smalljaw

I honestly hope you do post your results!! By doing that it will help us all, that way we know for certain that it was the body causing the blade not to spin. I'm 99% sure it is the body but there may be a different reason, I'd also like to hear the results if you get to fish with it.

I already see the problem and Hillbilly voodoo caught it. The blade on the lower wire is too close to the body and it may have to be moved to the upper wire. What is happening is the size of the body is breaking up the water flow behind the blade, look at a Musky bucktail and you'll notice how the spacers keep the blades toward the front, this is done to allow the blades to start faster and spin at slower speeds. When you retrieve the bait the force of the water flowing over the cupped side of the blade causes it to lift and swing around wire. Well on your bait the water is flowing over the blade but the body being too close disrupts the flow of water keeping the blade from fully rotating. Judging from the picture and looking at the size of the blades I would thing that you need to space that blade very close to the front of the wire for it to work. I'm guessing that you would need enough beads or other spacers that there would be about 1/8" of play between the end of the wire and the front bead. If that would work you would have an interesting design, I would add another blade to the upper wire so you'd have the single blade spinning on the lower wire and a double blade on the upper wire. It will look and sound like no other bait of that type and could really catch some fish, I know I'd try it.

I'm sorry but I'm confused. It is a buzzbait body converted into a spinnerbait with the line tie directly in front of the head? I can't wrap my mind around this enough to get a mental picture. When you say solid clevis do you mean a folded clevis or stirrup clevis? I apologize but your description isn't helping at all and I'm guessing the design is just wrong and by that I mean the angles are disrupting the flow of water to the secondary blade. The other issue is that a buzzbait wire form usually uses much heavier wire so if you are using a smaller blade on a large size 4 clevis well it might not have enough to force the clevis to completely around the wire so the blade sort of just wobbles around in its current position. With a spinnerbait a lot of things have to mesh in order for them the run correctly, like the secondary blade needs the cupped side to be facing upward toward the sky. The clevis has to have a hole larger than the wire diameter but the blade needs to be large enough to be able to carry the clevis around. An example is a 1/4oz bait I made a long time ago, I made it on .035" diameter wire so I had to use a #3 clevis but I tried to run a small size #3 willow blade on it. The result was that the #3 blade did not spin and even a #3.5 had to be reeled really fast in order to get a good rotation. When I dropped down to .031" diameter wire and went down to a size #2 clevis with the #3.5 willow blade, well that worked really well, the smaller diameter wire allows me to use a smaller clevis that made it easier for my blade to carry or pull the clevis completely around the wire. I don't know the blade types or sizes you are using or clevis type but a 1/2oz buzzbait wire form is probably .045" to .052" wire diameter. If that is the case then there is a possibility the clevis is too small meaning the hole diameter is the same size as the wire diameter, it goes on the wire fine but it binds just enough the force of the blade isn't strong enough to carry it around. It could be a lot of different things but a picture would make it easy to pin point the problem as your description is hard to make sense of, at least it is for me and I apologize for not understanding what you did.

What you got with the Owner hooks is old stock with some new. Owner started using that dark black finish and what ever it is it isn't working. I use a good number of Owner hooks but there are a lot of reports of Owner hooks rusting out, specifically the 5304. I have not had this happen yet but I'm also using rust inhibiting boxes.

I know the normal fiber guards have the plastic stringy residue but they have always been fine. The more I thought about your issue and you said all the brown ones were a little larger, could it be possible that you ordered based on color without looking and mistakenly order FG-40 guards which are 5/32" in diameter? I'm asking this as I remember not too long ago when most vendors only had brown in the FG-40 as that color seemed to be out of stock in the FG-30. I know I've made orders on autopilot a time or two and I ordered heavy fiber guards rather than the medium that I originally wanted.

The issue is the way the ends are fused together. The plastic is melted and you get the "fuzzy" residue and burrs which result if not always an exact fit. Fishing skirts sells the BOSS weed guards which are fused in a different way, they don't have the melted plastic residue and fit really well. They sell them in both medium and heavy 1/8" (FG-30) and 5/32" (FG-40) available in clear, green pumpkin, black and brown. https://fishingskirts.com/product-category/boss/boss-weed-guards/

C'mon man!!!!! LMAO!!!!! I've asked you for the colors you have used already. On a serious note though, I know the natures edge colors pretty well, they are one of my favorite series.

It is a natures edge color, one of the few things fishing skirts doesn't sell. If you go to Barlow's the color is natures edge natural tan, if you go to Lure Parts Online the color is natures edge natural craw. I've only been able to get the cow tongue color from fishing skirts which is why I mentioned that they don't carry the natures edge colors. So if you want to replicate that color you either need to buy from 2 different vendors or find a substitute for one of the colors.

There are tons of heavy wire jig hooks, it just depends on specifics. Are you looking for a 60 degree, 90 degree, 30 or 45 degree? Flat eye, regular eye and do you want just a wide gap or an extra wide gap (EWG)? I'm asking because there are wide gap hooks that are not EWG and EWG hooks that are described as being a wide gap. For 90 degree there is the Owner 5316, a 2X strong version of the 5313 bit is only goes to a 2/0 and then there is the Trokar TK-840, it has a large gap but also a sproat bend so in addition to it being a heavy wire it is also stronger because of the bend. For a 60 degree regular eye hook I'd look at the 4/0 Gamakatsu 2034, it is an EWG style hook with heavy wire, 45 and 60 degree hooks with the EWG bend are typically shorter because the extra wire for the large gap is taken from the hook shank. Flat eye hooks there are a few good ones that will work. My favorite is what I use for my power finesse jig which is a 3/8oz ball head jig with a 3/0 Eagle Claw 2706 which is the same as the Mustad 32796. Then you have the Gamakatsu 5941, and the Trokar TK-805. If you want the EWG style hook in the flat eye there is the Mustad 38108 and the VMC 7328. The Bitsy Bug is nothing special, I believe it is just a 2/0 Mustad 32786 but I may be wrong, but the point is there are very few heavy hooks custom made for finesse jigs, most use a regular jig hook in a smaller size to keep it compact. I make a 5/8oz flipping jig for grass, it has a Mustad 32786 6/0 but if you looked at it in your hand you would think the hook was a 4/0 as it is compact for a 6/0 hook. Part of that is because of the head but the other reason is the 60 degree bend but if you give me some specifics on what type of hook you want based on the parameters I gave you along with what mold or head you want, I'm sure someone could recommend a hook that will work.

I use that mold to make what river smallmouth anglers call a "Draggin Head" that was originally made by Confidence Baits. A lot of us modify the mold to use the Mustad 91768 which is what I use. You could use the 1/4oz and 3/8oz cavities with a 2/0 and 3/0 hook or even a 3/0 and 4/0 and it should work. I don't know anything about pompano so I can't tell you if you would need a heavier hook or not but that mold should work well but you don't have the 1/2oz option.

I was making trout sized spinners, 1/8oz, with willow blades that did pretty well but you had to reel them pretty fast. I've also used Indiana blades but there are 2 styles that may help you. For larger spinners in the 1/4oz and larger range you can try the Mag willow or Olympic blade, the reason you need a larger spinner is the smallest size is a #3. They do spin at slow speeds and produce a lot of vibration, another that you may like is the swing blade, these are shallow cupped that look like a willow blade with rounded ends. The CP Swing and Original Rooster Tail spinners use swing blades, they sometimes require a snap of the rod to get the blade going but once you do they will work at all speeds from slow to fast and everywhere in between.

What do you consider a quality hook? I'm guess you mean a super heavy wire hook because Gamakatsu, Owner, Mustad all make 30 degree hooks. The Owner you can buy from Lure Craft, they purchased the 30 degree beast hook without the centering pin which makes it a little better in price but not by much. As for a mold maker, CNC Molds and Stuff, he is a member here and does quality work.

Apdriver gave you a good way to check your bobbin. Remember to check not only where it comes out but also where the thread enters the tube. What you are describing typically happens when there is a small burr but I haven't encountered that with any of my ceramic bobbins.

Are you tying on a treble hook? If so how big and are you trying to tie a clump of hair in one spot so you can add another color in a different area? I'm asking the last part because I normally want the hair to go around evenly unless I'm wanting to keep colors separated. For a treble hook you need to tie on the flat spots first and then pinch the hair as close as you can to the ends. Then make 2 or 3 loose wraps, just tight enough to hold the hair in place and then make another wrap but make it tight. The loose wraps will keep the hair from moving completely around the hook but "loose" is a relative term, it takes practice until you develop the feel for it. You want the wraps loose enough that the hair doesn't work around the hook but tight enough that when you make the tight wrap the previous wraps hold the hair in that spot.

That is really, really cool!!!! I do see one possible issue, yarn is very limp and those strands are thick enough that is could possibly foul the hook. There is also a possibility it won't foul, and the yarn will get heavy when it gets wet so it would be great on a light head. You could make a 1/16oz or 1/8oz jig that will cast well and have the bulk of a 3/8oz jig, I'll be interested to hear the results of you fishing it.

I had it happen 3 times in 3 years, but each time the CC company notified me of possible fraud and didn't charge me and issues me a new card. I spoke to several theft investigators about this and they told me you can't just go by an address that items are sent to. A lot of these thieves case neighborhoods for weeks learning what time UPS, FED EX, and the post office usually deliver and then they watch to see which places have nobody home. They will have items shipped to these residences and then simply drive up and take the package off the porch while the person who lives there never even knows it happened. They are normally in poor communities with few, if any surveillance cameras.

Yes, sealcoat will work, easier and quicker than Devcon 2 ton. I prefer the Devcon, it is much stronger and lasts longer but for sealing eyes sealcoat will work just fine.

First of all I have to acknowledge 21XDC and the shoelace, I bet that actually looked pretty cool coming through the water. As for yarn, I can see it working, I've been tying with these Dragon Tails I got from Barlow's, it is basically a tough chenille which is similar to yarn and it looks awesome in the water. While I haven't seen yarn or a lot of other stuff I can tell you there is a thing called a "satin jig", crappie and panfish guys in certain parts of the country tie these up. They use satin ribbon and cut a length off and then remove the fibers which are super thin and very limp, I have tied several myself and caught crappie on them. Show us a picture of it, I would love to see how it looks.

Depending how heavy the bodies are, you can use wire. Bend the wire in the shape of an "L" then bend a hook on the top of the "L" in order to hang on a rack. If you want you can slide your body on the wire and then put a small bend on the end to insure it doesn't slide off. I make rooster tail style bodies and I have wire Christmas Tree ornament hangers that I use to hang them on to cure.

I too am extremely sorry to hear that, take care and keep the soft plastics going.

That is one mold that I don't use the 5304 with. Now, the only way to make that hook fit is to grind the post until the hook sit in the cavity with the post inside the eye. Some molds that have that post are fine just by taking the post off altogether but not the brush jig. The reason is because of the recessed line tie , if you take the post off you'll have a lot of clean up to do. Maybe someone who has used that hook with that mold can help but if not you can see if anyone wants to buy the hooks you have or trade you some Mustads, VMC, or even the Owner 5317 which has a larger eye and will fit.

I pour a little on the hot side because I'm using 5% antimony so I'm usually around 725. Now the molds that I have modified work better around 750 and up. I use an RCBS pot, it is the old style with the analog temp control but I have an immersion probe to check lead temp, believe it or not the dial setting is pretty accurate.

No, go to Barlow's Tackle and get 210 denier flat waxed nylon, it is almost $1.00 per spool cheaper than the size D rod thread from Jann's. I'm not advocating places to shop, I'm letting you know that the size D rod thread is about the size of 210 denier thread and the flat waxed nylon lays flat and won't build up as fast as the rod thread.

Mustang charges more per 1000 than Do-it. You have to buy 50k before the price becomes lower.

Jig Man, I too love Danville flat waxed nylon but GSP is stronger. I believe GSP 200 denier has like 10lb breaking strength compared to 3lb for 210 flat waxed nylon. The issue I have with GSP is it doesn't like gripping bucktail without super glue on each layer, and it is more than 3X the cost of flat waxed nylon but you wouldn't break that thread either.