cadman

Chris, Number of Tabs is relevant to what you want. I make spinnerbait for guys with 3 tabs,(66 strands). The spinnerbait looks fuller and has a slower fall. The majority of the spinnerbaits I use have 2 to 2-1/2 tabs. That seems to be common around here. Also you can mix your tabs with the round rubber strands or do a straight all rubber skirt. The all rubber skirt really looks alive in the water. Those come in mostly solid colors and come in fine , medium and heavy. The fine strands are really lively in the water. I mix the fine strands with the silicone tabs, it makes a good balance. Check out the file below it has a mix of jigs with solid rubber and silicone, but you can apply that to spinnerbaits as well. The customer wanted rubber on the bottom and silicone on top. However you can intermingle all the strands and it comes out really nice. My suggestion to you is this. Try different number of tabs and or rubber skirt material, and see what you like and what gets bit. You can also keep your strands long or make them shorter . There are a lot of options for you to customize. The best place I found with the largest selection of silicone tabs is fishingskirts.com. If you need more help post up on the forum.Good luck in building your spinnerbaits. pics.pdf

I have the same chart, only mine was from Stamina before it became LPO. Definitely good info. Thanks for the reminder.

I have a Wagner variable heat heat gun and it stands all by itself. This way I can put it anywhere I want, without any clamping.

You can also look under rubber grommets or silicone grommets. You will find them cheaper that way than buying something that has a name attached to it.

I also have a box of hooks from Mustad from years ago, before the China hooks. They were not the 33786, but 32798. They are slightly different than the current production run. I can tell you the the older Mustad hooks were probably better than the current ones. As far as finish goes, plating colors vary from lot to lot. No need to worry about color. Use them and you will be fine.

I have the mold you are referring to. I have tried numerous items, I found that doing it quickly with your finger is the fastest. You can also try wooden coffee stirrers.

Call up Shorty's hook sales. If they don't have them they can get them for you. If you don't know the numbers, send them a pic, they are very helpful.

Check out the Owner 5317 maybe that will work for you. You can always go down one size or two, if the smaller hook has to be. Depends on the mold you are putting it into.

May want to try O'hare Spring in Elk Grove Village, IL. They make a lot of custom fishing wire and have some in stock.

If you buy in bulk (1K) you can get a better price from Worth. They have excellent blades.

I use twisted wire for northern pike and musky. "R" bend for everything else.

Very Nice

Depends on the complexity. Pm me a copy of your design, or pm me your phone number and we can talk about it first. I have quite a few questions.

If you have a small piece, send to to fishingskirt.com like Mark noted. They will match it for you and give you the number if they have it.

First of all like everyone mentioned, it is illegal to attach the blade to the hook eye. However there are still a lot of guys doing it. Doesn't make it right so do what you want. Another thing mentioned is hooks. Barlows used to sell hooks with open eye, however I believe that is no longer available. I have tried to open hook eyes and it's a 50/50 shot that it will work. Many times, the hook eye will break or weaken. The problem is that once you open the eye you have to close it, and this will weaken the eye further. As far as a good jig for this, I would use a Snootie jig. It is thin and seems to wobble well. Just make sure your split rings are loose inside the hook eye. Go to then next hook size up if you need to.

I do exactly what Jeff Hahn does. Most if not all the weedguards that are fuzzy on the end come from Kayser Lure. The way I solve this problem is the stick the loose stranded end into the weedguard hole first. This also keeps the strands straight. If it is a bit too tight, take off a couple of strands. Once the weedguards dry, cut off the fused end at the top. The weedguards are a bit longer than need be, so cutting them at the top is no bi deal. This is the way I do it and it seems to work.

I get my wireforms from Lure Part Online.

I have a couple of Arky head models, however they are proprietary to my design. The easiest thing to do is find the Arky head style jig you want, buy it and tell the mold maker what features you want and don't want incorporated in your design. They will probably have a minimum design charge, to make your Arky model. Once you finalize the design they will create a program to CNC your mold.

What do you mean by cad files? To make a mold of the jig? Are you looking for 3D step files to machine a Arky jig? You are going to need to get a hook in there somehow, so I'm thinking 2 piece. Lot of unanswered questions. Please elaborate more so I can help better.

How about $80 shipped

I keep some of mine in a cabinet on shelves. Shelves are numbered by column and row. I then can stack about 4 molds per column. Next I have a sheet on one of the shelves that has a list of every mold I have. On this sheet, each mold has the mold model number and name along with a column number and a shelf number. If you are very meticulous on where you take them from and where you put them back, the sheet works fine. The mold will always be found where you put it back last time. I also keep all my mold model numbers on a spread sheet. The ones I use regularly, I also keep on a shelf in a box. The box has the names of the mold I have in there. Also in these boxes, I keep all my football molds together in one box, all my round molds in another and all my spinnerbait molds yet in another. This all works for me. I'll take a pic later tonight.

I have them all including the Erie Dearie that Do-It mold made back in the day. However I am not parting with them yet. E-bay has them on and off occasionally. That's where I got the original Erie Dearie.

Been doing that for years. Hell you can get a box of the long X-mas hangers after x-mas for 99¢.

I know that a Owner #5318 3/0 will fit in all of the cavities of the the Do-It mold MFJ-6-A. I Use them for my customers. The only thing I tell my customers is by doing that, you will make the hook top heavy on the 1/16 oz cavity. If he doesn't care, then it doesn't matter.