H2Fishing

I use a wire that is uncoated and much similar to what you are wanting. I get it from a company called Jersey Strand and cable. It is a .024" stress relieved stainless cable that is twisted, not braided. This is the exact wire that many jig manufacturers use in commercial jigs. I think a spool of 1000' is about $100 and will last you forever. If you need more info you can e-mail me and I will look everything up to give you all the specs. christopher.holtzclaw@cobb-vantress.com

Being a fellow Kentuckian I'll see if I can help you. I used fiber weed guards for a long time until I decided I liked the wire guards better and wanted to try something new. I did a little searching on here and found a good replacement wire. I used Surflon coated leader wire in 90# test. Cut a piece about three inches long and bend it in half. I insert it in the weedguard slot with a skirt collar aropund it to keep the lead from flowing out. Works great and if you powder paint the wire will stiffen up a bit when you bake the paint that is on the wire. Makes a good clean wire guard that works well. Hope this helps

It's been a while since I have been on here but here goes with my 2 cents. I thought this through a couple of times before I came to the realization that powder paint is just as durable if you pass it back through your heat source after painting it. There is really no need to bake the jig to harden it. Second, I have drilled out holes for weedguards after painting and I have also tried teflon tubing. Both were way too time consuming so what did I do? I started painting my jigs with the base hole pin in place. After I have coated the jig I removethe pin and glue/epoxy my guard. No more drilling out the hole. I assume most of you, like me, have several base hole pins laying around. If the paint builds up on the pin after several jigs just burn it of with your torch or heat source you are using to paint with.

You're right, it is strange that the weedguard is bigger in the round head mold but it will still work. Use the larger size screwlock and pour only the head. With the round head mold you should be able to get any size shaky head that you need.

PM sent Brad.

I haven't ever used the netting you can buy to create the scale pattern. I used some I found in the fabric section of Wal-Mart but it didn't stretch to form fit the bait. The best thing I have found that are free if you know someone in a processing plant is a hair net. You can find them in different sizes to fit different baits. I have five different sizes of hair nets that I have received or found my self.

Dean, Your name sounds familiar. Maybe the simple fact that I grew up in Danville right up 33 from Burgin just before you got into the city limits. Kind of cool to see some local guys on here. I'm sure you've spent plenty of time on Herrington, Pandora, Chimney Rock?

6.25 caught on shaky head during night tournamnet. Not the greatest pic.

Slim Shad-E

I was the same way when I bought this mold. I was tired of loosing 3 or 4 heads a trip and decided to find a way to make my own. If you decide to jump into it, hold on because you won't want to stop. Making your own baits is fun but catching fish on your own baits is something to experience. Good Luck.

If that post is directed toward me, I put a couple pics in the jig gallery under shaky head jigs. You can see them there.

After you paint your jigs, get some Devcon 2 ton epoxy. Wal-Mart, $2.00 and mix a little together and paint on with a brush. The epoxy will be rock hard after it dries and will give anything that wet, shiny look. If you ask around on here that is what just about everyone uses on jigs and crankbaits as well. A cheap, hard clearcoat for any type of bait.

I finnaly got some pics posted in the wire bait forum of the shaky head out of the football mold. I meant to get pics up earlier but got busy fishing over the weekend. Sorry.

I put up a thread about making them out of the football mold but soon realized you can probably do it on any mold that has the weedguards. This is a way to make them without modifying the mold. There have been some good replies to the thread, maybe it can help you.

I've got the poison tail mold myself and before I got my football mold I had already had some poison jigs poured but not painted. I took the hitchhiker and cut the clip part off of it. Once I had painted the jigs as I clear coated them I just stuck the hitchhiker in the weedguard hole. When the epoxy dries it holds the hitchhiker in place. I haven't tried putting the hitchhiker in the mold yet, but I would imagine it would work that way also.