SWO

OK, here you go. I happen to have some .026" stainless wire for making steel leaders that I used, but anything close should work. Wind a piece of wire around a finishing nail like in the picture. Once you make enough winds, spread the coils out until you get the space between the coils that you want so at this point, you should have what looks like a spring. Cut the coil into approx. 3/8" long pieces to make the individual screw part. Make sure you leave the first two coils in each piece touching so you get a flat base to set into the weight. The jig is just a piece of wood with holes drilled into it. The vertical rods are just pieces of straightened out paper clip. (I went high budget on this one). Place a new bullet weight over the rod like in the picture. Put a drop of your favorite epoxy in the concave part of the bullet weight. Slide the coil that you cut over the rod and into the concave base. The rod keeps the epoxy from running down into the weight and plugging up the hole. You can always run a small drill bit through the hole to remove excess epoxy if needed. The store bought weights have a tube running through them to make feeding your line easier, but I found it to be unnecessary.

I'll post some tonight. The ones I made didn't have rattles, they were just screw in bullet weights. They were easy to make though. You can save yourself a ton of money. The ones you buy are about $1.00 each at Bass Pro Shops and you can make them for pennies.

If you are talking about screw in bullet weights for plastic worms, I made my own. Just wind a small diameter wire around a nail to make the screw part. Cut to the length you want. Epoxy the wire to the worm sinker. I made a little stand which was nothing more than small nails with the heads cut off nailed into a piece of wood. Slide the bullet weights over the nails nose down, concave side up. This will keep the hole for the fishing line open through the weight. Put a little epoxy in the base of the weight and slide the wire screw that you cut over the nail and into the epoxy. The rig is like a little jig that will suport the wire and keep the bullet weigh vertical while the epoxy drys. I've make dozens of these and they work just as well as store bought screw in weights.

Thanks for the info.

I'm just looking for a rough idea. Say you dip 3 1/2" tubes and maybe double dip for a fairly thick wall. About how many tubes would you be able to make with one gallon of plastic?

Does anyone have an exact match for the Bass Pro Shops Tender Tube "Watermelon with red flake" color? I believe it's color #21 in their catalog. I'm also not sure about what size flake to buy.

Were you fishing the US side or the Canadian side of the Upper River?

How long does the coffee scent last? For example, could you make some coffee tubes over the winter and expect them to be as effective the following summer, provided you had them in a sealed bag?

I've used football head jigs almost exclusively for years in Lake Erie. They don't seem to hang up as much as round head jigs do.