JBlaze

Ever since seeing the lover jig, I have wanted to make one but just couldn't figure out how to put one together.This idea came to me while building a vibrating jig a few days ago. Not even sure it will work but is closer than anything I have made so far. 3/32's hole drilled in top of head for screw eye. Slot for lip/blade cut with a hacksaw with two blades in it. Blade is made of 1/16 in. Makrolon/lexan Line tie made with .032 soft temper stainless wire. I did this because I think the thin lip would bend and straighten out without it being anchored to the lead head. Ugly but I think it will work. I already have a better idea for this step. Painted with powder paints using Cadman's tap the brush method and an aluminum horse mane comb. Clear coated with D2T. Hydro Silk Skirt. Spent just about all day making this thing, sure hope it works! Anyway, it was interesting, challenging and fun. Hope this inspires someone to make another and better one. John

Thanks JSC, I made a version of the Lover Jig this morning and used .032 soft temper wire on it. It aint a purty wrap but it worked. Will try to get tit posted this afternoon. After I get a skirt tied on it. John

Hello Cadman, its a time thing or lack of time. But like many others, I am still lurking in the background reading and following everyone's posts. Most all of you still feel like friends. As far as the color of the head, I agree with you,"less is more" It was powder coated in white when I tied on the skirt and it looked pretty good. Don't know why I did it but I decided to make it into a sexy shad using sharpies. I really screwed it up and covered it up with what you see. I should have changed skirts before posting but it is hand tied and I just didnt feel like cutting it off and re-doing it. The next ones will be painted and finished before tying on a skirt. About the hooks, a long time ago when I started bending hooks using two sets of pliers, I used to break a lot of them. I now bend mine on my Hagens wire former using the revolving die that I make R bend wire forms for spinner baits and buzz baits. I have found that if I try to make the bend with a single pull/twist/turn of the handle, the hook will break every time. If I pull it a little at a time and take the pressure off and allow the hook to spring back, then pull again just until I feel the hook shaft give then let it spring back again. I do this for several cycles, it just takes a few seconds per hook. I have never counted but I guess I maybe do it 7 or 8 times and the hook eye is at the correct angle to fit my mold. I seldom break a hook doing it this way. As far as opening up the eye, I use a very slender tapered punch and tap it lightly with a tack hammer. the small weight of the tack hammer and the long skinny slow tapered punch open the hook eye just a fraction at a time. I havn't broken very many since I started using this method. Those VMC Barbarian hooks are my favorite jig hooks. Extremely sharp! Smalljaw Thanks for the compliment. When I first started making these vibrating jigs, (using a different mold) I did it like you,using a straight wire and attached to the hook and then bending the loop to attach the blade after de-molding. I was never very happy with the way it looked. I always had to much wire showing between the blade and the jig head. I used .051 tempered wire and it was hard to bend without having a large gap there. In the 1½ oz cavity of this mold,I will use your method but I will use.051 wire and I will form the open eye on my Hagens before pouring. I will also use a long shank VMC BN spinner bait hook in it.

I have been wanting a heavier vibrating blade jig than what I have which is a 1/2oz made on an Arky jig mold. I have been on vacation for a couple of weeks and started looking at all my molds and deciding which one would be the easiest to modify that would give me that heavier weight. I decided to try and modify the Ultra Minnow Jig Mold model # SHR-4-M with weights of 1/2, 3/4, 1 and 1½ oz.. I think it turned out rather nice. I also had to modify a hook to fit the mold. I used a 90º VMC Barbarian for this purpose. I spread the hook eye open with a center punch before molding. The hooks used in the two untied jigs, ½ and 1 oz. are a 5/0 and a 6/0 The 1 oz. minnow vibe I have pictured had a white head when I first tied it and it looked pretty good. I decided to add some color to it and make it into a sexy shad but really messed it up so this is the end result of trying to fix it. It is colored with sharpies and coated with D2T. The Holographic tinsel that I used in the skirt, is Icicles That I purchased at Big Lots during an after Christmas sale.

I do believe that scents work, I am no rocket scientist but base my belief on experience. About forty years ago when I first started bass fishing, I used garlic scent only because someone told me it worked (I still use it). Like most newbies to the sport, I had to have a bait caster. I took it out on Tellico Lake for my first use to a cove that always produced a few bass on plastic worms. It only took a couple of casts and I had an atrocious backlash. I set there for a while trying to pick out this backlash and it was giving me a fit. I had a pretty good sized pile of line around my feet. It was one of those very calm days with not a ripple on the water.The boat was sitting still and I Seen my line being pulled out of the boat. I waited until all the line was out of the boat and set the hook. It was about a two pounder. That made a believer out of me that bass like a Garlic scent. A few weeks later, my brother and I were out on Tellico again, It was a very hot day and we pulled up on an island under a huge oak tree to eat lunch and cool off. This island was in a cove so I don't think there was current there. I was telling my brother about the bass and the garlic scent. I decided to test it while we were sitting there so I sprayed down a texas rigged worm and threw it out as far as I could and Put my rod across the deck of the boat I even gave it some slack line so that if we rocked the boat, it would not impart any movement to the worm . I guess we sat there for about 30 minutes and nothing happened. I told my brother well, I guess I was wrong it didn't seem to attract the bass after all. So as I reached down to pick up my rod, I hadn't touched it yet. My line jumped a few inches. I said look!! It did it again and I picked it up reeled up the slack and set the hook. It was another two pounder. That cinched it for me, I have used garlic scents ever since. I do not remember the brand that I was using back then but I now use Bang and Yum brands. Don't know if it works on hard baits or not have never tried it. John

I just slowly tap my punch with a tack hammer. It takes several taps but most of the time I get my eyes open without them breaking.

This might work. Just an idea, try making the hook eye larger by opening it up with a center punch. John

Good post Ben. one which I did a few years ago involved molding a twisted hook hanger eyelet where the weed guard should be then attaching a screw lock to this eyelet and screwing on a plastic trailer of some type then inserting the hook point and skin hooking it. It worked great, very weedless and snag free . when a fish clamped down on it, it collapsed and and did not interfere with hook sets. It was much easier to use and thread after Owner came up with. a screw lock with a centering pin. I suppose you could do this to a regular jig like you spoke of by drilling a small hole in the weed guard after you cut it off and gluing in a hook hanger then attaching a screwlock to it. John

Good good read and Great advice. x2

Hello Mark, welcome to TU. I do like your design, I think it is ingenious. Hope you get your patent. John

This is getting interesting, I actually made two but used a titanium wire for the weed guard. It didn't work. when compressed with my finger, it would not slide through the skirt collar and collapse like I thought it would, nor would it fold over to the side and leave enough exposed hook for a good hook set. I tried it first with 70 lb test then forty pound test. I didn't feel good about either one. It did look good but was non-functional IMHO. I like the idea of using the heavy mono although I think mono absorbs water. Would that make it swell and not be slick? I also was frightened by the price of the larger diameters of the fluorocarbon. Thanks for the inputs. I really would like to be able to make a couple of them to try out. John

I could be wrong but the rubber collars look like spinner bait skirt bands to me. I would think that you could order the heavy fluorocarbon, but I haven't a clue as to what pound test you would need. John

I don't think it will, I think this one will by design rotate to one side or the other and also collapse under the pressure of the bite. I am going to try and make one just to see what it does. I think that if mark pack recommends it or attaches his name to it in any way, then it is a good one. John

Mark, according to the info on his website, it is pure fluorocarbon. He also has a video on his site showing how to remove the rubber collar (it looks like a skirt collar to me) so that you can put on and/or change out the trailer. Looks to be fairly straightforward and simple. I like your ideas. If this thing is just half as good as they claim it to be, then your ideas are awesome.

Just found this, MPack has got it figured out. http://mpacklures.com/

Bob, that is an Interesting design. Is that a leader sleeve that connects the two wires together? Thanks for sharing. John