cadman

This is our second year doing this, and my wife and I enjoyed it tremendously. It just gives us a great feeling to teach young children how to cast a fishing rod. Many kids never even held a rod in their hands. After maybe a dozen practice casts, the kids usually figure it out and they start casting really well. I urge anyone that fishes to get involved and teach kids how to cast and catch fish. My wife and I will do this again next year.

Eddie, Here is what you can do to solve this issue. #1. Put a piece of tape or business card between the two mold halves. When you gap the mold, you will open enough space for the mold to fill the keeper. If that doesn't work. Do the next two things. #2. Cut an air relief line with a utility knife on both mold halves, where the keeper is cut from inside the keeper to the outside of the mold. The reason you are not getting the keeper to pour, is because the hook might be a little bigger in diameter, and it is trapping air in the mold, keeping the lead from filling there. Also do #3 while you're at it. #3. Take a small round hobby file, and file out both mold halves, where the hook shank fits in the mold. By filing this out, you will also let the air release from the mold. Do not over file and make it too big. Make it so the hook shank is a little loose. One thing to note, is that once you file this area out, if you decide to put a smaller hook in there, you will get some lead flash seep out. No need to worry, you can always cut that off. If you want to call me with more questions, I will PM you my phone number and help you out.

Allen, If you are looking for chrome to look like a car bumper and gold to look like a gold chain, then forget about powder painting them and get them plated. If you don't care, as long as the gold and chrome have a gold and silver color then powder paint will do the job. Depends on how picky your friend is. Actually the fish don't really care.

I pour the 1/4 oz Poison Tail a lot. Although m mold is a little bit worn, the Mustad 91768 will fit in there no problem. Also the Mustad 4/0 32886 fits in there as well. On a brand new mold you may have to take the hook and place it in the cavity, close the mold halves together and take a hammer and lightly tap the halves together until they close tight. This, is because the hook eyes might be slightly bigger. But in no way does this cause any problems with the mold, and you will not get any flash. Also use Frankford Arsenal mold release on your molds. Makes it really easy to pour and release your head once the lead fills the cavity.

Baby powder only keeps rubber skirt strands from sticking together. Does nothing for rotting or dried out rubber skirt bands. If you want a wire tying tutorial on how to wire tie your skirts, PM me your e-mail and I will send it out to you.

Leave the skirt band on. Then hand wire tie with two wraps of wire (ahead of skirt band) , cut rubber skirt band off. Never worry about it again. Initially leaving the skirt band on before you wire tie, helps keep the strands from falling apart before you wire tie. Or like mentioned, use small plastic zip ties.

Netbait Paca Chunk Sr. in every color except white and Jewel 5" "J" tail grub in smoke blue and smoke purple.

I would try to find another source for powder paint. Harbor Freight powder paints are poor in adhesion in my opinion. You have a PM

It all depends on what you want to do. Do you really want to make a brand new spinnerbait? If so, I would take some paint stripper, apply it to the lead head, and once it's clean , paint the head with acrylic paint. Once dry, wire tie your new skirts and be done. If it was me and I wanted it to be perfect, I would go thru the whole process of stripping the paint and then powder coating the head. Then clearcoat Clearcoat will add durability to the paint finish. Not really needed unless you slow roll your baits on the bottom of the lake. All in all, the fish don't care. If you want to do it on the cheap, just wire tie a new skirt on it and go fishing. This is a spinnerbait, and you are looking for reaction bites. I don't think the fish can see the paint of the spinnerbait as it goes by.

Crimp the wireform over the hook eye so it is flat. Then move the connection closer to the center of the cavity body. You will then get good pours.

probably the same problem as the keel buzz bait. Do you have some pics we can see to assess what is going on? Some things to try: Coat mold with Drop-Out. (90% of your problems will go away). Make sure hooks are hot along with wireform If the hook eye or the wireform are sticking out of the sides, get a smaller hook or move hook eye over center of lead body.

Is it the keel buzzbait from Do-It? If so, they are a P.I.T.A to pour. If you need help with that , I can call you to discuss all of your options.

I do something similar to what Jig Man does. I dip bad jig in pot, however once I pull it out of the pot, I take the hook and wipe it thru a pair of old jeans. The lead comes right off and the hook is clean for next time use. You can do the same with wireforms.

Just pour your jig with a weedguard hole, paint head, bake head, tie your hair or feathers on jig body and then glue in your weedguard with epoxy or super glue.

Nice looking jigs.

If you are looking for some tutorial on skirt tying and pouring start-up. PM me your e-mail and I will e-mail them to you. A lot of good basic stuff to get you started.

Depends on what type of fishing you do. I do not fish rock. The two jig molds I would recommend would be Snootie Jig and Poison tail of Casting jig mold by Do-It.

What I would do, is measure the blade. Height, width and blade thickness with a caliper so you're accurate. Then take a picture of the blade and put the correct dimensions on the picture that correlate with the sizes. You can then send it to Worth to see if they have something like it. You can also inquire from, Barlows, LPO, Jann's, Netcraft, Lakeland and Hagens to name a few. Just a note, you may not get an exact match or and exact color if War Eagle has them custom made for their exclusive use. Good Luck

You do not want to pour lead jigs or anything plastic in your kitchen. Reason being: Lead near anywhere where you eat is definitely a no-no. Plastic smell in the kitchen is definitely not a good idea, especially if you burn the plastic, plus you should use a respirator for plastic because of the smell. Safety in pouring either, is a big concern especially regarding children. DO NOT POUR in the home. Pour in the garage or if you have a tool shed with plenty of ventilation

I can give you all the info in a nutshell, and that is if you are going to do it long term, than it is worth it. If you are going to pour a 100 jigs, than no it is not worth it. If you want to keep busy and make something custom for yourself in the winter then I would start small. Initial cost with a mold, pot, powder paint, lead etc. is about $300.00 If you want more info Pm me your e-mail and I can give you a start up sheet of what you might need. I can also call you on the phone and go over some of the costs if you would like to that as well. Good Luck

If you want it to last even longer you can clear coat the baked brass weight with epoxy.

What dsqui said. Sand the brass lightly then powder paint and then bake the head.

I buy my skirts from fishingskirts.com Biggest selection on the web

I would suggest buying the jigs without the weedguards installed. Put in Teflon pins in the holes so you can paint the jigs. Take out Teflon pins, bake and then glue in weedguards. I have had all the weedgurds start to curl doing it with the weedguards installed. If you need more instructions feel free to PM me and I will send you a painting sheet on how I do it.

That's a nice healthy looking fish Paul. Congrats. You fishing on "The Chain"?