airbrushextreme

I use the 32724 mustad it is a 28 degree hook but works well in this mold I like it because it is a light wire hook just like the original wisconsin style swim jigs I use it for all of my open water swim jigs I have some 1/0 and 2/0 but they are really hard to find the 91768 comes in a 1/0 its a wide gap I am not big on the ewg style for this jig it snags too much

My personal favorites are: 7/16 style S 4/0 gamakatsu 291 hook copper vein head chestnut brown green pumpkin baitfish green pumpkin dalmation and a few strands of amber 5/16 weedless roundball 3/0 mustad 32893 hook copper vein head oxblood rootbeer nature edge natural craw nature edge and a few strands of spotted tobasco living image these two colors have caught more fish for me than any other color combo out there muddy water to gin clear on the bank to 30ft+ 10lb test to 65lb braid I prefer these baits over any others the style S jig skips better than any other out there period the VA NC SC lakes I fish regularly if you cant skip a jig you cant compete most of the time and several BASS and FLW pros all use the same style jigs most guys get them from shooter jigs but I build my own instead of paying for them

I know what you mean I paint knockoffs to sell and a few for myself but I buy the real thing for my personal stuff I wait for basspro to put the RC's on sale and buy them up for my own use same with pointers etc I bought a bunch of discontinued pointer 100 100DD Slender pointer and staysees last year for $5 each a local tackle shop was discontinuing them and some werent bad colors mostly bleeding bait series and some of the odd trout looking colors I repainted for myself

Airbrush cleaner and a little hot soapy water I shot it through the Iwata eclipse

cadman you are right on the money I have both molds and compared to find out exactly what you said I use both molds the standard arky skips much better than the flat eye I pitch and flip with the flat eye as well as use it for a standard casting jig

too small for my operation I couldnt get all of my paint in that cabinet I have a 30x50 shop and it barely has enough room sometimes I get carried away on things sometimes but dont think I am knocking the cabinet My wife wishes I could have a small cabinet like that for my tackle craft that way she could have the money I could have saved from buying new tools equipment paint airbrushes paint lead hook molds skirt materials lead etc

the True RC 2.5 has a square bill the LC FAT CB BDS 3 has the same bill there is also another guy on ebay that has these FISHINCOMFORT he also has ito vision knock offs as well his baits are great also but they arent as cheap I cant get him past $3 apiece for these

I buy from predator bass baits all the time I havent had any trouble out of any of the baits he sells they all run true and are A+++ clear I ordered 100 from him 2 weeks ago and they are already about gone I never even advertised. my normal crowd of local pros bought them before I even finished them. If you have any questions about any of their baits I have painted lots of them and have bins of their unpainted baits ready for painting when I have a chance away from my normal orders

I was thinking the same thing on white ash it is very hard to work with smaller benchtop tools I made a few pencil poppers and a couple of LC gunfish Knock offs out of it I like the wood because it is very heavy and bouyant and makes small baits fly alot farther than standard basswood or fir

try the pen trick I use I use a zebra metal ink pen remove the cartrige bit leave the pocket clip in place replace it with a pull pin from an egg sinker mold and pour a stainless condiment cup full of lead around the bottom side after this cools I dip it into rubberized coating I then tie a piece of braid to the pocket clip and thread it thru the pen making a 3"loop and pass it back thru the hole I then put a carolina keeper on the braid at the bottom of the pen. now all I do is loop it around the skirt at the bottom tighten the loop by snugging up the keeper and it hangs and holds the skirt in place It sounds harder to do than it really is I used to use the band but this is easy on easy off and speeds up production

I have done several photo finishes but I like painting way better I always want something a little different I used to have a pet bass in a 1000 gallon aquarium and I would feed him shiners he always went for the ones with lost scales or the ones I would put live bait dye onto always something different from the standard colors

I use soft jewelers wire I have used it for a while I use a double wrap and twist it 3 rotations to tighten it and snip it off in the twist. this is an easy way to tie jig skirts I use a zebra ink pen with a piece of heavy braid in a loop to hold the skirt material in place until I am finished with the skirt then wrap it with the wire

I have painted thousands of baits since I started I used to mess up a lot on scales, stripes, and a lot of blending when I first started but now everything just flows together and I can do as many as 30 colors a day no matter how large the sets are I recommend a iwata custom micron c plus or the iwata high line ch I have both but like the high line better I have 14 3700 series plano boxes stuffed with cranks and I probably dont have 30 total that are stock colors I repainted everything to my specifications I look at it this way every fish in the lake have seen stock colored baits so why throw the same thing make yours different

I like these they look like my first paint jobs from several years ago all I can say is that every bait you paint the better you get

I use a pair of sharpened side cutting pliers with 8" handles cut in line with the hook from back to the eye 2-3 snips and the hook will pop right out of the side of the lead that is left on the hook

I used some aluminum epoxy (similar to JB weld) and highside chem. red epoxy for my prototype jig molds before I had them made I got over 200 from my blade runner swimbait head knockoff and it never changed at all I tested the first and last head that I poured they weigh and look the same no expansion or cracking at all I actually use it a lot if I modify a mold and need to fill in anything on the mold

I have had a lot of cheap epoxies shatter the epoxy doesnt fully adhere to the bait and after it gets hot or is exposed to the sunlight for a while it breaks loose from the body and shatters like dropping a light bulb into thousands of pieces. not all concrete sealer epoxies are the same most of the ones sold in home improvement stores are useless I recommend a synthetic polymer base or alkaline base. Acid base epoxy will eat up most plastic and paint for that matter but is most often used in concrete epoxy sealer due to the fact it etches the concrete surface in order to adhere I use this a good bit and it is very toxic and flammable it is used most often in chlorine tanks for sewage treatment plants and paper producers I use it because it seals tight and is self leveling on concrete. I recommend system 3 products because they stand behind their products 100% I had some hardner that started tinting and they sent me new without returning the old batch

I paint the eyes on swimming jigs and bucktail jigs as well as use stick on eyes which are easier. I have had fish follow a swimming jig several times on the same fish multiple times before with no eyes and turn away from it and eat the one my partner was throwing that had eyes just a personal preference I guess

I tried concrete epoxy surfacer a couple of years ago I liked the way it paints on smoothly and dries super hard but it didnt adhere to the bait kind of like an egg shell over the bait I had problems with it shattering and chipping very easily. I had painted some for a customer and all of his done the same thing the epoxy separated from the body and was just loose on the bait. I use concrete epoxy surfacer in some of the kitchens and bathrooms I do for people but they arent going over plastic or wood I use the epoxy for inlaying glass beads stones etc into concrete floors to give them a water type look or to make a faux terrazzo look on concrete and to seal over epoxy paint I had a customer on a job who had painted a scenario on her floor in an enclosed sunroom with acrylic paints I told her I didnt think it would work but I rolled 3 coats over the floor and 3 weeks later it spontaniously separated while I was still working in the house it made several popping sounds and popped loose this isnt the epoxy floor surfacer you buy at the nearest home depot or lowes this was the commercial grade stuff that is used in a lot of military and chemical containment work that requires epoxy floors to prevent contamination to water sources etc I am not pushing you away from this type of epoxy I am just giving you a heads up on my experiences with it I would try it first and let me know how it works and the distributor of it because I may be able to get the epoxy at a better cost yet

I have a rotary vise I used to tie flies several years ago it is a griffin also looks similar to the pic I forgot I had it until I was rummaging through some old fly tying stuff and there it was I was trying it out last night and I see why the rotary knob works much better than my old standard vise I can spin the chuck while applying pressure on my thread and add individual strands of skirting if needed I modified a rod wrapping tensioner to hold and dispense my thread instead of the hand bobbin so I have both hands to use in placing strands and flash material. I am left handed but tie with the bait facing right all the time and this works so much better than the old way

I have a nichols waterdog that you could have to make a pop mold for I have a friend that made one last year of the same bait and used extrasoft plastic like roboworm plastic to make some mighty fine specimens he actually made 2 molds a 6 and 9 inch bait just extended the middle a little

I have a friend that epoxied 3 pyrex lab tubes together (large test tubes) for this it pours great looking tri colored baits I am by no means a plastics guru so I coyldnt tell you anything else about it

I tried the same hooks, Mustad 38108 for the same jigs I found that I missed more fish and had more hangups with this style hook in the flat eye arky model. I only use that particular hook for my magnum football shakey heads that I use for flipping and "stroking"

this is a hardbait tail with a soft main body and legs built like a bone body LC bait with a hinged tail it looks a lot better in the pics I bought 3 and repainted them because the paint isnt very good A hardbait with soft claws and legs would be awesome someone with a cnc milling machine could make a proto and someone with a cnc copier could mass produce the body