes away action. I can't say that I have proven unsalted baits outfish salted baits but after watching the action of the unsalted baits in clear water, it has become a confidence thing with me. I believe with all the scent we have available today that salt is a thing of the past unless your bait requires additional weight to perform.