Jig Man

I really don't care about the hook material. This is just a few week out of the year bite and closet to the end. I am getting tired of loosing fish on these hooks and if all things go I'll be needing them again next spring.

Sorry I should have mentioned that I need a 90°.

I am using a home made A-rig set up MO legal with 3 baits and 2 blades. I am catching white bass and largemouth on Bull Shoals lake. As long as I use "store bought" swim baits the hooks are doing fine. However, I have a version of a slider grub that will beat them hands down. In the shallow water I am fishing I have to use 1/8 oz heads on my 3 baits to stay off the bottom and in the strike zone. I have tried my regular light wire 2/0 hooks. They failed miserably. Five fish in a row straightened out the hooks and got off. So I bought the strongest mustad 2/0 that bass pro has in stock. They did not do much better today. I could get the fish in but had to reshape the hook after every fish. I finally got frustrated and went back to the swim baits. Can someone tell me what hooks to buy for this situation. I hate to call Shorty's until I know what I need. Thanks for the help.

When I dipped I used cooking oil to coat the rod so the baits would come loose easily.

Sorry, I misunderstood what you were doing. When I mold the wire directly in I put duct tape over the slot then put the wire in. The duct tape stops the flash for me.

If this is what you are wanting to do, I use 12 g. house romex when I am going to put in 90# coated cable for wg.

Bojon is the dipping guru around here. I did that for a while and got lazy. I now inject. It is pretty pricey to get started because you really need 4 molds, 2 injectors, 2 sets of nozzles and a blending block if you go with a company like Bear's.

I usually go to the baking section in a place like Wal-Mart and get a non stick pan.

Mark, I buy my skirts and bands from www.fishingskirts.com. Some of them have been on jigs in plastic boxes in the boat for well over 2 years and are just fine. I make my replacement jigs from my jigs on the fly box which has heads painted and skirts banded. I can't wire tie them in the boat and when I camp I don't want to take along a vice.

I do lams on some of my baits. Some I inject with a blending block and 2 injectors and others I pour half into one side of the mold, close the mold and pour the other side. Either way works just fine on simple baits.

How many do you want and what colors?

I checked the diameter with my dial calipers and it came out to be 0.035. Comparing that to the AWG chart 19 gauge is 0.0359 so I'm saying 19 gauge. If I pull it too tightly I can pop it with the pliers before I even try to wrap it but I have learned to work with it. I don't have a pic because I only use wire with living rubber. I use the collars for silicone tabs as they are faster and easier and the newer ones don't rot like they use to.

I have had several colors of glitter turn white plastic a different shade. Now I only make small batches at a time.

Here are a couple of pics of one with the same type of wire that you are using. I only do a 180° wrap. I do not twist the wire. That kind of wire can't take twisting.

Pouring slower should also help.

I use kosher salt and powder it in a coffee grinder.

I have a big old spoon with a dowel taped to the handle so I won't get too close and burn myself. I never would have thought about the wood thingy as I'm thinking the heat would cause immediate combustion but like I said, I never would have thought to try that. Does it stick to the wood? If not how do you get it out of the pot?

You do not need to worry if you hold the jig right. First off just heat the jig head to a point where the powder goes on and has a DULL finish. That will be a very thin NO RUN coat of paint. Next hold the jig by the hook eye with a pair on hemostats or needle nosed pliers so no paint gets in the hook eye to start with. Hang them and bake them. There will be no runs and no clogged eyes. If all else fails you buy yourself a POPSNAGGER.

I use them quite a bit and have not noticed fading but my baits go into snaggerty places and don't come home very often so I haven't seen what time does.

I use my fish fryer and a cast iron pot to melt down scrap lead and even babbitt for spoons. I have a piece of angle iron bent up at both ends. I ladel the material into it and let it set up. Then I cut it to lenght with a hatchet.

No I don't wash it off. When I inject tubes I find that dipping the nose rod into oil lets me get the tubes off real easy. I used to do it when I vertical dipped with metal rods so I just continued with the injecting. I also have to lube my homemade molds for injecting crappie slab busters or they won't inject at all. I sometimes spray baits in a plastic bag with WD-40 though I have heard it is not legal in some stated to do that.

When doing heavy salted sticks the ratio I use is 3 oz of softner to 8 oz of plastisol. So I guess it would be 6 cups per gallon if I did the math right. 128/8=(16)x3=(48)/8=6

I doubt it would have any adverse effect. I have used garlic powder with petroleum jelly as a scent on FnF jigs for several years. I also use cooking oil to lubricate some of my molds when making plastics.

I don't know about the best because I use the least expensive. I buy them at Dollar General or Wally World in packs of 10 or so. They work as good as my wife's make up brushes that I "borrowed" once.

It would if you left it running all day long and kept driving around. However, the average person fishes for hours upon hours drawing amps from their trolling motors and only driving a few minutes. The boat motor's alternator is not able to recharge anything more than its own battery and if accessories are hooked up to it then sometimes it can not maintain even that much.