troutgnat

Here's a little something I'm playing around with and trying to get right. Fighting the weed guard thing. Trying to insert last and glue in for ease of tying the jig but it has it's complications. Anybody out there tying hair jigs with weedguards and what have you found that works for you? Darren.

Curtis here's another tidbit. This is what works for me. I finally settled on this method a couple of years ago. It has helped me reduce the amount of jigs I carry and gives me the option of customization on the spot. Personally I have settled on 2.5 tabs for 90% of my fishing. Secondly, I do a full bodied skirt on all jigs now using the 2.5 tabs! Somedays the bass want bulkiness other days they want finesse. You never know until they tell you. By making my jigs full bodied from the get-go, if they want that great, good to go. If not, I turn the jig upside down let the outer layer fall down over the head and cut it off with a pair of scissors. Wallah!I now have a finesse jig. Always best to have too much skirt than too little. You can always trim down as much as you need. And as for trimming buy yourself a pair of hair thinning scissors. I have a pair that stay in my boat at all times. They do not cut evenly, leaving your skirt a ragged uneven look. This is what you want. Here's the same jig in the pic both were tied full bodied. The latter pic was shortly after I gave him a haircut with the thinning scissors turning him finesse style. Hope this may help.

However, I did find out about that Sohumi hook a few years ago and yes, that has been a bonus!!!

I have spent a fair amount of money through Barlows and never realized this.

Thanks....Oh the Ranger project will always be a project. LOL. She looked beautiful for about a year after I finished her and then I started putting dings in her. I have a tendency to go places where I probably shouldn't but I know there's fish in there. Hehe. Nothing a little rough sanding and fiberglass wont fix. Does my gel-coat look at pretty as it used to Uh, no. But she's sealed and she floats Maybe one day I'll fix the gel-coat in a few places. If I ever get a new boat I'm hanging on to my 89 Ranger 374V. I don't think Ill trade it in. It'll be my ever on-going, beat up, fix up, go where the fish are boat.

Gentlemen I was at the tackle bench today getting ready to pour when I realized I was low on a particular hook but knew I had a substitute that would work. Well, 30 minutes and few cusswords later I was sitting there calling myself a dumb***. Up until now I relied on my memory and past experience. This hook works for that mold, both of these hooks will work in this mold and so on and so forth. That memorization method no longer works for me. LOL. And face the facts none of us could possibly memorize all the different hooks that go with all the different molds out there. There's new brands/styles all the time. Wait, take that back! No offense I know there are many of you out there with a lot of experience. Maybe your memory may be that good . My thought was what if we started a spreadsheet of sorts that listed the particular mold, the hook it calls for, the hooks we know will substitute and whether the mold needed to modified for any hook listed. Would anyone be interested in this? Does anyone have this? Is there a hook listing out there? For instance, If your mold calls for Eagle Claw 570 use anyone of these hooks. Let me know your thoughts please.

In your opinion why do you choose the alcohol torch over the heat gun or for that matter the toaster? I'd be interested in knowing the pros/cons of using: alcohol torch heat gun toaster oven hmmmmm???

JLS now I remember why I quit using the alcohol lamp back in the day...I got frustrated because at the time I could not find replacement wicks for that dude.

Hmmmmm, this lends me to rethinking my approach. I used to do the alcohol lamp method but scratched it and went to a heat gun for a faster approach. Maybe this was the wrong way of thinking. I've been doing the heat gun method for several years now with decent results. Are you using the recommended Manufacturers curing temp for this 25 minutes or what is your preferred curing temperature if you don't mind.

And whats your method of painting JLS?

Travis, I've done it your way(PITA) and I've also painted with the pin in which is still a pain in rear. I'm still trying, like you, to come up with a better solution to this. I recently poured some with weedguards in. I loved how easy that was. I then bought some of these Teflon weedguard protectors and attempted to try painting using these. That did not go over well!!! I use powder paint, a heat gun and dip. This did not work well with the Teflon weedguard protector! Maybe it will if you use a fluid bed but I have not gone that route yet. Please others chime in with a better solution.

Walleye King that sickle hook is a nasty little devil. I started out using that hook on my neds and it did fine but it does have a tendency to "tear" a hole instead of penetrate like a needle. I found I started getting a few more fish to the boat using the regular round bend. Just my 2 cents.

So Gentlemen I played around with new mold yesterday. My owner hooks did not come in so I was unable to use them. As already stated the Mustad 3833 I use in my other modified worm nose jig mold does not work in the new MFJ-6-A. Smalljaw is right the hook leg is too short. You may be able to get this hook to work but its gonna take some serious modification to your mold so I chose not too. I had some other hooks around so I decided to see what would work. Here's my findings: I experimented with several sizes of the Mustad 323746 BLN which is Mustads Ultra point Aberdeen jig hook. It is not a heavy wire hook. Now right off the bat most people would think that this would be too light a wire for this application. I beg to differ. I settled on their size 1. Poured both 3/32 and 5/16 sizes. For those of you who know the Ned game this hook will be a fine substitute in my opinion. I did not have any size 2 to test but if I had it would be my choice for the smaller sizes though the #1 will work. I would not go above a size #1 even on the 5/16 size. I tried the 1/0 and it did get a little wimpy in my opinion. My Ned Rig set up consists of an All-Star ASR 7' Fast Med-Light Rod paired with a Shimano Stradic 2000 spooled with Berkely Nano-fil in 6lb using a 6lb fluorocarbon leader. This outfit has caught plenty of Ned fish for me. My personal best being a 19"+ smallie. Again, the above is just an alternative IMO. Maybe you can get some use out of it. One last little tid bit...those hook keepers are a pain! They don't like to stay put very well as they keep wanting to slide over in the hook slot. They will test your patience! Typically I superglue to the head but decided I would try them.

I second Cadman. I usually average about 2 1/2 tabs on my jigs.

Gentlemen, Interested in knowing of any of you who having been using the Do-IT Ponyhead mold for making bass underspins. Contemplating on toying with this since it is so close to Jewels Spin-X underspin which fishes well for me. Interested in the 1/4 and 3/8 (mainly). Any mold modifications you have made, hook styles/sizes, generally what has been working for you. Thanks!