AtticaFish

The work on the mold is out of my league. Outstanding! Love the tie - is the body (not the fins) all saddle hackle?

Never used that brand but have used some high temp tape intended for holding iron-on lettering in place under a heat press. Think it came from the Stahls company. Taped it on to spinner blades and powder painted them just fine. Pulled the tape off and hung to cure....

Silver Tinsel Chenille and Pearl midge flash have filled my stringer with crappie 4 times this year. The pict is what I've been using. Silver darter head has some holograph finish, gotta see it in person. You may have some interest in the crappie.com forum, lots of info there. Still trying to find a jig to get some Erie perch, wanna come up with something to show my Dad you can catch fish on artifical bait. Have yet to try this one up there. Maybe this will do it. - AtticaFish

I use mostly medium for crapie jigs. Just make sure you leave enough hook gap to get into the fish with those #8 hooks. On 1/64 or smaller jigs, I use ultra chenille or just use thread or tinsel bodies. The cactus stuff is longer but pretty soft so shouldn't get in the way. You hitting crappie or white bass? BTW where at on the north coast? I'm 30 mins south of sandusky.

I have heard of using koolaid - vinegar - warm water. I saw some tails that the person claimed they dyed with it and they were some of the brightest colors I've seen. Just can't say I saw the whole process.

If you're after bass, spinning deer hair to make a floating mouse is the way to go. I caught my personal best bass (on any tackle) with one of them. Takes some practice to get it right, but the bass don't care much if it ain't perfect. Now trout...salmon... thats another story. To spin hair, you will need some very fine deer hair, I think it is belly hair. Cut a chunk of hair (longer the better) and hold it on the hook shank and make one loose wrap of thread around it, next wrap pull it tight and the hair flairs out, then wrap towards the front while holding back the flaired out hair. Cut more hair and repeat till you fill the shank with a puff ball of hair. All thats left to do is trim the hair to shape with some very sharp sicisors. Thats not the "proper" way to do it but works just fine and has caught me some big bass!

I have carved from cork as well and had some luck, definatley depends on the quality. I used 2 different files, 1 coarse, 1 fine, if one don't work try the other. I have switched up to balsa wood. Much much easier to carve and deal with, but gets mashed up pretty easy with bass.