cadman

Jigs, Of course there is a flat eye EWG hook that fits that mold. You're talking about the #3434 (FBB-4H-AFM) mold correct? Mustad 38109. Even though it says that the 38109 is a 45 degree, I know it fits because I've been pouring those pretty regularly. There is another hook I will check in about an hour to see if that fits. You may think it's a thin hook but it does hold well. If you let me know what size hook you want in which cavity, I will check it and send you a pic. PM me your e-mail if you want the pic.

Charles at fishingskirts.com has everything you could possibly want in skirts. Their selection and customer service is excellent.

Dave I got it and e-mail sent.

You know now that I think of this, why would they even show something so stupid on Myth Busters. I can see it now somebody is going to try it to prove a point burn their hand and blame the show and the lawsuits will start. I can maybe see them proving to people something that is not dangerous, but their clip on this goes beyond stupidity. Maybe they should also put all the responses from here at the end of their video clip of what really happens.

Mags, The 410 hook is a 60 degree hook. There are several exact replacements without modifications. These are Mustad 32786, Owner 5304 and Eagle Claw L111BP. If you want the EWG hook go with the EL 111BP. There is a big discussion about this hook several posts down. Extremely good hook in a Black Pearl finish and extremely sharp. The hook you want to put in there the 91768 is a 28-30 degree hook and you will have to modify the mold for sure as the hook eye will not fit in the existing cavity because of the degree difference.

David, As far as your initial post. Yes I do this all the time. I put another color of powder paint over an already baked jig. The reason I know this works because about 5 years ago, I was painting a multi-color jig, and I had yellow chartreuse as a base color with beige on the belly, orange on the upper belly, purple on the lower flanks, blue on the upper flanks and black along the dorsal line. This is the sequence I wanted all of my colors. Well when I baked everything, everything came out perfectly glossy except the purple blended into the yeloow chartreuse and it turned green. Not the color I was looking for. So I played around with baking temps and still no luck. So I painted up another jig with all the color except the last consecutive three being, purple, blue and black. I baked the jig. Now I took the jig and reheated it. put on the purple, then the blue and then the black, melted it into each other and put it back into the oven to bake. Worked like a charm. Now I got the puple onto the yellow chartreuse like I originally wanted. The down side to all of this is it is time consuming and you have to use really low heat on the remainder of the colors. Once you get them melted and gloss over you're home free. The biggest stumbling block is trying not to burn the original colors you had baked on. So it does work.

I think I'll take a pass on this experiment. I know water and lead don't mix so I can't believe this and not willing to prove anything to anyone.

Norman, I'm going to second what smalljaw said. It's nice to hear from guys that have learned something we all have contributed to. I never look for praise as most of the guys don't either. We do this to help those wanting to learn. At some point in our tacklemaking years we all learned from someone and others. I just like to pass along what I know. No secrets to any of this. It's all about trying something, keeping at it and a lot of trial and error and mostly hours of practice. Eventually if you are persistant everything will come full circle. Also glad you caught some fish with your new creations. We'll all be hear to help each other out, ask question and hopefully get good answers.

Thanks for the compliment Mark. Lot of guys on here have their own technique just like on the crankbait forums. It's not how good you are it's about doing the best you can for yourself and learning from others.

Pete, I prefer to heat the jig like PSV said earlier. It is much easier. Reason being is when you mix the hardner and the resin of the epoxy together you get a heat reaction. The heat reaction starts the curing process. So when you heat the mixed epoxy on a piece of foil or whatever, you are speeding up the curing time and as the epoxy cools it starts to harden giving you less working time. When you do it the way PSV mentioned you are heating the jig and not the epoxy. Also I don't thin my D2T, there really is no need to. I personally believe (just my opinion) that when you thin it it weakens the epoxy. Now the answer to you question is yes you can put another coat of D2T on an existing coat. I've done it 3 hours later, 2 days later and to me it didn't seem to matter. The only thing is if you wait too long, wipe off any dist particles on the jigs. When I first started, I screwed up some jigs with the D2T, so I lightly sanded it after it cured, put another coat on and it was crydtal clear and as good as new.

x2. You can aslo hit your mixed devcon with your heatgun, wherever you mixed it.

Mark, Like softworm said, the Mustad 32756 (EC #570) are bronze hooks and the bottom of the line as far as quality goes. Notorious for rusting if not dried out properly. I use to fish these hooks on ball head jigs when I fished for walleye and sauger in the rocky river bottoms. At that time I didn't care because I lost more jigs to the river gods than anything else, however I did catch a lot of fish and the hooks did hold the fish. Never had one open up. When they dulled and the paint was beaten off. I'd take the jigs home re-melt them and re-paint them. The hooks are so cheap in price that it didn't pay to slavage anything except the lead.

Chris, Everyone here has their own way of achieving what they want. I use the powder paint tap method similar to what BLT does. The thing you have to remember is which sequence you want which colors to be dominant. Colors like my avatar are worked from the bottom up. The reason for this is that you will be putting colors on in layers as you paint your bait. Finally it does take a lot of practice to achieve this. If you have a color scheme you're looking to make PM e your e-mail and we can communicate that way as I can tell you what colors go first.

I use Worth ball bearing swivels as well. You can't beat the quality for the price. You can also buy direct from Worth and I believe you can buy broken packages for an additional charge.

Gbait, PM me your e-mail, I have instructions on how to use them for painting and pouring.

Brad, Hear are my answers to your questions. Wheel weight are fine. Wheel weights are very hard and if you have problems pouring, mix in pure soft lead. I use a ratio of 70/30 or 80/20. That's 70% hard lead and 30% soft lead. You can adjust accordingly. Lead hardness is totally up to you. You can pour pure soft as well. As far as paint finishing goes, majority of the jig makers use powder paint. Reason being is when it's cured (baked in a toaster oven), it is very durable, andf if you put epoxy on the jig it is almost bullet proof. The only drawback with powder paints is you can't paint all the fancy little gills, scales etc. But honestly the fish don't care. I put on 6 colors on my jigs (see my avatar) and I have no issues at all. Finally most guys here use D2T(Devcon 2 Ton 30 minute) or E-Tex (Envirotex) as an epoxy finish coat. As far as cleaning jigs for powder painting. I do nothing to the jigs except file off the sprues to give the jig a smooth finish. That's it. You'll get more info for sure here. If you want more info on powder paint PM me your e-mail and I can go over some of the benefits and give you a tutorial.

X2 on that comment Smalljaw.

I didn't come up with the idea, but I heavily pushed it here and on several other forums. It all started after years of pouring with the metal pins and constantly fighting with them trying to get the pins out after the jig has cooled. I use harder lead and I literally had to take pliers and keep on yanking the metal pins out. This gets old really fast. Several times I got stabbed with the hook point and this really p*****d me off plus it hurt. I talked to some guys that were just getting started using the pins for spin casting, I tried it and never looked back. All I can say is if you don't use the pins you are doing yourself a desservice to your hands and your sanity. Also it is just soooooo much easier to use, I can't say enough about it. So all you newbies listen to the guys here who use the pins, they know what they are talking about and it just plain works On another note about the teflon tape. Yes I use it and it does work. From holding hooks and wireforms in place in a hot mold to taping up smaller drill bits on the shank end, so I can make jigs with smaller weedguard holes for wire weedguards or single strand weedguard holes. Just wrap the tape around the drill bit shank until you get enough to keep the drill bit from falling out of the mold when you turn it over. The tape just works as well and has many uses around the pouring table. Good Luck Guys.

Curtis, I pour baits up to 1-1/2 oz with my Lee IV bottom pour pot with no problem. I have been doing this going on 8 years and it has served me well. I have 3 Lee iV's. So in my opinion it would be a good choice. As far as pouring spinnerbaits and buzz baits I am also able to use this pot as well. On the spinnerbaits and buzz baits it's a little bit more clumsy with the wire sticking out but once you figure out on how to hold it you will get good pours. One thing I will advise you to get is a small 1 oz ladle. It is about $4.00 and has a wooden handle . This will come in very handy on those days when things just don't want to pour with the pot. Just heat up your pot as normal and put your ladle in the top and pour with your ladle. Finally get yourself some mold release and you will be all set. This is a good starting point in my opinion on getting good pours. The rest is practice.

Thanks for the info, Smalljaw

I sent you an IM on how to use them for pouring and painting as well.

Hi Guys, I'm looking to see if the Gami 5941 flat eye 60° degree hook will fit any of these molds. The cavities I'm looking to use are 1/4, 3/8 and 3/4 oz. I want it to fit without mold modification if possible. I don't have this hook so I can't check the fit. The hooks come in 2/0,3/0 4/0 and 5/0. The molds I'm looking to use are weedless round (RWR-3-AYS,AYM and AYL), weedless football (FBB-4H-AFM and FBB-3M-AFM) and Arky (ARK-3-AY and AFC). Thanks for any help.

As far as I know there is only one supplier of weedguards and that is Kayser Lure in Ursa, IL. You have to buy them by the 1000 count from him. He won't sell it any other way plus there is F.E tax, shipping and IL tax if you live in IL. As far as quality I have found over the years, that it was all pretty much the same. They come in several grades regular(.018) diameter strand, medium (.021) diameter strand and stiff (.024) diameter strand. They also come in 1/8" diameter bundles to 5/32" diameter bundles in blk, brn, grn, and clear. The smaller the strand diameter, the thinner the strand. So on a FG-30 regular weedguard, you wouild get 30-31 strands of .018 diameter per strand.You can get custom colors, but you have to order I believe 5,000+ of each color.

Everyone here gave some good tips. Fuzzy never thought of heating them. Hmmmm. Now what I have been doing on glued in wedguards, I just pull them out with a pair of pliers. If they are poured in, they are a P.I.T.A to get out. I have always taken out the middle ones and then pulled the ones around the perimeter with a pair of pliers. However that is very tedious. I like smalljaws reply to the poured in place weedguards. If I ever get in that situation I will have to try that. Thanks..............Smalljaw.

I do not like heavy weedguards on any of my jigs. This is a personal choice, even if I'm fishing in real heavy cover. I use 15-20 strands max on all the jigs I fish.