Kasilofchrisn

What's wrong with the commercial fishermen harvesting the overabundence of red salmon? They have overescaped the river consistently the last few years because not enough fish were caught. This will most likely result in less fish in later years as there is only so much area for these fish and so much food. I know lots of commercial fishermen and some of them are good friends of mine. Heck I was one myself once so I know how it is from both sides and there is no lack of red salmon for anyone. Heck many of mine come from a dipnet. I am sure you are aware of that fishery as well. Really I just wanted to make sure you were not one of those snagging types that's all as there is no shortage of those types around here,

I ordered it off of EBAY so shipping is free. Thanks for the offer. I know I am going to like that mold.

It isn't a twitch so to speak but a jerk at the end of the swing. So here is the deal. Sockeye(red)Salmon do not eat in fresh water and in saltwater they eat mostly krill. So fishing for them is done in the rivers with a fly on one end of your line and split shot or similiar weights 4'-6' up your line. You flip your line upstream at ~ 45* angle and follow with your rod until you are ~45* downstrteam. Your line should be just ticking the river bottom on occasion.. If your line stops or you feel a fish set the hook and it'e likely fish on. If not flip your line back upstream. Many people tend to jerk the line at the end of the swing which often times causes you to snag a fish elsewhere than in the mouth. Hence they are snagging fish which is illegal in Alaska's freshwater. They call it the Kenai twitch but it really is a jerk with the intent to snag a fish. Now snagged fish must be released and you cannot intentionally snag but you will not get a ticket for a fish unintentionally snagged and properly released.

Thanks I am going to start with the Harbor freight base coat. I just need another fluid bed first. 3 of them just isn't enough. I also just ordered the 8,10,12 oz squid head mold from Shawn. I can't wait to try it out.

I hope you aren't one of those twitchers. That will get you a $110 fine (intent to snag) everytime your caught. I know you are probably just using it as a figure of speach though. Enjoy your vacation I won't be home till the 18th. Darn work has me on the north slope until then.

Here you go he sells on EBAY under the name CNC works. He has quite a few listed right now. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Saltwater-Squid-Jig-mold-3-4-5-6oz-CNC-Aluminum-/121138803928?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c346f74d8

Yes you are right they do pay for themselves if you are selling jigs. The stuff from my CNC molds gets the most attention from people. For the hobbyist though it is a bit expensive if they only need a dozen or so jigs of that type a year. Here is how I finished up some of my squid heads from my Shawn collins mold. These are 6oz and I wired the skirts on using a wire twist tool I have that is similiar to a spin bander. The colors ae protec super glow white and super glow orange with a UV blast clearcoat over that.

Thanks Andy those look just like the ones I just made only bigger. I have the Shawn collins squid that goes from 1 oz -6oz . It is a great mold. I think the eye placement is just right especially when you consider what a real squid looks like. When I get more time I'll post a pic or two of the ones I just finished. In my area I make jigs to 32oz. We use sinker here up to 5#+ so big jigs are very common. Common until you try to buy molds for them anyway. Thats why I am buying more CNC molds all the time and Shawn Collins certainly makes some good ones. The only issue with CNC molds is the price but as they always say you get what you pay for.

If you don't mind could you PM me some pics of the jigs? I just finished some from the smaller squid head mold of his that goes up to 6 oz and was thinking the bigger mold would be another nice one add to my arsenal. His molds are first class thats for sure.

While I don't make football heads I think to answer your question a person would need to ask a few. Do you only have 5# to work with or are you trying to find out how much you can make from each successive 5# batch of lead? Is this clean lead? Clean lead that has been fluxed will give you the most useable lead. Dirty lead will cause you to loose a percentage of your lead in dross. Wheel weights will loose even more with the clips and the dross. Are you using a bottom pour pot or a pot and ladle? A bottom pour pot is nice but for the best results you need to keep it fairly full so the lead will be forced out by the pressure of the lead above it. A ladle and pot would leave a bit behind trying to scraep the bottom of the pot. Once you cannot fill your ladle properly it becomes hard to use the last bit of lead. Are you only making one size or multiple sizes? What sizes are they? Seriously a 1oz football head does use 4X the lead of a 1/4oz. So that is 4X more/less jigs. So say you want to make 1oz jigs well the math says 80 but my guess is you would be lucky to get 75 out of 5# of lead.

My point in starting this thread was to let members here know he treated me GREAT in recent transactions. Take it for what you will I have bought from him and will continue to do so. If you see his EBAY sales don't hesitate to order from him. No his stuff isn't cheap but it is first quality and not available elsewhere. I do have another mold maker for my complete custom stuff who also treats me very good. Which reminds me I have another idea for a new custom mold to talk to him about. Anyway if you were considering his EBAY listed molds do not hesitate he will treat you right and you will own a first class mold not available elsewhere. If you don't like him or his reputation then by all means leave the molds for the rest of us to buy. I am certainly glad I ordered from him and will continue to do so if/when I find some more of his stuff I can't live without.

So last winter I found a mold on EBAY from Shawn Collins EBAY sales that I really wanted. I figured since it was an EBAY sale he probably had the mold already cut and ready to ship. I also figured EBAY has extra buyer protections. Well it was a great transaction and an even better mold. I have never seen such a well made mold it is first class for sure. A few months later I ordered the same mold in different sizes again off EBAY and again I was very happy all the way around. So just recently I found a couple more molds of his on EBAY I wanted and again I was very happy. I sent him an EBAY message about a surfcast sinker mold he makes called a frog tongue. He said it was not likely he would list any of those molds on EBAY. He did ask me to contact him via email about the molds though. He emailed back a very long list of size options and prices. He also let me know that the EBAY molds included free shipping and he would gladly add a frog Tongue mold in the box with the others for free. I ended up ordering 2 frog tongue molds a 4,5,6,7oz and a 8,10,12oz Well 10 days later I had the EBAY molds and 3 weeks later I had the frog tongues. Man those sinker molds are a work of art! No they were not cheap but there is no other source of these molds anywhere. I know his reputation is not the best but he sure treated me well and he was quick to answer emails. I feel 3 weeks to cut and ship a pair of custom CNC machined molds is very reasonable. His prices seem high until you realize what kind of quality molds you are getting. Granted he did not do any custom cad work for my molds. I would definitely recommend checking out his EBAY sales and emailing him about any of his molds you might be interested in. He does make amazing molds.

So I have some jigs that I want to add reflective tape to. One of them is the do-it flutter jig in 2oz through the 9oz versions. There are some others as well that are even bigger. My question is how do I seal the tape to the jig? I just don't trust the sticky back 100% . I am sure if the water doesn't remove it the fish will. Once an edge starts it is hard to save it from peeling. I have tried D2T and it works but not ideal and not what I really am looking for. Besides the jigs I make are BIG and that means a lot of D2T. I was thinking a rattle can clear might work? Has anyone tried this? This would be over the top of powder coat paint. I think I am going to try it and see how it does. If you have any other suggestions let me know.

I want to speak with an accountant to make sure I cover all my bases. We don't have a state tax but do have a borough (county)sales tax. I think for me the best approach to keeping my nose out of trouble is to hire an accountant for the first year or so then if I feel comfortable with it I can do it on my own. I don't want to get my arse in trouble for forgetting something at first because I was too cheap to hire a professional. It is not like I can't afford it.

I am at the point myself where I need to get this done. It just isn't worth it to me to get caught. I have enough interest including a friend who owns a successfull charter business who likes my jigs and he recently had his old jig maker retire. The charter boats up here tend to loose quite a bit of tackle between novice anglers and sometimes rocky terrain. I have guys on a local forum just about begging for me to sell my jigs to them. I have some CNC molds I bought so I am not making the same old stuff the other guys make. I am not looking to make enough to quit my day job. That and my day job pays well and gives me plenty of time to make jigs. I agree Smallmouthaholic has a good post. Is it really worth it once your caught?

Thanks if I buy the molds that's what I'll do. I have a few hundred of the stainless #3L eye as I use them in several of my saltwater jigs. I really appreciate the response from somebody who has made these sinkers before. Thanks!

Thanks for the reply. I do like the idea of using eyelets and shorter pieces of wire. I generally use SS eyes in all my molds instead of the brass. I am still on the fence with buying these molds but your report leans me towards giving them a shot. So a 6" piece of wire is long enough to work well? That sounds good.

Thanks! Both my sisters work in accounting and my younger sister is prepping for the CPA test right now. I am sure one of them should be able to help if a local CPA wants too much $$$ to do it. We don't have a state sales tax but we do have a borough(county) sales tax. The nice thing is I am not making bass jigs from a do-it mold and competing with 1,000 other guys. I mostly make saltwater jigs from Shawn Collins and some other custom CNC molds I have. That and there is only one other local person making and selling jigs that I would even be competing with as far as local made stuff. I have some do-it,hilts and lil mac molds and would cast from those as well. I do have a friend who owns a charter boat and the guy who was casting for him retired this year so he is willing to buy from me now. He goes through a lot of tackle on his 32' charter boat.

I am actually going to talk to an accountant. They will know how to get it done. I am just trying to keep my butt out of trouble and pay for my molds etc. These CNC molds aren't cheap,but boy do they work nice.

So a couple of months ago I got talked into selling a few of the jigs I make to some guys on another moe local forum I am on. I was real hesitant to do so but figured a few jigs would be OK. Now it appears these jigs are a big hit. One guy (whom I sent freebies to test) was using them on a charter that happened to have the local TV news crew aboard. Well he caught more halibut than all the other 5 people on the boat combined on one of my creations. Another guy caught 2 halibut at the same time 3 drops in a row fishing a jig of mine. He finally lost the jig as his son tried to gaff 2 fish at once. This jig features a hook on each side of the jig. His biggest fish was a respectable 121#. It appears I need to get the tax deal figured out because I would like to sell a few more jigs and yet don't want to get into trouble with uncle sam. Time I have as my day job is a 2x2. I work 2 weeks then have 2 weeks off. I fly out to a remote worksite in the arctic then fly home for R&R. My brother in law hooked me up at the for dealership he works for with wheel weights so I should have enough lead. So thanks to all at Tackleunderground for the help. I learned a lot and it shows in my jigs. I am not going real big but at least this hobby should pay for itself in the future.

Thanks Andy. Still debating on buying the molds or not. Especially since I just bought 4 Shawn Collins molds. I think I may have found some 16ga stainless wire locally that may work.

Unfortunately I don't have an unlimited supply of coat hangers. That is a good idea though and I could probably find a bunch at The Salvation Army or another thrift store. I'm out of town for work but when I get home I will certainly check things out around town. Thrift stores for coat hangers,the scrap yard for old wire and the local hardware stores just to see what they have. I think I need to have the wire figured out before I buy the molds.

Thanks for the report. If I decide to order the molds I will give them a shot.

I'll look into that. with the price of copper today who knows what it will cost though. Scrap copper is really getting hard to find. I'll keep my eye out for some though and see what it would take to make it work for me in this application if I decide to buy the molds. Thanks.

On my jigs I use D2T (Devcon 2 ton clear epoxy)on the eyes, If I have quality eyes they stick well enough for the eyes to stay in place whilst the epoxy cures. With dirt cheap eyes with not so sticy backs I found I need to glue them in first. For that I use CA(Cyanoacrylate aka super glue). If I use just exactly what I need and it doesn't come out from around the eye the epoxy doesn't seem to get cloudy on me. If excess glue seeps out around the eye then the D2T gets cloudy on me. A lot of my jigs use 1/2 " eyes so it isn't hard to drop just a small amount of glue. I could see it being a problem on smaller eyes though.