smalljaw

One thing you need to take into account when using different suppliers is the size difference. Lakeland and Worth are not the same and I believe Hagen's and Hildebrandt are also slightly different.

Jon, thanks for the post. The hook not sitting straight in that 1/4oz cavity really burned me up. The swim bait was a pain to rig because I'd have to really force it on and it would almost want to pull away. I wish I would have thought about the VMC, I've been really liking their hooks and the 7150 seems heavy enough but not overkill, now I wish I didn't send that mold back. No use crying over spilled milk.

The 604's eye is too short , it only works in the 3/4oz cavity and you have to cut the double wire keeper.

Barlow's Tackle also has them in stock. I always find that the 4/0 in that hook gets hard to find at times.

I sent my mold back, I was told by Do-it a Gamakatsu 604 would fit, well it doesn't. In fact I have not found a heavier wire 90 degree that will fit that mold. I know so have been able to put a single wire keeper in the larger sizes to use a 604 but it defeats the purpose for me. I thought Do-it should have made it for heavier wire hooks, that way you could still use the lighter wire if you so choose but I know they made the mold in a way that any modification to make the mold take a heavy hook meant that the double barb keeper had to go and so I didn't feel like dealing with it. Perhaps Jon Barlow can help but that mold was a big disappointment for me because it is made in a way that doesn't allow much modification and still allow the use of a double barb keeper without cutting the keepers as well.

Most likely what is happening is the lead isn't getting in fast enough. The fact that it pours well without the insert means the lead is freezing up instantly when it is hitting the lure blank. There are a few things you can do, either increase the temp of your lead, or you can heat up your lure blank before putting it in the mold, or you can try to get the lead in faster. I don't know if you have a ladle or bottom pour pot but if you use a bottom pour you can try getting the spout closer to the gate, you can even put the spout in the gate, this will keep temp loss down to a minimum. If it was me I'd go with increasing the lead temperature first and getting the mold a little closer to the spout assuming you are using bottom pour and your pot has some room to increase the temperature.

I sent an email to LPO and they pretty much confirmed that the standard or light wire flat eye hooks are not manufactured beyond a 5/0, so you will either have to modify your mold to take a heavy wire 6/0 which can be had in an Eagle Claw 2706BP or the Gamakatsu 594, or you will have to make do with a 5/0.

There are a lot of different hooks that fit that mold but I don't think any of them are available in 6/0. That mold takes a standard wire flat eye hook, Mustad 32798, Gamakatsu 614, Eagle Claw 2798BP, Owner 5326, and that is just a few but none of those hooks are made in a 6/0, at least that I'm aware of.

Impressive work as always Will, I love you attention to detail on you jigs as well as your organization, well done!!!!

You'll be fine as long as your pot and mold is hot. I have poured with lead that had a BHN of 15 - 17 and the main adjustment I made was having my pot cranked up and my mold really hot. I use a mix of 70% soft lead to 30% hard lead for just about everything but I have a smaller pot that I keep a 60% soft to 40% hard mix in for spinnerbaits, the harder mix will make it less likely the wire form will come loose.

Thank you very much!!! If you ever have any questions about that stuff please feel free to PM me here, I'm happy to help when I can.

First thing is you would need a large area, a separate building on your property somewhere. Then your property would need to be zoned for commercial use and then you'd have to either purchase or build an extruder so I'm guessing it would probably costs around $50K or better before you even got the material. So the answer to your question is probably no, you aren't going to save money by making them at home if it were even possible. Just so you know, there are a lot of other vendors that sell silicone skirt tabs, in fact fishingskirts.com has a lot bigger selection of material than LPO does and it is by a large margin.

It will depend on the amount of cavities along with design work. If you have everything worked out design wise for the sizes and hooks you intend to use then it could be just a few hundred dollars. If the machinist has to do a lot of CAD work to make the mold the cost are significantly higher.

Devcon 2-Ton is really strong, clear, and is user friendly. The only downside is that it is brush on but it doesn't need a heavy coat as it is thick but goes on easy and doesn't need a drying wheel as the working time is about 12 to 15 minutes even though it says 30 minutes. When I do a large number of jig heads I'll mix in small batches to have little to no waste, what happens is that the epoxy will get so thick it is hard to put on with a brush, if you were doing something on a large scale like a repair of some sort I'd imagine you could apply it up to 30 minutes but not for the stuff we do. Now while it sets up pretty fast it isn't able to be handled for 8 hours and fully cured at 12 hours but I like to have my heads go for 24 hours before move them from my rack and 48 hours before I fish with them, that is just me as I'm sure they are good after 12 but I feel better with the 48 hour thing, an obsessive compulsive deal.

I don't run 1/4oz baits in tandem, willow on top with a small Colorado on bottom, if that is what you are asking. If I was running in tandem on a 1/4oz bait I'd have a #4 willow with a size #2 Colorado. For a 3/8oz bait I'd have a #4.5 willow with a size 3 Colorado and for a 1/2oz bait I'd run a #5 willow with either a #3 or #3.5 Colorado. Now, the one thing to understand is the manufacturer of the blade will make a difference, a size 5 Lakeland willow will be a size 6 Worth, so keep that in mind. I use all Worth blades and if you buy from a store like Barlow's or LPO you can call and ask who makes the blades they sell, I know Barlow's has a lot of Worth blades and LPO has a lot of Lakeland. I know, a little more information to make it even more confusing but there is a lot of variables like the wire form size as well blade spacing.

What I do is I clamp the spinner in the vise by the back loop and have it angled down to keep your spinner body at the top so you have exposed wire to tie to. Take some brush on super glue and apply to the wire and then begin making wraps with your thread, I like to get a little bit of thread build up at the top of my starter wraps to keep the lure body from sliding down on the hackle. Once you have a good thread base started being to tie the hackle in beginning at the bottom just above the hook loop. Tie the tip on first and then start to palmer or wrap the hackle making sure to keep it tight. Remember, when I said tie the hackle by the tip what I meant was the tip of the hackle you have, for me I like the barbs to stick out just like the original rooster tail so I only want the mid size barbs which means I cut the bottom 1/4" -1/2" off my feather before tying. You also don't want to use the heavy part of the stem or quill, so getting good hackle with long barbs is important. The last tip I can give you is to use a rubber band or string of some type to hold the hook out of the way, when my spinner is clamped in the vise the treble hook will want to fall and get in the way, so I put a small rubber band around the hook and the other end to a spot on my vise and the hook will stay in place and not get in the way, I hope this helps a little bit.

That isn't a flat eye hook.

There are a few reasons you don't see a lot of spinnerbaits dressed with hair. The biggest reason is it is time consuming to tie hair on the bait rather than just sliding a skirt on or even wire tying a skirt. The second reason, and this is just my opinion, is that the spinnerbait is a fast moving bait that generates reaction strikes, hair has a more subtle and fluid action which is really good for slow moving lures like jigs. I also think that the bulkier profile of silicone and rubber is better in stained water but that doesn't mean a hair dressed spinnerbait won't work, they do just fine. I've made baits with bucktail and some with craft fur and I can tell you that while they did work, I haven't found a time or place that the hair dressed bait worked better than the silicone and rubber skirted bait didn't work as well. Now you need to remember that this is just my experience, there are some spinnerbaits on the market tied with hair and they may be excellent, in my waters with the way I use a spinnerbait , I don't use a trailer and I tend to fish them fast and I do slow roll but that seems to work better in dirty water or when the water is cold.

It seems that after this last update I can no longer access or send PMs. I go to the message icon and all that comes up is the forum activity function, is anyone else having this trouble?

Just so you know, Eagle Claw still has the cheap bronze hooks that are horrible but the laser sharp black platinum hooks are better than Mustad and VMC. I don't know the last time you used an Eagle Claw or if you have used any of the black platinum laser sharp hooks but if it wasn't recently you may end up pleasantly surprised.

I would contact the place you found them and ask for a sample of the 2546 in a 4/0 size. I say that because Eagle Claw has different sizing options for different hooks. I have some hooks that are now discontinued but I think they are great, they are an Eagle Claw 3014 60 degree flat eye with a extra wide gap (EWG) bend and the 1/0 is about the size of a 4/0 Mustad 32798 and the 3/0 was about the size of a 6/0 hook. I don't know how they came up with that sizing but they did, so give the vendor a shout and see about getting a sample of that hook, it may be plenty big enough for your needs or it may not but at least you'll know for sure.

There is only 1 that I know of and it is probably what you already mentioned. The Eagle Claw 2546, it comes in a 4/0 and is heavy wire, is there a reason you eliminated that one? Truth be told there isn't many regular eye jig hooks with a 30 degree bend so a flat eye is probably going to be harder to find, if it is even made but there is a way to get one if you have the coin. The last I checked, Mustad would do a custom hook with a 10,000 minimum plus tooling costs but I'm thinking that isn't something you want to do.

Welcome to our community!!! I believe Barlow's Tackle will have what you need and they will ship internationally. There is also Hagens but I'm not sure if they ship international or not.

Omega is making one with a ball bearing swivel now. I'm wondering if the swivel causes an exaggerated action or does it correct it from moving out to the side keeping it tracking true? Believe it or not I know a lot of anglers that want a bladed jig to track true and just have a hard vibration as they claim it is easier to work it through cover.

I actually hate that term because it has become overused but you are right. The sudden, unpredictable movement off center left or right is what is referred to as "hunting". It is an erratic action, and with making bladed jigs I've found that a blade attached by a split ring has a lot more erratic "hunting" action than it does with the blade attached direct to the hook eye.