jigmeister

Just strip some plastic insulation off of an appropriate sized wire to use as a keeper . This was a tip I got from a guy who showed me how to make and fish " Matties" about a hundred years ago

If you 've got access to some feature boa's they should work just fine . Probably really good for "Sexy " shad patterned flies

The real" Maribou "feathers came from a stork in Africa that was just about hunted to extinction for it's feathers so importation was banned . The Maribou feathers sold today are actually turkey pin feathers from young turkeys? Whatever hair or feather material you want to try will probably work in a given situation . If the fish hit your jig / fly it is right . I bought an assortment of packaged , dyed maribou feathers for tying small jigs from Barlows tackle shop and they were pretty cheap really .

I usually heat up the mold I'm going to using by setting it across the top of the lead pot while it's heating up .

A lot of tackle supply websites will have life size charts for components . Try barlowstackle.com

DDL , OK I think this must be what you're looking for square copper tubing with round hole click on link below : Hollow Conductor Tubing | High Purity Copper Tubing | S&W Magnet Wire (swwireco.com)

Could you use aluminum tubing in place of copper ? You could drive a piece of round aluminum tubing inside a piece of square aluminum tubing if you could find two properly sized ID-OD to give you an "interference fit " otherwise you might glue them together . The two pieces of aluminum tubing combined would probably weight less than the copper tubing you're looking for and a lot cheaper as well . There is lots of different sized aluminum tubing available at hobby supply venders online or Ebay .

Your line tie looks to be too low to get movement out the angled face on the bait . Have you tried experimenting moving the line tie up towards the middle of the diving lip (angled face ) ?

Perfect for Black (hole) bass attacking anything that invades their Space .

If you are just looking to take the shine off of the shiny lead jigheads to fish them and make them look more natural you can paint them with a permanent marker such as a black or brown sharpie . The paint job will rub off over time from rocks but if you bring the pen along you can touch up the bare spots . Not as good looking as paint but works surprising well in a pinch .

One of the first copies I made I foiled and painted and sealed with 2 ton devcon . Water got in and the wood swelled and split the devcon outer coating . The joints really take a beating during casting when the lure hits the water and paint chipping will occur . If you're trolling the bait like Mr. Cole there is less of a chance of this happening . The way to seal the wood to prevent it soaking up water is to mix up mineral spirits and linseed oil and soak the lure blank overnight in this mixture . Take it out the next day and hang it up till dry then prime and paint with oil

I have an original Allen Cole made version and the wood looks to be white like either pine or basswood ? I have made a few copies for myself out of red western cedar 1 1/2" closet rod

From what I have heard hook manufacturers usually require a minimum number of custom hooks be ordered / purchased such as 10,000 . For most people it just isn't feasible .

duct tape comes in about every color these days . I have stuck it to the blade and trimmed around the edges and it stays on great and rocks won't chip it off .

I'm assuming you're throwing these on lighter line and so you wouldn't need to specifically use a "spinnerbait" hook which would open the door to a lot of other possibilities like short shank 2/0 fresh or salt water fly fishing hooks for example .