jigmeister

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 based paint . The mix ratio is 9 parts mineral spirits to 1 part linseed oil . None of my future attempts ever split so this stuff works . Don't leave linseed oil on a rag or spontaneous combustion can occurs hours later and start a fire . Attached picture is a foiled AC plug copy I made that measures 12" from nose to tail

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 .

You can soak wooden lure bodies overnight in a mixture of mineral spirits and Linseed oil to seal and remove them for a few days to dry out . You can then paint with oil based paints so I don't know why it wouldn't work for wood beads . I think the mix ratio is 9 parts mineral spirits to 1 part linseed oil from what I remember .

This is just a guess but could chartreuse be added instead of yellow to get that effect?

The original Living rubber made may years ago was lubricated with talcum powder during manufacturing and supposedly could be dyed with RIT dye . The stuff they made afterwards used silicone for lubricant and wouldn't accept the dye . Not sure about the rubber they are selling nowadays I guess you could try a small sample and see?

Every rib is just another opportunity to trap air . Plastic has to be hot to fill all of those little ribs but the hotter the plastic the more it shrinks as it cools so it's kind of a catch 22 . If the air is not displaced as the mold is filling with plastic it will have no way to get out once the mold is full resulting in trapped air pockets (bubbles in the bait ). If possible you could try altering the mold plunger arrangement to pour with the cavities oriented vertically so the (thinner) air is forced upward and out towards the tail vent by the ( denser ) plastic and pushed out ahead of the plastic as the mold fills . The vent at the tip of the tail should also be reoriented pointing strait up from the tip with a loop to change direction . Any air entrapment after that could be dealt with adding more venting where needed . This stuff is all just trial and error but persistence will usually pay off.

Bassbme , I thought I had seen a couple of these baits I made left so I found them and took a picture . These are based on the medium sized Mad Mans The baits being dark (Junebug ) the details don't show up that good in the picture . I changed the legs because they were stiff on the original and just didn't look fluid and life like in the water . I also changed the antennae a little and used silicone skirt strands because they float up and move around more naturally .

Nice work there ! You have actually made a 3 part mold including the rod for the tube part . 20 years or so a go I made up a similar 3 part mold also using Durhams for a Mad Man craw for the master . I was having trouble getting the mold cavity to completely fill at the outer extremities such as the tips of the claws . I began using a shop vac to create vacuum and experimented with hand scribed vent lines in the mold halves to draw plastic where it was needed by using different vacuum levels . I didn't have to pressurize the plastic simply pour it into the sprue and let the vacuum do the rest After I got it dialed in it worked pretty good .

Easy just lay the hook you want to use on the open mold lining it up with the hook eye and cavity . with a sharp pencil or fine sharpie trace around both sides of the hook making an outline of the hook .Using a dremil tool with a small ball tipped cutter start grinding out aluminum about 1/2 the diameter of the hook wire . Check depth every so often by placing the hook in the slot you're cutting so you don't cut too deep . When happy do the same to the other half . Make sure the mold closes fully with a hook when you're done or you will have a flashing of lead around the parting line between mold halves . You can fill or block off parks of a mold you don't want such a skirt collars with JB weld or red automotive High Temp silicone .

Line twist ? We don't care about no stinkin line twist !

From what I have read a Hopkins spoon balanced heavier at the line tie end to give it a little wiggle on the drop when fished vertically . I have fired those 3/4 oz Hopkins spoons a long way at breaking fish and I don't ever remember a problem with them fouling in flight . I maybe wrong here but I have always assumed the distinct wiggle of a Kastmaster was due to the tail heavy attitude on retrieve and balance of the bait . I guess the way to know for sure would be to swap the hook on a Kastmaster to the thin end and see if it tumbles in flight and then see if the action on retrieve is impacted ?

OK got it you have both flat sides oriented parallel to one another . The kastmaster actually has a slight taper between both flats from the hook end and thinning out running up to the line tie end . (maybe 10 deg ballpark) Since you mentioned kastmasters I thought that's what you were going for . I think I remember seeing some big saltwater jigging spoons that are similar to yours in design though .