bass100

I use willow leaf blades for flash and I use colorado blades for vibration. The only sizes I use for both is 3.5 and 4. The steel #3.5 willow leaf blades are just too light unless you use a very high quality ball bearing swivel which is something I refuse to do. I refuse to use high end ball bearing swivels on my swim jigs because I will loose a bunch in a year. So I use the steel blades to paint on and the rest are brass. This is just what works for me too keep the cost down and still have a bait that functions correctly. If I am using a 5/16 oz grass jig with a 4/0 hook it cost me 69 cents per jig to make. If I use a high quality ball bearing swivel the swivel would cost more than the whole jig. Now if we are talking spinner baits then that is a different story. Twindad90, I make all my swim jigs with a weed guard. If you need to you can simply cut the weed guard off when fishing. As far as the trailers go when I am not using a blade on the back I use a swimbait, craw papi type trailer, and the tail of a curl tail worm. One of my fishing partners uses the Zoom swimmin fluke and he loves it.

Twindad90, I fish the Fishers of Men and will be fishing the nationals this April at Chickamauga and I think you will love the organization. As far as cover goes we have both smallmouth and largemouth so we target everything. The other nice thing is that swimjigs are not limited by depth.

Alot of times the bait can be a little oily from an excess of cooked in scent, heat stabilizer, or even softner. Simply wipe the bait down with denatured alcohol and it should stick fine.

There was no offense taken at all. My point was there is no right or wrong answer because they all work. Some guys favor the cheaper blades and some favor the expensive ones. I like to mix it up. To be honest if I was not a tournament guy I would never use a painted blade because polished nickel or brass is enough with the exception of a black jig with a black blade. The blade that I would love to have more input on is copper because it is something that I don't use at all and I have some swim jig colors that it would look good on. Twindad90, I hope this info is helping you out with a starting point. Let us know later in the year if you are catching many fish with the swim jig and blade combination. I moved to PA from NC and would love to know how it works down there especially since all my friends here go to Falls Lake every April. .

I use super glue and then dip in clear plastic.

I would disagree a bit. When it is sunny I use silver, nickel, brass, gold, black nickel, and painted blades but when it is cloudy I only use painted blades. This is what works for me. In other words try them all because they all work. It is just a matter of finding out when each one works for you. As far as the original question goes about expensive blades versus cheaper blades. The more expensive blades are almost always brass because brass can accept the better quality finishes. If you look at a metal chart for weight you will find that brass weighs more than steel. You will find that most painted blades are steel and that is because when you paint brass it could become very heavy. Brass will tarnish and steel can rust if not properly coated. I do not use light weight steel blades unless I paint them because they are to light to have a consistent spin. You can combat a very light blade with a high quality ball bearing swivel. Blades that have a little weight but are not too heavy you can use a ball bearing swivel or a good barrel swivel. Blades that are too heavy you can use almost any kind of swivel but you will have to reel them alot faster to keep the blade moving. This is just how I do it but you can see they will all work it is just a question of what works for you.

It has been done and is being done. http://engatech.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/customer-story-objet%E2%80%99s-3d-printer-allows-pradco-outdoor-brands-to-capture-all-the-detail-and-feel-of-a-living-organism/

I used 3/4" wood to make my box so the motor is not loud at all but you will hear the sound of air being sucked.

I run a squirrel cage fan and I have 4 lines coming out of my box: two for plastics, one for lead, and one for airbrushing. You can put a dampner into each line so you can control how much air flow you would like. I see you are also in cold country so you may experience the problem I have which is when I turn on the fan it gets cold quick. I don't know how many CFM's it has. I have been running the same motor for about 10 years now. I have posted on this before but if you go to your local heating and air conditioning installation company you can get a used motor for less than $50 versus a couple hundred for a new one. Once you have the fan installed there is a question you will never ask about a brand of plastic and that is how much does it smoke.

I water cure mine. Then I have 2 racks that hold 18 trays that are 2 foot square each. They get laid on the trays until I need them. Most of my plastics get made in the winter so there is no point in packaging them unti I am ready to use them. I hand pour and inject so using water works the best for me. Also I reuse all my sprues while I am pouring. If you are hanging your baits you can still reuse your sprues but you will have to wait until your baits are cured. I find that It is much easier to reuse sprues before the plastic has cured versus after it has cured although I only do this on large batches. This is how I do it and it let me run a successful business for several years. I agree if your scent is washing off in a 90 second water cure then you are wasting time and money but I have never had this problem.

Glad you like it JJK. I don't know of anyone who offers more color options. I have been using this wire for several years and I have not had any type of corrosion yet.

There are a lot of different opinions on lead fumes and that is because it is very very very rare to get lead poisoning from lead fumes. As lure makers we have no reason to go above 800 degrees when pouring our lead unless we are fluxing our lead for the first time. Under 900 degrees lead does not produce a vapor unless there are other contaminates in the lead which is why you should flux your lead before you pour with it. The MSDS for lead says fumes won't be produced until over 1000 degrees. All this being said there is still no reason to not have ventilation or at least wear a mask. The #1 type of lead poisoning is ingestion and for us lure makers that usually comes down to keeping our work space clean and not eating, drinking, smoking, etc while pouring or working with lead.

I don't know if they give a discount. One roll of 24 guage will get you around 220 jigs.

parawire.com

This is why anyone looking to start a business should get advice from an expert. If you are selling fishing lures you have to have a EIN #. A EIN # is if you have employees or you pay any kind of federal excise tax. If you sell fishing lures you have to pay an excise tax which means you have to have an EIN #.

Getting approved for excise tax could take up to 6 months and beings it is a in home business they will probably come out to inspect your work area and ask a few questions. They come out so that they can decide if it is an actual business or a hobby.

Here you go. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=42549&catid=704

I have had alot of people ask me how I am putting in these weedguards so hopefully this will put all the questions at rest. You can put wire weedguards in any mold. 1) you cut a weedguard insert so it is flush with the inside of the cavity 2) cut a slot in the weedguard insert for the wire weedguard. I use a dremel. 3) when you make your weedguards make sure that it hooks around the jig hook. Use wire of your own choice. 4) put it all together in the mold. So as you see you can put a wire weedguard in any mold that takes a fiber weedguard. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the update Cadman.

Thanks Cadman. We are both on the same page about not jumping the gun. The guys that have been in this a while have developed a relationship with our suppliers or we are trying to and it would not be beneficial to call them with a problem and not have all the facts. If you are having a problem with this mold and you think it is something Do-It should fix then please give them a call. The more phone calls the quicker things get fixed. I myself think the mold is fine but the clips are not.

Me and my partner spent a whole year testing the eye theory and the end result was it didn't matter, however, I still add them to my jigs because they still catch me. We also spent a year testing crankbait paint jobs. We wanted to know if realistic patterns were better than the standard patterns. Hands down the plain jane baits I paint out fished the realistic baits I paint.

No hook-up problems at all. They are taking over my spinnerbaits. The blade will always spin (reeling, lifting, falling, etc) and because the blade is behind the hook it doesn't get slimed or grassed up near as much as a standard spinnerbait. You can also work it in far more places than you can a spinnerbait. I have done well flipping and pitching it also.

Cadman is correct in his post. The clips could have been made with a better design so I tried a couple of different things. Molding in the hook just wasn't an option for me because I make to many types of baits that would take to many hook sizes and styles. In the picture below, the bait on top uses the standard clips from Do-It and as we all know these will fail in the smaller sizes, however, you can make your own improved clips easily. The middle bait is molded with clips I made and you can change out the hook when you want. It is not easy to bend the wire back and forth but when it does I don't know how long it will last. With the hook having the ability to pivot 360 degrees the wire will not bend easily. The bottom picture is with split rings attaching the hook to the head. I will test them all next season to see the outcome.

Here are some of the swim jigs I have here in the house. Sorry I don't have any of the brush jig ones or the standard darker colored ones here but you get the idea.

The swim jig is my favorite bait. I won 2 opens and took 2nd in a regional tournament down on the Potomac this year with them. Both of the opens I used a brush jig with a wire weedguard and in the regional tournament I used a grass jig with a wire weedguard. The brush jig deflects well if you are swimming it around rocks or wood but I always start with the grass jig first and if I start hanging up I will go to the brush jig. I started out with the standard fiber weedguards but I had to many fish getting off so I switched to a wire weedguard and now I have no problem catching the light biters and the hard biters. 90% of the time I am using a 1/4 or 5/16 oz jig but if I am fishing deeper than 10 feet or the wind is heavy I use a 1/2 oz. I make many types of swimbaits but the best trailers for me are a craw papi type trailer or a #4 powder coated willowleaf attached to the hook. I always match my blade to the color of my jig.