Markell

That is something I hope I never have to experience. I am guesing that Zara Spook saw it's last day of action.

chiefdano, WidowMaker pretty much nailed it. I am working on someting similar and instead of the hitch hiker, I am making a lead keeper that is part of the head. Much more time consuming in the beginning but once you have the mold, you can kick them out pretty fast.

LedHed, I attempted one mold with the RTV. Results were not good. LOL. Once I have a little free time, I will try for round 2. I have a package headed your way in the next week or so. I am throwing in a few surprises. Overkill, Tell me more about the fiberglass resin. I like the part about being "more Soupy". Have you made a mold only using the fiberglass resin? Husky, Your tutorial is the reason I tried the bondo. Thank you for putting it together.

I have been using Bondo for the past 6 months and really like it. On average, I would say I get between 30 and 50 pours per mold. The thing that destroys my molds are using pliers to take out each casting. Sometimes I put too much preassure on a certain area of the mold and a piece chips off. If you are very carefull, you may be able to extend the life. The best part of it is you go from no mold to pouring in like 15 min.

Remind me to never do a trade with you! that is an impressive set up. Reminds me of that Roland Martin show where they took the cameras in Ymamoto's shop. They had racks like that filled up with Senkos.

Masking tape will work. But it will add time to your pours.

My vote goes for the Lumaflex. Breathes very well, has a nice shine to it, very inexpensive and can be dyed. But man is it a pain to work with compared to silicone.

I have used the Do-It Round Head weedless jig mold with good success. RWR-3-AYS. Just leave out the weed guard and cut off the lead that gets in the guard part of the head. It uses 3/0 Mustad turned eye hook for all three head sizes: 1/8 3/16 and 1/4 oz. I am not sure if do-it makes a non weedless mold with the size hook you will need without modification to the mold.

This past weekend I had a funny feeling and set the hook. It felt like I was pulling in some kind of grass. It was not grass. It was a woman's bra. My partner just about fell out of the boat laughing. I released it back into the lake. I did not want to take a chance of my wife finding it in the boat! LOL

The first bait that I made was a copy of a favorite spinnerbait I used. I copied that bait as exactly as I could. I did this because I knew how mine should work. I had a reference. I knew that the component sizes were good for that size bait. That gave me a starting point and from there I experimented. This is how I learned. And I am sure how most of us got started. There may be a legal argument here but it is not a moral issue.

You retain the overall shape but the surface of the bait is smooth. I have not tried it with the sticks yet. I have had some good days with the thick trick worm. The reason I tried it was to get a bait that the smaller fish would leave alone. It did not work for that. My first fish was shorter than the bait.

Sculpey clay works well for this. It is easy to work with and after curing is hard as a rock.

I have done the same thing with my trick worm mold. I pour the trick worm black and then dip it into transparent watermelon with red flake. Makes for a good flipping bait.

Thanks for the post LP. Might want to move this one to the tutorial section.

reeves, Thanks for the input. I like the weed guard idea. how do you keep the rod in the weed guard hole? The issue that I have been trying to solve is not keeping the paint from clogging up the hook eye but to completely keep paint off the hook eye. The jig that you describe sounds like the eye is part of the design of the jig and I too would want it to be the same color as the jig. Because of the painting process I use, any paint that gets on the line tie, takes away from the looks of the jig because it is a slightly different color than the rest of the head. This has been driving me crazy. I need to completely do away with paint on the line tie. The clay will harden in the oven and turn to like a hard plastic texture once it cures. There is no cleaning needed. The cap just pops right off and you are left with a shiny clean hook eye. This has enabled me to go back to dipping into the powder instead of using small paintbrushes to avoid my problem. Much faster for me. LedHed, I have used the aluminum foil but it does not stay on well enough. The clay really works well for this. The "Splotches" you are refering to started my problem in the first place. That technique has really been popular for me. I have about 20 color schemes I have worked up using it and am trying to get the process down where I can use it exclusively.