pirkfan

#18 hooks are pretty small for the size bait I catch (surf smelt, herring, anchovies), the reason I went with the #8 mustad 34007 is for rust resistance, I use them in salt water, and a commercial sabiki rig is practically throw away when used like that, the hooks quickly rust unless immediately rinsed in fresh water. That's the only reason I made my own. In regards the beads, I believe I got them from netcraft (they sell a 4 x 6 mm bead which would be about the right size)

.035 Spring Stainles for both, which is #15 wire. Stiff enough that it doesn't get bent too easily. Small enough that most clevises work with it. And at 240# test, tough enough with a barrel wrap eye, that no salmon is going to break it.

I've made some, although strictly speaking, they're probably not sabiki rigs, since those use a fish skin "wing". I use #8 mustad 34007 SS hooks (makes them last in salt water), Using white thread, tie in a tail of white chicken hackle fibers, little puff of fluorescent orange chenille, body of silver tinsil, another puff of orange chenille, and a thin white hackle. Tie up 6 of them. Make up a leader about 6 feet long of 10# fluorocarbon, and tie in 6 dropper loops along it's length. Cut one side of each loop free close to the knot, slide on a fluorescent glo green bead on the resulting leader, and tie each of the flies to the free end. Tie a swivel at the top and a sinker loop at the bottom of the main line. There are special Sabiki rods which allow you to reel the whole thing up inside the rod where all those hooks are out of harms way. It's amazing how a couple of smelt can turn one of these rigs into a gordian knot if you don't get them out of the water right away.

Collins Customs - Custom Mold Products

I use a proweld plastic welder, but you can also just heat up a piece of stainless wire or thin biece of stainless such as the metal from a windshield wiper, and melt the two pieces together. The plastic welder has the convience of an on/off button

I have fished for and caught carp....and haven't found them particularly challenging to catch....usually just a glob of worm and a couple of split shot to hold the bait on the bottom. They make strong runs, but never jump, some have called them "fresh water bonefish". Still, I really dislike them. I surely wish the US Government would have NOT been so diligent about spreading them around the country. Here in the Pacific Northwest, they have to be one of the most reviled fish in our waters (second only to the northern pikeminnow, which is actually a native fish)....fished for by few, eaten by less, and overpopulating waters in which they live. And they are able to survive and thrive in remarkably diverse places, nearly always to the detriment of water quality. Perhaps some of the European carp specialists on here would like to come to our state and fish for "wild" strain carp on a pristine carp stream such as the one running through our family farm...the only prerequisite...each carp must be retained.

Try to find a book called Modern Tacklecraft by C. Boyd Pfeiffer. It's got the best pictorial description of how to make a loop that I've seen anywhere. I'm not sure it's currently in print, but library might have a copy, or Amazon

I have that mold....are you just looking for some heads cast up, or do you want the mold?

Shawn Collins seems to be a very busy guy, and I've found that the paypal route seems to be the best way to order. I email him, asking for pictures of products I'm interested in and prices, he emails back with pictures, mold configurations and prices, and I then order directly through Paypal, specifying the mold and configuration I want and sending him payment at the same time. About a month or so later I get the product. This is fine for me since I'm not a manufacturer, just make lures as a hobby. He makes very nice stuff, and I'm happy that he's busy, we'd lose a very talented resource for molds if he didn't have enough work to stay in business.

I'm not quite sure what the Strike King 5" slab spoon looks like, I looked in their on line catalog and didn't see anything like that. Shawn Collins makes a bunch of different molds for various fish shaped slabs...some of which are not in his on-line catalog. Ask him to e-mail you an example of all his fish shaped slab molds.

I've always thought that the second blade on the arm of the spinner bait is there to spin "on the drop" which seems to be when I get half my fish. It just doesn't seem like a physical possibility that it could spin when the lure is pulled horizontally. It's gonna hit the upper shaft arm. I don't use one on most of my spinnerbaits, and seems to work just about as well.

I've used netcraft injectors A LOT, and never had a serious accident. I've looked at the Bear's injectors, and am not quit sure how you''d use them with the netcraft molds safely. I do like the fact that netcraft molds are inexpensive, and they've got a bunch of patterns. The injectors are inexpensive too, but are prone to rather rapid breakdown. Buy a couple. How you use the injectors is key, don't pick up the injector and try to use it like a syringe. It's designed to sit on the work surface and any pressure used to push plastic into the mold is done by pressing down with the mold, not pushing up with the injector. Spray the molds with Pam cooking spray before you start. Remove the plunger, and spray the barrel of the injector with Pam too. You only need to do this once per pouring session. Then fill the barrel of the injector with liquid plastic and replace the plunger. Turn it tip up, set it on the work surface and gently press down on the barrel with a gloved hand. If the plastic won't flow, don't force it, you've got a plug in the metal tip (this happens virtually every time). A little pressure will hold the plug just proud of the tip, pull it out with a gloved hand or forceps. This allows molten plastic to flow. Then press the mold down on the tip. If it still won't flow, there is now a plug in the mold, have several ready and use another one. Oh, and by the way, throw away those funky c-clips and get some small plastic woodworking clamps (you can get a bag of a whole bunch of them at Lowes for about 10 bucks). They hold the mold together plenty tight to make a flash free injection if the mold isn't warped. A few of the Netcraft molds (such as the jerkbait) just won't inject from the bottom, turn them upside down and inject through the sprue hole. After the mold has filled, turn it upright, and then, and only then use the injector like a syringe to keep the sprue hole filled as the plastic cools and shrinks. Otherwise you'll get a void in the bait as the plastic shrinks (unless you want a hollow bait, which you will get). A plug of solid plastic will invariably form in the barrel of the injector with each use. Pull the plunger out and remove this with forceps and remelt it. These things are designed for personal use, you're never going to be able to get a production thing going, the injectors don't hold enough, and the whole process is just way too slow. But they do make nice baits, which have produced a lot of fish for me.

Fishing the Pacific northwest, I've never used scent or additives. White, motor oil, lurecraft minnow silver, and black pretty much cover my needs with pearl white getting the most use. Glow pigment in white helps when fishing deep. For albacore, various two color swim baits with black back,

I use one of the Badger abrasive guns for powder paint, to do counter shading on 2 color jigs. Works OK, but you do waste a bit of powder (I spray right into a garbage can). Once the lures are cured they're just as tough as dipped. For spinner bait heads, I use an embossing heat gun and just heat the lead head, not the hook...then just dip them like a jig....powder doesn't stick to the unheated hook.

I didn't do it, but my fishinhg buddy did. Trolling for chinook on Tillamook bay, with plug cut herring, Everybody was using the same bait, and the herring gulls were hanging around waiting for the herring heads to be tossed overboard. My buddy wasn't good about getting his herring down before it got far enough back for the gulls to make a try for it. Two gulls in one day. They could take off with the 4 oz sinker swing free below them. He had to play them back to the boat while they were in the air. Looked pretty funny, fighting a sea gull which was flying about 20 feet above the boat. Both of them released unharmed, the hook didn't really penetrate their bill, he just kept a nice tight line plus the weight of the sinker so they couldn't throw it or swallow the herring.

Do-It molds slip jig lure mold

The silver glitter I got from LC is a metal product and included a note about using caution when microwaving...might not be compatible with all microwaves

Put the jig in a fly tying vise, grab the rubber with a pair of hemostats right at the end and stretch it waaaay out (not enough to pull the hook out of the vise though), cut the strip right next to the hemostat slowly

mustad 91751

I've used 34185s (stainless version of this hook) in Do-It shad head molds, 60 degree ball head, and 60 degree bullet molds from Do-It. You just have to try them in various molds and sizes, and see where they fit.

I've used the Netcraft molds a lot over the years (these things used to be marketed by Hilts molds, I don't know who really makes them), and there seems to be a learning curve for each mold. Some of them just don't mate well, and you always get excessive flash....pitch those, along with the C-clips that come with all the molds. I have used various clamps, including bulldog paper clips (work pretty well for the easier molds to inject), and woodworking spring clamps in the smaller sizes (work better for difficult molds) Some, like their 4 inch shad minnow mold don't have an injector port in the tail where you'd expect, just tiny vent holes, you have to inject through the head end of the mold where you'd ordinarily see the plastic come out. Once injected, you have to flip everything upside down and add a little more plastic for shrinkage. In regards the injectors...they do have their foibles. You pour the hot plastic in, and the metal tip immediately solidifies the small amount that's in it. Soooo, you put the plunger in, turn the thing right side up and apply slight pressure to get this small solidified plug to slightly bulge out of the tip. With a gloved hand or hemostats, or tweezers, you grab this plug and pull whilst putting gentle pressure on the injector to force new plastic into the tip. Once the plug is gone and melted plastic has started to flow out the tip, get cracking and inject all the molds you have prepared. You'll always have about one third of the injector which will have started to solidify. You get what you get. Pull the solidified plastic out of the injector barrel with a pair of hemostats or tweezers, and save for remelting, don't pitch it back into the melted plastic in your cup or pot, or things really slow down. Don't put a mold on the injector and push down on the injector with the mold, instead, put the mold on the injector tip, and with a gloved hand, push down on the top of the injector and let the plastic flow into the mold under minimal pressure. This avoids release of hot plastic under pressure if the mold slips. Don't force partially solidified plastic into the molds, it's never going to make a complete bait, and you're going to be tempted to push too hard, and bad stuff is going to happen. Use a pizza cutter to cut off any flash. The 6 inch curltail grub with built in injector is SLOWWWW to use, screwing and unscrewing the wing nuts is a pain and my injector plungers have started to break down. But I've caught so many fish with that darn lure I've actually turned new plungers on a lathe just to keep using these molds. Since I'm not making lures professionally, I'm willing to invest some time with these molds and the price is right. If you're careful with them, and willing to experiment, you can get most of them to work, I've never experienced a serious plastic spill or burn with them, I've made a lot of baits, and never had a mold totally fail yet. The molds do develop some heat/age/stress cracks over time, but they stillwork.

I bought Badger air brush 4 oz jars for my powder paint. They are the size that the Badger abrasive gun uses, and if you're ever tempted to try spraying powder coat, you'll need them. I bought them at this site: Paint Jar 4 oz (bad50-267) Badger Airbrush Co. Airbrush Accessory

Netcraft carries a 2 1/2 inch paddle tail shad 2 piece mold. You need to inject it, but it works OK if you're willing to deal with their somewhat flimsy injectors. Looks a lot like a sassy shad to me.

I use lead free tin solder (scored about 25 lbs from the auction site at a somewhat reasonable price). It fills molds well, and stays shiny....but I also use lead for the really big stuff, tin's just way too expensive. No problems with do-it or collins molds so far. It only weighs 70% of an equal volume of lead, so adjust accordingly

I'd have to question whether that's really worth the trouble. Since I make all my own jig heads, I'd just melt the lead off the hook and start over (outside where there's not a fume problem from the old paint). Old jigs have old hooks, and unless they're in superb condition (no rust or pitting), I'd use a new hook too. The only jig hooks I try to salvage are stainless mustads