gat0r

Yeah, I guess its a preference thing. The undying quest of anglers to find every unique angle, color, material out there to give them that "magic" edge. It's funny to think the best anglers in the world catch a ton of big bass on a "brown jig with a straight hook". I'm sure it doesn't matter but I like the quest nonetheless.

Can't give you a technical explanation. I'm playing with the jigs from Staminainc right now and I've caught some big smallmouths and spotted bass on Kentucky Lake, Table Rock Lake, and another lake in Oklahoma. So I know they work. But I've not done a comparison to see if I get a better hookup ratio with the straight hook versus the wide gap hook? Maybe someone else has.

Thanks for the info Jigmaster... you're a wealth of knowledge. I'm sending you an email as well. Going to try to cook some more jigs with teflon tubing tonight. Yeah I saw the jigs unpainted were cheaper than staminainc at $0.65 a head. Even the 50 count price. I'm still up in the air about trying to make a mold and pour it with that hook. But the thought has been crossing my mind.

Hey Mr. B. I've been searching high and low for that hook. I've got a call into Gamakatsu about special ordering it. I've had a lot of success with this head and like you want to start making my own. Staminainc said sorry charlie on the mold so I'm hoping to find the hooks. If its a mass quantity thing, you consider going "halfsies" on an order?

Good idea... thanks jigmaster...

Thanks for the tips guys... trying another batch this weekend. Glad to see the board back up again. Keep up the good work.

Well my first foray into curing powder painted jigheads with teflon tubing was a disaster... I lost 15 of 20 jigs because the weeguards bent over and melted then reformed as one hard mass. I think it's because they were too close to the heat source. How do you secure the weedguard tubing so that no weedguard is exposed? Do you cap the ends? The five that survived have a nice hard enamel now but it wasn't the ratio I was hoping for. I think I baked them at 275 or 300. And in 5 minutes 15 weedguards were ruined. Any other suggestions are always appreciated. Thanks, gat0r

Thanks again for the great information. Ordered some tubing today. Thanks so much.

Thanks Jigmaster. Yeah I remember your suggestion about teflon tubing. I've been to three hardware places around here and none of them even know what it is. Where would I find it? I just want like 3-5 feet of it. I just want a good process to paint and bake/cure my heads to give them a rock hard finish. Fish a lot of rocks and jigs scrape up after one use. I want them to last, especially if I sell them to friends. Anyone put on Epoxy coats over their powder coated jigs? Just curious how you guys get a good finish.

Anyone have a good technique for removing weedguards from bulk quantities of unpainted weedless jigs? I want to remove them all for painting purposes but want to know how easy it is to do with a good technique. thanks for your help. gat0r

Thanks WM. Good points made. I'd like to have some professionally done but not to the point that they are cost prohibitive which many places I've searched for seem to be. Berkley Power jigs have a thick card stock in a plasitc bag. I'm sort of thinking along those lines on my jigs but I only want to add a few cents to the jig prices to keep the costs and retail prices down. I've got a design worked up. goin to print some samples and try to get them in stores here in town for sampling the demand. Thanks again guys...

Thanks Clarence... good tutorial... Is there one on making custom molds? I can't seem to find a mold that fits two heads I want to pour and am wondering how one goes about making a custom mold so that you can use the hooks you want to and tweak the head design a bit.

What link? I'm interested on how to get started pouring my own heads as well. Thanks for your help guys! :grin:

Yeah that's a good point Clemmy... my thinking was if you have flat card stock (non glossy) the rubber baits (or silicone) might smear the cards etc. I bought some different papers today to try out. Figure the easy cutting and such later. Thanks again guys for your suggestions. Any more are always appreciated. Stop by my site anytime to talk fishing with the guys. http://www.heavygator.com/forums/. If you register you will see more boards and discussions.

Cool... photo paper is a good idea. I need to post what each of my jigs are in as it seems to be confusing. Basically they are ziplock bags that are 3x4 inches. Not all on one card together. But each ziplock bag has a card and a jig in it. Like a Berkley Power Jig comes in those ziploc bags with a card in it. I just want it to look professional. I can design everything in photoshop but I was just curious about the card stock and cutting process. I had looked into the name badge deal on Office Max's website as well. I'm ordering some to play with. I don't want to spend a bunch on packaging because I just want to keep my prices down on my jigs. These are the packaging bags I'm using. Real thick bags. If I staple the jig to the card the hook won't poke out. Thanks again for everyone's feedback. I'm not trying to get rich ... just get enough to feed my habit!

Thanks Mr.B yeah I am individually packaging each one. But I want to put a 2.5 x 3.5 card in the package on some card stock glossy with my logo and bait description on it. You know what I mean? Wondering how you get these printed and if you do it yourself where you get the card stock from, go about cutting it out etc. I'm playing around with it now and didn't want to reinvent the wheel if someone had been down this road already. Thanks for your reply.

What cards do you get to print your packaging on. I have my jigs in 3" x 4" thick poly bags and I want to staple them to card. I've designed the logo for the card but I need the actual cards to print on. Any suggestions ideas? Any of you let someone else do the printing? Thanks in advance for your help! :grin: Jason "gator" Sealock

Thanks Guys! That's a great suggestion JM! Going there today. I figured out on my own this weekend I could take the skirt bands and wrap them around the tips of the weedguards, then heat my head and dip. I am going to try your suggestion JM for curing and heating once I get the tubing. I've got several painted now. I'm not pouring my own heads yet. Just buying bulk football heads. But I do plan to get to pouring my own heads once I get the house finished and my shop setup there. Then I'll be bugging you guys like crazy! Thanks again for the help! Great site! gat0r

How do you guys go about powder painting jigheads with weedguards. Specifically the problem I have is the weedguard curling under the heat and fanning out or worse. Is there a way to secure the weed guard without hurting it to heat either by flame or oven? I've been lurking a while here and always great information. Thanks in advance for your time. Just painting bulk jigheads for selling to friends. Thanks, gat0r