canuck 2

Thanks very much rustedhook. At those dimensions it will definitely do what I want it to. Cheers

Could some one that has the magnum Midwest finesse jig please measure the diameter and thickness of the head on the 5/8 and 9/16 oz size Trying to see how it would fit to a 8" grub that I have recently purchased. Thanks in advance.

With the image I see it looks like two different shoots were needed to fill all the cavity above the top of the bait. A definite colour change in the bait and above it. What size of injector are you using.

1/16 no4. 1/8 no2 . 3/16 no1. 1/4 1/0 5/16 2/0. 3/8 3/0. As marked on the mold. A 1/0 570 dose work in the 1/16 & 1/8 & 3/16 cavities. I use the longer 575 hooks to get the hook barb position further back into the body of the plastics I am using.

My mold is Dsj-6-a diner shiner from do it . It is marked for a number 4 570 or 575 hook which is a longer shank hook. Hope that helps.

The 570 and 574 in 1/0 fit in both those sizes with that mold.

21xdc that is very useful idea. Thanks

Swimming senkos and long worms. With a 10 or 12" worm you can mimic a snake swiming on the surface. Has proven effective quite a few times.

I just noticed that the v bend hooks are also discontinued with my Ontario distributer. Dose that mean hook inventory is limited to what existing inventory is out there. Barrlows is showing stock. If do it has discontinued making the mold will the hook manufacturer also stop producing them as well?

A straight shank hook without the v allows the head to turn sometimes. Don't know if that would be a problem for you. I like painting two tone heads. Top and bottom with matching skirts. Once the original bond lead to hook is broken you need to always tweak it. A small inconvenience for the less expensive alternative. I can use it like that but would not sell any..that's just me.

Thanks Les and OIR for some great suggestions and very useful video.

Thanks for your feedback and concerns. Safety is always on my mind. While using the single injector I have had a few nozzle blow outs while clearing after a shoot. I don't want to risk two nozzle blow out situations so will look at the upgrade.I use really good high temp gloves so have never experienced any burns .And don't ever want too. .So again thanks for your experience. I an in ontario canada .Shipping and duty/ taxes add a huge cost to importing from suppliers in the states. Unfortunately cost is still a factor as well as safety.

It is from do it. Was planning on a do it dually and doing a pin lock nozzle upgrade.

I am ready to purchase a duel injector. What do you think I need to consider before choosing the size .I have several years of single 4oz injector experience and love the hobby. Would really like to hear from the membership to avoid regrets of not getting the right size . I'm thinking the 6oz. What are the pros and con's. Thanks for any feed back and for sharing your experience.

When using beads made of glass and or plastic on larger inlines with blades #5 and larger, casting pressure and impact shock tends to crack glass beads occasionally. Plastic as a bearing bead will work for a while but eventually wear out do to the weight imparted pressure of the blade hitting the water and then slamming back towards the back of the lure upon retrieval. Yes everyone has there preferences but to me a solid brass bead , gold or nickel plated provides the best bearing surface for longevity and performance. If you go to a hollow bead for a lighter or smaller lure the wear factor shortens the durability and life of the lure. When I throw larger inline spinners using # 28 sonic or panther martin type blade , no clevis is required as the shaft runs through the blade and rotates around the shaft on a solid bearing bead in front of a poured lead body, the brass bead bearing behind the blade actually distorts the lead from the pressure and impact from casting and retrieval. Every spinner requires a balanced assortment of components in order for it to work properly that's what makes making your own so challenging and rewarding.

Darkman , one could say that a good spinnerbait is one that consistently catches fish.. That is the ultimate goal but I know you want more from your inquiry. In my opinion a good spinnerbait needs to be designed to have the following criteria. The wire frame head and hook must be cast solid and should be sized to match the target species and fishing conditions that you are planning to forage. There is a definite head weight to blade size ratio to consider in order to have the finished bait track properly whether dressed with just a skirt or with both trailer tail and skirt or just swimbait grub etc. It must provide the desired flash , vibration and color bait profile to match the water and light conditions at the time. Must be durable enough to last many bites (hook sets) and catches and still be easily tuned. On single blade baits they must have a nice ball bearing swivel and an over hook orientation. Double blades or triples should be spaced just far enough ahead of the main blade to rotate around the swivel and wire bend without touching the main blade while being retrieved It should cast easily without fouling and have a nice cadence in the water in regards to total attraction factor. If it looks like it will catch fish it probably will. Head design is a personal preference, I like a head with a skirt collar and bait holder like the banana head. I fish a lot of pike so tend to throw larger blades for more flashy presentations. I do a lot of double willows and combos with colorado willow, fluted willow, shelton willow, indiana combos. I am in the process of making a line of dinner shad head baits in the 5/8 to 1oz sizes. Used for trolling and deeper water casting. You will also need to consider matching your casting equipment with the size/weight of your spinnerbaits. I like level wind bait casters for the fighting power and smoothness of there drags. Smaller baits for targeting small fish species I like to use a spinning outfit for castability. You will end up with a lot of sizes and colors/blade combinations. .There is a bit of a learning curve and expense incurred while pouring and building your own baits. Purchasing already poured heads can save you money and take the whole lead melting out of the process . So to some this up the best spinnerbaits are the ones you make yourself.

William yes I understand what you want to achieve . Metal beads provide a reduced contact surface area between components and that is why they are usually round for our purpose. On a wire shaft lure the clevis holding/ supporting the blade moves back and forth along the wire shaft until the lure is retrieved. At that point drag pulls everything along the shaft toward the back of the lure putting load or pressure against all the components. The more weight that each component is subjected to is different as you move from back to front along the shaft . Certain key bearing or bead surfaces do more work for you than others . If the front bead ahead of the clevis has no real weight forced against it, dose it actually do anything to improve rotation ,How can it reduce friction if there is none to contend with ? The bead in your example is between the clevis legs and sees no real side load or weight pushing on it. I certainly recommend a bead down stream on shaft contacting the clevis and up stream of it if your mounting anything else that would directly rub against the clevis surface. A bead between clevis legs can be decorative and dose not need to be heavy ,metal and as it has no side load imparted to it , it is totally up to you if you want to use it or not .IMHO.

I find that the skirt collar position on the skirt tabs length definitely changes the presentation. I like and this is just a personal preference to place the tab 40/60 along the length with the 40% side facing the hook and the 60% length facing the head. I use a lot of different styles of trailers on my spinnerbaits, usually grubs and want a shorter body coverage with the longer outside trailing skirt fibers blended back over to form a tapered effect to the start of the grub tail. 50/50 is ok but just looks to me to be less realistic as a bait fish imitation. A 30/70 balance will give a longer tail/body contour without that spikey flared out head look. Try just moving the collar position for different effects and technics. I too wire tie to give endurance to the skirt as I find collars dry up and come off ,get tooth cut too often loosing your skirt material way before the bait is worn out or bit off by toothy critter's before its time.

I would think that if bead and clevis is not proportionate it could cause some jamming or delayed blade pick up when it hits the water plus it may cause a bit more friction /wind resistance if fouled while casting. Other than adding a bit of weight, minimal and a bit of added color /flash /originality to your creation I would be surprised if it increases blade spin or reduces friction. As the blade lifts it pulls outward on the clevis and would not even touch the bead. I have seen a lot of designs of spinners that are using tandem blade clevis set ups with the bead actually providing a bearing surface between clevis surfaces and that has performance value. That is the beauty of creative energy and design, if you like it and it works then go for it . A bead dose not cost a lot unless your going into full production mode so make some and try em out on the fish. If they like em your golden. Just my feed back .

All the plastisol products that I have read about and have used require at least one heating to 350*f for virgin pure plastic to get the chemical reaction and consistency. And that needs to be an accurate temperature measure while stirring. Are you sure your 325*f heating is not causing a lot of your issues? Plastics wise . I would try pouring again in a proven mold with hotter plastic and add some stabilizer to see if things improve for you.

If you made them yourself then my first thought was how did you cut them to length? What kind of cutting tool did you use that would leave a sharp edge? can a grind wheel cutter on a dremel or rotary tool work beter ,if at all to cut to length with out the angle bevel, sharp edge of say a cutting plier, wire cutting plier? Sorry I have never worked with titanium wire as its properties seem limiting to my lure crafting. ie spinner baits ,wire forming. Burning the wire may be another side effect of grind cutting which may be undesirable. Just thinking out side the box a little. I thought people ordered titanium pre formed wire frames as bending and memory was an issue. Cutting would also be something to consider .

Dan . That is a beautiful dry profile bait you have made. Is there another treble hook and body weight, tieing coil under all that maribou ? or straight shaft ? What method are you using to seperate /protect your maribou tie in point from the body weight? Have you checked the body bulk and profile after tank testing or wetting everything ? Sometimes lesser quality feathers can be utilized without affecting the actual fishability of the bait. Thus keeping your wastage down and per bait cost under control. the damage done by a big predator strike can be substantial each fish caught and as material is removed it can in fact improve the catch rate of a bait even though they do not look as appealing to us the fisherman. As materials are getting harder to find and I have always had a hard time with the throw it away scenario. You can find many uses for the lesser quality non perfect looking feathers. Dressing treble hooks and a lot of fly tying patterns (throat detail, gills ) etc can use up some if not all of the lesser quality feathers. Food for thought and sometimes fish .lol .Hope this helps. Keep up the good work .

Outlaw4 the answer to your question is hot enough to get the powder paint to melt / change state on your jig or blade with out overheating the intended project ie melting the lead or burning the brass, metal etc. . Heat sources like hot air guns are great for smaller jigs and blades if your work isn't to large to prewarm fairly quickly. If you are doing bigger stuff with more lead density metal mass to get the desired effect I use a propane torch on low flame .I move the project around back and forth above the actual flame (heat cone) not directly into the flame itself. Hot air is a little more forgiving as to how long you can and need to warm your piece. Start with a slow count of seconds and then try a drop of powder on your work. See how it reacts. If its not hot enough then put back under the air again for another few seconds. Same goes for the torch timing. When I first started using the powder spray gun I found the air gun took to long and did not warm the blades fast enough to do a lot of larger blades and achieve a nice smooth coverage without having to reheat several times between coats . Every time you reheat you have to be aware of the possibility that there is a chance of burning the paint layer that you have already been able to apply.. once the melt temp is achieved and you want to add some more paint ,it will take less time to bring the temp back up unless you have really delayed application for a bit. The paint will tell the tail. Residual heat will stay in the lead or blade for quite a while. Enough to be a burn hazard to unprotected skin. Wear gloves and hold part with forceps. To do your second color over the first you do not need to heat cure to say, like bake the painted part in an oven ,just reapply enough heat to bring the temp up and spray, drop, shake add the second color without burning /overheating the first color. Powder can be applied right over top of a base color without bleeding. In some cases like a white base will enhance a chartreuse over coat etc. Once you have attained the color and look of the bait that you wanted Then you can cure /bake it in an a dedicated oven to attain the high gloss tough finish. Usually between 250 to 350Degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Everyone has there own preferences and experiences. All of this is trial and error, timing and practice. Comfort level ,equipment available and knowing ones abilities and surroundings all are variables to consider . Each can and may change the timing of how long you need to preheat. I do a lot of work in an unheated basement at approx. 60*f. All of my jigs and blades and molds are at room temp to start. Some guys may be in there garage even colder or warmer. It all changes the timing and prep time to get a reliable quality finish. Hope this makes sense to you and answers your question. Cheers

I have found that the air brush for powder is not very good for small detail . In my experience it puts out a lot of powder and is difficult to be accurate. I find it is great for base coating blades and heads and for blend one color into another to get a smooth two color finish with out the thickness of paint that you can get from brush dropping two colors. The excessive paint spray definitely causes more of a recovery/ clean up issue and uses a lot of paint compared to brush tapping , dipping or fluid bed painting . It has its place in the craft and if practiced dose a great job for what it costs. As for brush tapping, I use cheep acid brushes, have not yet tried make up brushes. I first tune my brush up by pushing it into the palm of my hand to spread the fibers apart to change the amount of volume that the brush will hold to get different affects and yes dip and tap off the excess powder if you need less before tapping over your work. I also like to use what I call salt and pepper shaker delivery for doing the detail work like top of jig heads ,backs of minnow shaped jig heads ,kill spots etc. If your not familiar it is like an old film roll canister , one inch sized craft plastic cup with a snap on lid, easily purchased at dollar store or craft store everywhere. Drill a single small hole in the center of the lid and shake or drop the powder out by tapping it like the brush method. Different sized holes for different volumes of power flow. Not my invention or idea , got it reading on this site a few years back but has allowed me to do some really interesting effects creating some life like imitation bait fish designs. Like every part of our craft, figure out what you want to do and match or make the tools to get it done ,then above all practice the technic until you master it or are happy with the result. Hope this helps. Cheers

Heating plastisol with a microwave then pyrex or anchor brands are good, relatively safe. Approved for use by manufacturer. Don't believe you should heat direct on element like electric hot plate using pyrex or anchor measureing cups .Not approved for direct heating. I may be wrong but recall reading it some where. Check it out before moving forward. Metal pots for heating on electric elements.( definitely not for microwave) Hope I dont give you in accurate info here ! Just airing on the side of caution.