smalljaw

I use a ladle on certain molds, spinnerbaits have always been a ladle pour to me as well as the brush jig.

I found your paint!!!!! BOSS Jig Armor powder paint, the SKU is B903 and the color is called "pale ale crustation", it has both the veins and the texture.

Thanks for posting this!!!! I wanted to get that mold but I really wasn't sure about the wire forms but you convinced me they will hold without a doubt.

The reason why you won't find it is because there are so many colors that everyone uses different combinations. The fun thing about this is coming up with colors that match the forage in the waters you fish, go to Tackle Warehouse and look at bluegill pattern swim jigs, there will be some that have green pumpkin with blue and some with orange added to that and still others that have chartreuse in it. Get creative, use skirt tabs with glitter and with patterns with solid colors and create the next best bluegill or crappie or perch pattern.

No, my buddy has one and it only gets up to 390 - 410 at the absolute hottest. The pot is the exact same as the lead pot only the thermostat and heating coils are different so as to not get too hot. If you wanted to, you can buy the thermostat and coil and convert a lead pot to a plastic melter very easily.

All great ideas but I don't see these as true Ned rigs. I love 21xdc's creation, but they aren't Ned rigs, they are excellent shaky heads!!!

Go to Barlows and look at their "double trouble" powder paint, they don't have that color but they do have a green that I intend to get the next time I place an order. The picture you have there looks to be a hammertone finish as it not only has veins but also texture, I'm betting the company that made that jig had that color custom made.

Hollow, and the major reason for me to use hollow is weight. The only time I'd use solid metal beads is if I was making a heavy spinnerbait for musky with heavy wire. like .051" or some thing similar. I have tried solid beads on spinnerbaits and when using wire that is .040" and less it feels like it deadens the vibration and I believe it is due to weight.

You can but you need to use a round nose pliers to bend the wire. Now if you use an extra long wire you could probably do that on the bender but then you'll have an abnormally long length of wire in front of the head.

A size 3 is what is used most of the time for those size spinnerbaits. The size 3 stirrup or EZ spin clevis will work on any wire diameter smaller than .045".

It actually does interfere, but the wire is far enough away that the back of the mold is slightly open but the cavity he is pouring is closed. Remember, that wire is thin, it is probably somewhere between .032" and .040" in diameter so the mold is open only a little on the back but because of the distance it allows the cavity to close completely.

If you are dipping them in a jar then stop. Invest in a fluid bed and a pair of clamps also known as hemostats, grab the hook eye with the hemostats so the jig is at a 45 degree angle and then heat and dip and your hook eyes will be clear.

Try the Mustad 91768 in a 1/0.

Go to LPO and look at the super shad colors, the chartreuse in that will give you a muted effect with a little flash depending how much you use.

Contact your local IRS office, they will tell you what you need. Every state is different so nobody can give you an exact answer.

I debone, then scrape clean and stretch the hide and pin to a board. Then after they are pinned I use a solution of salt and borax over the hide for 3 weeks to dry out and cure. Once they are done I dump the salt and Borax and then wash the tails in Dawn and warm water and then hang to dry and this works well for me.

I don't have the herring head mold as I use a modified ultra minnow mold for those. If I was making the larger herring heads based off of my own lures and ones I've watched people using, I'd go with a #4 for the 3/4oz and a #4.5 for the rest.

You are looking for a product that doesn't exist, at least I've never come across them. I don't use rattles anymore but when I did I always used glass for soft plastics, specifically tubes and craws and for jigs I used the steel barrel rattles, I have used the plastic snap on rattles but I liked the sound of the steel barrel rattles and it gave me more confidence but I couldn't tell you if the liked one over the other.

I use clear powder and try mix in 2oz batches as I bought plastic jars to do custom colors as well as glitter colors. In a 2oz batch I find 1.25oz of color, then 1/2oz of clear and two table spoons of small fine glitter will give a nice amount for a holographic type finish in which it doesn't stand out much but reflects light very well. To get a higher density cut back on color and add more glitter, and like Fatman said, if you get it that you have a rough finish just add more clear powder but write down every thing you do so you can replicate it. BTW, I'm sure if you ask nice Fatman will share his wealth of knowledge on making custom glitter colors. He showed me how to do it but my custom glitter colors don't come close to his, he truly is a master at blending color, clear ,and glitter to make some really nice finishes.

Apdriver, believe it or not, I didn't need to small loop kit for the Hagen's. Now it might have been a little nicer with the smaller loop but it really isn't bad and they have really caught fish, me and my Grandson were killing Brook Trout and Rainbows while other guys just watched as they weren't getting bites on live bait as well as powerbait or other types of spinners.

Apdriver, I use them on almost all my Trout size spinners, 1/16oz and 1/8oz. One of the distinct advantages of the in-line blade is the sound, well at least that is what Panther Martin use to claim but there is something to it. The other thing I noticed is the flash, they spin different, it is almost like a wobble and it produces a flickering type flash that isn't as bright as other blades but it is faster.

It is the same stuff that I have and it all is pretty much special order, I got mine in black, and in a color called watermelon magic craw Dalmatian.

Fine cut silicone is not the same as fine cut rubber. Fine cut rubber has more strands, fine cut silicone has the same number of strands as they stay the same width, what changes is the thickness of the tab. I have some fine cut silicone left as I occasionally use it with regular silicone on finesse jigs, the difference is that it has a little more movement and it doesn't slow the fall down on a jig as much. If I want a bulky look on a skirt but I still want the jig to fall fast, I'll use the fine cut and the name is misleading, it should be thin tabs or something like that because the strand widths are normal size.

You do understand that the NED rig really isn't a tournament technique don't you? I say that because when the bite is that tough that you have to use that technique, you are usually catching smaller fish, and as with anything you can and will catch an occasional big fish but most will be smaller. I've been fortunate enough to fish with a lot of different anglers and using that technique I've beaten every single angler that used braid and a leader, by a lot, my one friend switched to fluorocarbon after I had 16 fish to his 1. The only way I've seen it work was with a guide that found a 20' leader seems to work best and he told me that at that length the braid is there simply to keep from having to respool line on the reel as the properties of the braid don't show up when using super long leaders. I tell you this because I've been making those heads for a while as well as hair jigs and guys that go heavy tackle on those techniques don't tend to do well, the braid tends to pull the bait away from the fish too fast and you end up having to use a heavy wire hook which ruins the action of the bait. Using the 5313 Owner makes life easier as not having to worry about bending out a hook while still staying light, but going to 8lb or higher leader will reduce the strikes you get, I think there are better techniques for tournament fishing than a NED rig.

The Owner 5318 is a great hook but it is a light wire Aberdeen style. Personally, for NED rigs and hair jigs I prefer these hooks because I use 6lb line for those techniques and the hooks are so sharp they penetrate with ease. The biggest problem I've found is a lot of guys like using 10 or 15lb braid with a short fluorocarbon leader in 8lb or even 10 and that set up will allow anglers to apply too much pressure and end up bending the hooks as the hook is designed to bend under pressure to free from snags. Some guys know how to use the drag to compensate but a lot just want heavy hooks in small weights and those are the guys that struggle with finesse presentations because they have difficulty downsizing and even the way they play a fish. There is an alternative for that mold that is light and won't bend out, it is the Owner 5313 but you need to modify the mold slightly but it is easy to do. Simply put the size #1 5313 hook in the slot for the hook and close the mold, place a block of wood on each side of the mold and put in a vise and then tighten until the mold is closed, now you have your stronger hook. For me, my favorite hooks for that mold are the Owner 5318 and the Eagle Claw 500BP Lil' Nasty sickle style and I use the size 1 in the 3/32oz and 1/8oz cavities. I hope this helps.