NCSUBVET

Yep. Most pros (the good ones) use a soft mold that gets the shape right but because I pour two colors, it's hard guessing the first layer. Some guys out in Hawaii have it dialed in and produce some pretty work. I may go ahead and make some masters too eventually but right now, its just a hobby that I enjoy.

You can pour resin in a lead mold but you need to wax the mold very well or use a release agent. You also need a sealer because the resin will find its way through the cracks before it sets up. I prefer clear silicone to seal escape routes. You will also encounter mold marks on the finish that are difficult to clear. You can flame polish those or buff with a dremel.

I've made a couple of molds for the lures I normally make (off shore trolling) out of red silicone but I found that it gets slimmy after 4 or 5 pours. These lures are my main-stay:

So I got my brand new Do-it 2-3-4 Ounce ultra-minnow mold in and a hundred pack of the required 8/0 hooks. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I poured about 30. They can't be serious. These hooks are way too big for the bucktails. Maybe the 4 oz is OK but the 2 and 3 look ridiculous and hair I have barely makes it to the curve on the hook. I searched the web and found an old thread on this forum where some of you more experienced jig makers were discussing changing up hook sizes for this mold but my sense was that the search was ongoing. Have any of you figured this one out yet and are willing to share? I would hate to fill in the hook grooves and re-mill them with a dremel but that's kind of where I am here.

BLT, my pleasure. I'm putting a fluid bed together right now (I have a lot of aquarium stuff that I'm not using). I just got started making jigs mainly because I lose them all the time fishing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and figured it would be cheaper just to make my own for me and and my friends. (Several hundred dollars later and several hundred jigs, this may not have been so economical!) I've got a 2-3-4 oz mold coming in the mail and will start pouring those this week. I appreciate all the advice you've put on this forum, it's already helped me quite a bit.

I use the tap method because the ultra-minnow jigs are too big to dip without filling the eye sockets with powder. Since I've only made a couple of hundred so far, I'm still dialing in the right way to do the second and even third color.