smalljaw

My system works but it is a pain if not doing at least 4 baits of the same color scheme. My booth is an old box my Red Wing work boots came in. I glued a paint stirrer to back of the box, part is glued to the base and then the top part is glued to the lid making it stay open. half way down the lid I glued 2 cardboard strips to the inside of the lid, 1 on each side, the strips are 1" wide and 7" long and run down to the bottom of the lid. The strips are glued in on edge and they run the length of the lid on a taper, they start at the outside edge and then taper to a 3" opening at the bottom of the lid. Just to give you an idea of what this looks like, think of a "V" shape glued to the box lid, this acts like a funnel so I simply have small Dixie bowels that I place in the base of the box under the funnel part. I use a different bowel for each color, so if I'm doing 6 spinnerbaits in a pearl with a black back pattern, I'll do my white base coat first. So I place a bowel for white powder in the box and I spray the white on my first bait and then place on my rack, and then do the second and third and so on. When I'm done with the white base I go to my pearl, so I remove the bowel with the white powder and place in another bowel for the pearl and then do the 6 spinnerbaits. When that is done I remove the bowel and put another in for black and when they are all done I simply dump the powder from each bowel into the proper color of powder. If I'm just working on new patterns I'm only doing 1 bait at a time from start to finish I don't even bother to reclaim the little bit of overspray because it isn't enough to worry about, I just wipe the box out. I hope you can understand what I did.

Thanks for the info. I'm not being smart but that stuff is very specialized and not sold in your everyday run of the mill hardware store. Also, after checking it out, I'm not sure it would work and there is a major reason but I could be wrong. When you read the description and application it says that it isn't strong and is highly flexible, and to keep the weed guard in place it needs to be rigid. Yeah, it will keep the heat off the exposed fibers but the weed guard still gets the heat at the base since the lead is hot, if the material isn't rigid it will allow those fibers to deform which is the problem even with curing with the current tubes. Even when you finish curing and allow the jig to cool, the weed guard still "flowers" or spreads out and can even curl at the top. It might be worth trying out but just based on the fact it is so flexible makes me think that it won't work as well as what is currently being used, I'd be interested in seeing the results if someone was to try it.

The 5318 is a light wire hook so may as well stick with the 32746. The idea of the 604 is to get a more robust hook, a 5318 is a great hook but doesn't help since it is a light wire hook. Now the VMC 7150 fits, I may go and get that mold later on and go with the VMC but for now I have other options.

Have you been able to get the 4/0 Gamakatsu 604 in the 1/4oz head that it is straight?? I'm asking because I sent my mold back, I could not use the 604 and I didn't even think of the VMC 7150. If you are getting the 4/0 604 in the 1/4oz cavity then I may have got a defective mold.

That picture looks weird, but it appears the blade may be upside down but it may just be the picture. The bubble on the French blade should be facing the line tie while the cupped side should be facing the hook. The other problem is your design, that twisted tail and hook along with the bell body looks to be too big for the blade, if the blade is on correctly go to a larger blade, at least 1 size.

Let me get this straight, you're using a 5/0 in a 1/4oz head and you are bending the hook??? I know you said it is only a little and I could see the 32798 bending but that hook is ridiculous for a moving bait, I could see if you are punching with a XXH power rod and 50lb braid but anything less makes me wonder. Anyway, you shouldn't worry as most guys don't throw a chatterbait with tackle coming remotely close to capable of bending out that hook so there shouldn't be a problem.

The Mustad 32850 is a heavy wire that comes in a 6/0. The only other one I know of that goes higher is the Mustad 91768 but I wouldn't call it a heavy wire but in an 8/0 or 9/0 I would think it would be heavy enough.

Don't touch your oven until that thermometer shows up. You may have the urge to dial it back some but don't, leave it where it is so that you find out what the high and low temps are in your oven. Paint sagging, or "nipples" as a lot call them, happens for 3 reasons, the first is too much paint, the next is curing oven too hot, the 3rd is less common but it is from either excessive hand oils or other type of contamination that keeps the paint from bonding to the lead. If you want to know how rare it is that the paint doesn't adhere or bond to the lead properly, consider that I've been using powder since the Spring of 2003 and I've never encountered it, but I had paint actually drip off in my old oven when it was too hot and I actually had my first couple heads develop the dreaded nipple from too much paint.

Apdriver's modification is amazing, he did a mold for me the same way and it works great!!! The drop shot swivels are a little more than a crane swivel but there is zero issue with paint clogging it and keeping it from rotating, that was just a brilliant idea. He also made it use the Mustad 32831 or the EC 2831 hooks which have a longer shank and are a little heavier, I've caught a lot of fish in the fall and early winter on that head thanks to Apdriver's mod.

I always base coat in white and go over with pearl, nice deep pearl finish.

Being that your using a fluid bed I'm assuming the paint isn't on too heavy. If you get a simple oven thermometer and check the toaster oven, I'll bet that is where your issue is. My brand new toaster oven set to 350 degrees was actually 410 degrees, the one I had befor that wasn't as bad but at 350 it was actually at 385, toaster ovens are notorious for this issue, even expensive models only have an approximate temp based on dial setting. If your oven is old older it could be worse, get an oven thermometer, most are less than $10 and leave it in the oven for 30 minutes and check the temp, if the heating elements are off note the temp and wait until they come back on and then watch, I'll bet you will get a shock at how high that temp goes. I got one for $70 that has sealed elements so that high temp spike doesn't happen, my old oven had high and low spots, the back 4" of the oven were unusable because the temp would spike to 430 degrees and this was with the oven regulated with an oven thermometer, the very front would only get to 318 degrees so I could only cure 25 jigs per batch. So when you are going to cure your heads, get an oven thermometer, that is where the problem is.

Every tackle supply store has them and they all cost about the same. If there was a tube that was that much cheaper that you could get in hardware stores then no retailer would be selling them.

The 3052 as well as the L570BP. I wish Eagle Claw would either change the numbers on some of their hooks, they make 3 different versions of the regular 570. You have the 570 bronze, then the 570BP which is the black platinum version of the 570, and then you have the L570BP which is the laser sharp version of the 570 and is listed to be the same as the Mustad 32746. Captain hooks lists both the 3052 and the L570BP as direct replacements for the 32746, but I'd love to know what the difference is between the L570BP and the L3052 if both are suppose to be the direct replacement for the same hook.

I did a video on how I tie preacher jigs, Gaspumper's version uses longer bucktail as most have about 1" pf feather coming out the back. I'm guessing it is to resemble a tail but it could also be because it is very hard to find bucktail that long, it took me 2 week of searching deer farms to get bucktails with 5" long hair which when you trim is more like 4.75". Painter1, I think Gaspumper got the wrong idea about your post, he was probably thinking you wanted to see a preacher type jig rather than information on the material, and as I told you, I haven't tied a Preacher jig with it but I have done poison tail hair jigs and I can tell you it will work just fine for preacher jigs. You can use natural with the faux material as well, the poison tail hair jigs I did had the faux bucktail tied in first and then over top I tied in shorter natural bucktail to give the jig and taper and color transition.

What you need to do is shake the paint every now and again, and you should trim the tube so it only goes about half way in the powder. I really like my spray gun, I will get times it will stop and all I do is give it a shake to fluff the powder up and it is good to go for a bit. You'll notice some colors don't have any issues while others will settle faster and block the siphon tube, for those colors buy some clear powder, and add roughly a level table spoon to 2oz of your color and shake well to distribute the clear. This will keep the heavier colors from settling too fast.

The Faux Bucktail By Fish Skull is exactly what you need. Preacher jigs require long bucktail, at the very minimum you need hair that is at least 4.5" long but 5" is ideal. The Faux bucktail is nice because it is tapered and looks like real bucktail, it is the best synthetic version of bucktail I ever used. The best part is that it is a usable 6" in length, and that is the entire thing, it looks expensive for a pack but you get a lot and it would be equivalent to about 3 large bucktails so it is actually a deal. There are things that are different, it doesn't have the flare of bucktail so it is a little easier tying but if you need more flare you need to build up thread behind it or add a chenille ball or something. I found that if the jig has a ring or a ball collar or even a holder like the tear drop then you are fine, you'll get more than enough flare, the only time you need to worry about it is on a bare hook shank or a smooth collar. I hope this info helps and if you want to see it I did a video of a small poison tail jig using it, and the first time I tried it I said to myself that it would be perfect for a preacher jig.

You will probably have to go to Columbia coatings and search the different shades of green. If you go to www.fishingskirts.com and look at their jig armor powder, there are 2 that may help you. The one color is watermelon crawler and the other is roadkill but I don't know about flat colors other than black. Now if you feel up to it, you can take yellow and mix in flat black, I've made my own olive like that. The issue is the flat part, you will have to find flat yellow and flat black to get the color you need.

Talk to Cadman!!

They do seem simple, but I never saw them and from the videos and pictures it is hard to tell if there is any little twist or bend in the larger part of the blade. I'm not a Musky angler but when I saw how easy that blade starts and the profile of it when it spins I thought it may just work great for an in-line bass spinner from 1/4oz to 3/8oz. I'd just trace the pattern on paper and scan it into the computer and then reduce it until I get the size I want. Then trace and cut it out on some thin stainless, it might be a good fish catcher or it might not work at all in a smaller size but it does look nice on those Musky bucktails.

I didn't see and separate blades just the bucktail. Did you mean the blades or did you just find the spinner as I think the OP is looking just for the blades. I'm interested myself as I would like to get some and make a pattern so I can make smaller blades and see if they work on bass size in-line spinners.

They are patent pending so I imagine they aren't going to be available to you unless you buy the spinner.

You are correct, the curing cycle is where the veins seem to pop out. I know when I've done that finish the best way was to paint the base or foundation, then run a short 5 to 10 minute cure cycle and then go over top with the candy color. If I didn't run the cure the candy color would seem to stop the veins from fully coming out and it would be very dark. Now, I wasn't using the jig armor paint from BOSS, I was using Columbia Coatings silver vein and the protec candy color which produces the same effect but it may be different from what BOSS has made.

That looks really good. Have you done many heads so far or just a few? I'm asking because I have been able to do the same paint job in a fluid bed successfully but not consistently, I'll get more bad than good. Now, I do use the fluid bed to put the candy color on, I only put the foundation on without the fluid bed but it looks like you got it going, nice job. BTW, what hosting site or app are you using to post pictures?