cadman

Welcome Midwest Angler, I'm from northern IL, but way east of you. Closer to Antioch and fish mainly S.E. Wisconsin lakes.

Pm me, your e-mail, and I will give you all the tutorials you need to get started, if that's what you want to do. Just remember, it's expensive to start-up, you will need a lot of practice to get proficient at it. If this is what you really want to get into, then it make a good winter hobby. Just remember to be very vigilant and safe, as lead is very hot and can cause severe burns.

I agree with gulf captain. Over the years, I have tried to open the hook eyes on many hooks. Some eyes opened up and some broke. The ones that opened up easily made me nervous, because I didn't know for sure if I compromised the steel wire. I work in sheet metal, and I know for a fact that if you heat steel hot enough so you can then open the eye without damage to the steel wire. However when you do that, you lose all tempering and or hardening. So unless you know how to re-harden the hook and at what temper, that is not something that can be done by the average person. Just some thoughts.

Pricing is relative to what the market and the customer will bear. If you have 50 cents in material, I would be selling that with a Gami hook for over a $1.00 a jig. Now there are a lot of factors in this. Is this a repeat customer, are you buying hooks in bulk, how many jigs are you pouring at one time. Take all this into consideration and see how much money you want to make out of this. All of my customers are really good and understanding. Someone, will always think that the price is too high. That's the nature of the business. To those people I tell them to go to Bass-Pro Shops. Remember that if you are supplying a custom jig and no-one makes that then the ball is in your court. What I would not do is ask your customer what he would like to pay for it, because most people will say it's worth 50 cents. If you are trying to price match someone else doing it, then I would walk away from that . I have been down that road with many people and they will always tell you less then what they are actually paying and when you find out what they tell you, you will see that you can't even make it for that many times. Sorry for the long winded reply. Need more help PM me.

I personally use a heat gun also, and have been doing for a long time. I use them on crappie jigs and bass jigs. You have to find what works for you as far as how you apply your heat. I know guys that use a torch. In the end it really doesn't matter as long as you bake your jigs. I would not use a lighter, and I do not like candles as they put out a lot of soot, which in my mind transfers on the jig and makes the paint adhere less. Just my opinion.

Here is a two part answer to your questions. No all powders are not alike. There are several companies out there that have durable powder for jigs .However durable is a relative term. If you fish a lot of jigs and you lose them before the paint chips off, then it doesn't matter. Also the fish don't care. However if you are going to sell your jigs like I do then I would stick with a TGIC powder , which is made for exterior use and is by far more durable than other powders. I use industrial powders all TGIC. I can tell you that Columbia and Pro-Tec are TGIC. I can also tell you that Harbor freight is not. Does it matter, well that is your call. However, me personally would never use a Non-TGIC powder paint.

Nice looking jigs. I like the clean paint job. What mold is that?

Thanks. $1.50 isn't a deal breaker for me, so I will try to find it. Thank You.

Well is there anyone on here that has (1) from e-bay that they would like to sell or trade for some custom jigs? Apparently e-bay is out of stock? Thanks in advance

I've always used frozen smelt from a guy that catches them in Spring here. So they are not packaged just frozen. I'm sure dead bait catches fish, just not on my tip-ups for some reason. :dazed-7:

For years, I've tried putting frozen smelt on a stationary tip-up along with a live one on another tip-up. I've never had a fish pick up a dead bait in the winter. Always live bait. Been ice fishing for 35 years Good Luck

If you are going to use stationary tip-ups, then live bait is the best. If you are going to use tip-ups that self jig or propelled by wind, you can use frozen smelt, or chubs. Most of what I caught on tip-ups are usually bass or northern pike and sometimes walleye. Now if you are looking for panfish (crappies, gills, perch, walleye etc), then I would use a jigging rod and jig for the fish. In this case you can use waxies (waxworms), spikes(maggots) or wigglers(hellgramites). Also you can use the colored berkely power nibblets. I've never used nightcrawlers or leeches, reason being, fish under the ice, especially panfish are looking for a smaller presentation. Also I don't think nightcrawlers and leeches are readily available in the winter months. As you know minnows are a killer for walleye and bass. Finally, it's good to have several baits with you. You can buy waxies and spikes in bulk as they are cheaper that way, and can be kept in a cool place.

Rick, You can do several things. Take a look at the jig to see if there is any glue around the weedguard hole. If there is, then you can probably pull the weedguard out. Secondly, take a pair of pliers and just pull the weedguard out to see if it comes out. You may damage the jig, but you will know right away if the weedguard is cast in place or glued in. I am going to bet that they are cast in place, reason being is that gluing weedguards is a slow process. Finally you can call Barlows and ask them or go on TackleUnderground.com and post a question for Jon Barlow. He is the owner of Barlows and posts there quite often. He will answer your question. Here is the link. I am there as many other tackle makers as well that can help you out. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/forum/21-wire-baits/ if you need more help PM me.

As far as removing the weedguards, there are two ways you can buy jigs with weedguards. Jigs can have their weedguards poured in, or they can be glued in. If they are poured in place, then the weedguards usually will melt into the lead, and it is impossible to salvage the jig, because as you start pulling the weedguard out, strands will get stuck inside. Now if they are glued in, then many times you can easily pull out the weedguards and they will come out whole, this would be your best case scenario. How many jigs do you have to do?

Rick, There are tubes that you can put over the weedguards, that keeps them from curling when you bake your jigs. Personally, I never liked them, as you don't always get straight weedguards when you're done and with the tubes sitting on the jig, you don't get full coverage. If it were me, I would paint your jigs with a lacquer enamel and call it a day. Powder painted jigs need to be baked (cured) to get that hard finish. I know some people have done the tubes and they work, however the final product looks fair at best when done. However, depending on how picky you want to be, in reality the fish don't care. Good Luck.

Fished, Tichigan on Saturday, very slow. I got a 15-1/2" largie, 17" walleye and a 26 " northern pike. My buddy got an 18" and 15" largemouth and about 6 other bass under 12". Jigs and rattle traps. Fished lake Beulah on Sunday. We got about dozen largemouth all under 14". Lot of really small fish on jigs and rattle traps.

That's what I thought. Thanks for the reply.

Is Lake Miltmore open to the public? If so where is the launch, how much to launch and any boat/motor restrictions?

I have them as well in the livewell and on the transom, never a problem

Went out to Powers Lake this past Sunday. Beautiful day on the water and fishing was really good too. Best of all no skiers or jet skies. Now to fishing. (2) 18", biggest being 3.9 lbs, (2) 17", (2) 16", (4) 14" bass , (1) 28" pike, 1 rock bass and 1 warmouth. All on jigs and in 6 -8 feet of water. Water temp was 71degrees. Going to Pewaukee Lake on Saturday and Delavan on Sunday. Reports to follow later.

I found the same thing, that anywhere there was shallow water, it was really weedy and nearly impossible to fish a jig, unless you were fishing the outside or inside weedline. All of our fish were caught on the outside weedline next to deeper water Those 2 guys with the big numbers, that is impressive. Do you know what they were throwing?

Went out to Lake Beulah in East Troy WI on Sunday had a good day for a change. Fished from 6:00 a.m. to Noon. First fish didn't come in until 8:45, then it was pretty consistent until 11:00 a.m. Fished the island and got (5) bass 15-1/2" to 16-3/4". Went into a small bay and got (4) bass 14" to 15-1/2". Finally went to Mill pond area, and got (5) more bass 15-1/2" to 17". All in all, not a bad day for a very hot Sunday. All fish caught on a 1/4 oz jig and custom poured trailer. Going to Delavan this coming week. Will give report later.

Went to Browns lake on Saturday 9-5. Oh my god what a slow day for bass. We got 4 bass in 8 hours and 12 hammer handle pike and 6 lost jigs. bass were very hard to find. everywehre we went it seemed as we found pike. Biggest bass was 16-3/4".

Like, smalljaw 67 mentioned, you can do accent colors to a jig afterwards. I as well do not recommend painting an entire jig another color over the existing. Way too much paint on the jig for any type of good finish.

Fished Delavan on Sunday 8-30-2015. Man what a slow day. Should have stayed home. I got one 36" pike at 8:00 am then got my only bass a whopping 15" at 9:00. My wife did better. At 10:45 she got her first fish. 20-1/2" weighed in at 3.6 lbs. This fish seemed skinny for its size. See pic below. She also got a 16-1/2" bass as well. All fish caught on jigs.