cadman

What is the Do-It mold model # and cavity you are having issues with? I can check at home as well to see what size screwlocks are supposed to fit. BTW welcome, I see you are in northern IL. I live there as well. If you want I can help you via phone as well..

You can make your own baits on anything that's out there for your own personal use. However you cannot sell them.

Allen, I suppose so. I knew as soon as these hit the market, and Owner saw them there would be trouble and sure enough, a little short while later they were all pulled off the market. So now we all have to pay Owner what ever they charge

I use the Mustad 32886 hooks as well, along with a centerpin twistlok exactly like Owner's except the ones I have were taken off the market. Lucky for me at the time I bought 4000 pieces, so I will have enough for a lifetime. It puts me at approx. same price as Bluebasser86 with the hook and the centerpin.

I totally agree on your decision. I would never pour out in the open, to me it is a bad idea. In your basement, just vet out any fumes from the lead pot. If when you are pouring, you don't even need to close off an area, unless you have kids and pets, that may go around and touching thing or licking things. I sincerely believe that you will get better pours in the basement, and not thinking about weather issues and other things that may distract you. If you have more questions, feel free to ask. Also there is a ton of info on tacklemaking , plastics and jig pouring on tackleundergrund.com So stop on buy and introduce yourself, I'm there daily.

Up to this day, I have not had any problems so far. I make a jig head called Missouri craw. This head matches fishingskirts.com Missouri craw skirt. So If I get called on the name, I am sure that fishingskirts.com will get called as well. Also who is to say that your Missouri craw is the same as my Missori craw. To me it's just a generic term. If you put on your website Cadman's Missouri craw, I wouldn't call you on Missouri craw even though both are identical. I would call you out at using my name. I wouldn't sweat the small stuff.

As far as I know when it comes to making your own jigs, I believe that there is no concern for this. Eagle Claw, Mustad, Owner, Gamakatsu all make hooks for the biggest seller of lead molds and that is Do-It. Do-It as well talks to these companies to make sure that the hooks they specify for their molds will fit the molds. So there is no issue there. You are not buying Gamakatsu hook and re- packaging them and selling them as corn-on-the rob hooks. No-one would buy your repackaged hook, because there is no credible name behind it and it doesn't make sense to repackage a name brand hook. The same thing goes for skirts and so on. People that sell all these components know that it is going in to someones jig and being resold. Now what works in your favor is to state that you are using Gami's or Owners, because some guys will only buy jigs with those hooks. I state all kind of options in my catalog with different price points. The same goes true for fishing skirts.com. I list all the stock skirts I carry, along with a link to fishingskirts.com website. This way guys can go to their website and see the way the skirts look. Let's face it fishingskirts.com has the biggest selection in skirts, and there is no way that I could show a picture of every jig that can be made with every skirt color. So from my standpoint there is nothing to worry about.

Well, this is going to be a hard question to answer as there are sooooo many variables. The quick answer to your question is yes you can pour in the cold and in the heat, summer and winter, hot with humidity along with cold and dryness. I pour year around in my garage. My garage in the winter doesn't get any colder than 45 degrees and I live in Illinois. Believe it or not I get better pours in the winter than in summer. I strongly believe that humidity does play a big part in pouring in the summer and I have more problems in the summer. So going back to your question here are some comments and questions I have for you. ***Never ever pour lead out in the open good weather or bad. You must have some shelter over your head all the time. The reason for this is water, rain, rain drop or a splash of water from somewhere. Any kind of liquid near a hot lead pot is an accident waiting to happen. Water and lead even sweat do not mix. If you get water in a hot lead pot, lead will explode all over and burn you. **You mentioned pouring on the back porch. If you have room , build yourself a makeshift enclosed room out of ply wood, with a roof and walls.You have to keep splashing water away at all costs from the outside. **If you are going to pour outside, you will need to be sheltered from the wind in the winter, summer is not a problem. If you do not shelter yourself from the wind somehow, your pot will not keep the lead hot. **Finally you are going to have to have some type of heat source in the winter in your makeshift area. I mentioned earlier that my garage is about 45 degrees on the coldest days. Believe it or not that is cold outside. If it is colder than that, your molds will cool too fast, your pot will not keep up and you body along with your hands will be cold, all the tools you will use will be cold as well. This will cause you to lose focus and your mind will wander on trying to stay warm. Let's face it, you can't pour with insulated gloves and a insulated snowmobile suit dressed like you are going to the antarctic. You will have very little mobility that way. So in conclusion, you can do anything you want, but safety is #1, and you yourself must stay warm on the coldest of days. Keep water away, get a heat source and try it out. Just an FYI, but these are just my opinions, you can do what you want.

This is pretty simple. I sell jigs and this reply is not to promote my business, but to explain the process of how to go about getting permission to sell jigs. Most terms in the jig industry, have been around for a long time and are standard, there are very few innovations in the actual jigs themselves, more in how to use the jigs with a different presentation, and someone winning a tournament and coming up with a name and selling it. For example the "A" rig, nothing new about these, the saltwater industry has been using them for years called umbrella rigs. Another example is the "Randy Howell Herring Head, other that having his name associated to that type of jig, there were underspins and tail spinners made for years nothing new here. So going back to my situation, When I decided to sell jigs, all the molds that I would be using were made by Do-It molds or Hilts. I originally called up Do-It molds and spoke to the engineering person and the owner of the company and told them that I am going to use their molds to start selling jigs, and can I use the names they associated with their molds as the name on my website. The feedback I got from Do-It was that they had no problem with that. They are a very good company to work with, and I have never had any issues with them. So, one of Do-It's best selling mold at the time was the "Poison Tail". Everyone at the time the mold came out that was pouring lead bought that mold and was selling "Poison Tail "jigs. To this day I use that name in my catalog. So the to answer your question, if you are going to sell jigs and want to use a product to sell, get permission from the company to do so. Save dates, names and letters from people you talked to at the time, so if it would come up later, you have some documentation. Now just some common sense tells you that if you are going to and sell the underspin head from Do-It and put on your website Randy Howell's Underspins, well that is a no-no. You can't use someone else's name to promote your product unless you get his permission. Open discussion with staff and documentation from all approving parties is key if you don't want to get sued. This is just the way I started my process. If you have any more question I can help answer more questions off line.

I agree with you in a sense. The way I understand it, was that they are having a hard time getting the correct pork skins to make their product. To me that does not mean that it is not available anymore, just means to me that they might raise their prices, to get the product they need to re-sell. If I remember correctly, Uncle Josh also owns Kalins and a few other companies. So I don't think they are going out of business. Please post on your findings when you hear back from Uncle Josh. I as well can do without them. It's not an end all to bass fishing if we can't use pork. JMO.

If these are swinging jigs, you do not want the resin in the eyelet correct or am I missing something in your statement? Then why not take the resin out before you bake your jig heads?

I was going to explain it more in detail, but I figured someone else would chime in and I didn't have the links available. But the way I understand it is the way you stated it, you are correct. If I remember correctly you have to change your copied design by 30% to make it sellable ( is that a word) to the market.

Yes there are copyrights and patents. The best way to avoid problems is make your own unique design and come up with your own name. So if you make worms, you cannot call them Senkos, you have to use a different name. Will your baits sell as well as a Senko with your name, maybe yes and maybe no. But the brand Senko is about the creator's name and his process. It is similar in lead jigs, however it seems the people aren't as anal about using names. The Arky jig is a household name and has no patent ties. The Brush jig as well. Many of the jigs that we use are generic names and have been named by Do-It molds and Hilts molds back in the day. Now the Chatterbait is a no-no. When it came out several years ago, the original creator's fiercely protected the name and the blade design. So you will have to do your homework and see what names are out there.

Welcome Midwest Angler, I'm from northern IL, but way east of you. Closer to Antioch and fish mainly S.E. Wisconsin lakes.

Pm me, your e-mail, and I will give you all the tutorials you need to get started, if that's what you want to do. Just remember, it's expensive to start-up, you will need a lot of practice to get proficient at it. If this is what you really want to get into, then it make a good winter hobby. Just remember to be very vigilant and safe, as lead is very hot and can cause severe burns.

I agree with gulf captain. Over the years, I have tried to open the hook eyes on many hooks. Some eyes opened up and some broke. The ones that opened up easily made me nervous, because I didn't know for sure if I compromised the steel wire. I work in sheet metal, and I know for a fact that if you heat steel hot enough so you can then open the eye without damage to the steel wire. However when you do that, you lose all tempering and or hardening. So unless you know how to re-harden the hook and at what temper, that is not something that can be done by the average person. Just some thoughts.

Pricing is relative to what the market and the customer will bear. If you have 50 cents in material, I would be selling that with a Gami hook for over a $1.00 a jig. Now there are a lot of factors in this. Is this a repeat customer, are you buying hooks in bulk, how many jigs are you pouring at one time. Take all this into consideration and see how much money you want to make out of this. All of my customers are really good and understanding. Someone, will always think that the price is too high. That's the nature of the business. To those people I tell them to go to Bass-Pro Shops. Remember that if you are supplying a custom jig and no-one makes that then the ball is in your court. What I would not do is ask your customer what he would like to pay for it, because most people will say it's worth 50 cents. If you are trying to price match someone else doing it, then I would walk away from that . I have been down that road with many people and they will always tell you less then what they are actually paying and when you find out what they tell you, you will see that you can't even make it for that many times. Sorry for the long winded reply. Need more help PM me.

I personally use a heat gun also, and have been doing for a long time. I use them on crappie jigs and bass jigs. You have to find what works for you as far as how you apply your heat. I know guys that use a torch. In the end it really doesn't matter as long as you bake your jigs. I would not use a lighter, and I do not like candles as they put out a lot of soot, which in my mind transfers on the jig and makes the paint adhere less. Just my opinion.

Here is a two part answer to your questions. No all powders are not alike. There are several companies out there that have durable powder for jigs .However durable is a relative term. If you fish a lot of jigs and you lose them before the paint chips off, then it doesn't matter. Also the fish don't care. However if you are going to sell your jigs like I do then I would stick with a TGIC powder , which is made for exterior use and is by far more durable than other powders. I use industrial powders all TGIC. I can tell you that Columbia and Pro-Tec are TGIC. I can also tell you that Harbor freight is not. Does it matter, well that is your call. However, me personally would never use a Non-TGIC powder paint.

Nice looking jigs. I like the clean paint job. What mold is that?

Thanks. $1.50 isn't a deal breaker for me, so I will try to find it. Thank You.

Well is there anyone on here that has (1) from e-bay that they would like to sell or trade for some custom jigs? Apparently e-bay is out of stock? Thanks in advance

I've always used frozen smelt from a guy that catches them in Spring here. So they are not packaged just frozen. I'm sure dead bait catches fish, just not on my tip-ups for some reason. :dazed-7:

For years, I've tried putting frozen smelt on a stationary tip-up along with a live one on another tip-up. I've never had a fish pick up a dead bait in the winter. Always live bait. Been ice fishing for 35 years Good Luck

If you are going to use stationary tip-ups, then live bait is the best. If you are going to use tip-ups that self jig or propelled by wind, you can use frozen smelt, or chubs. Most of what I caught on tip-ups are usually bass or northern pike and sometimes walleye. Now if you are looking for panfish (crappies, gills, perch, walleye etc), then I would use a jigging rod and jig for the fish. In this case you can use waxies (waxworms), spikes(maggots) or wigglers(hellgramites). Also you can use the colored berkely power nibblets. I've never used nightcrawlers or leeches, reason being, fish under the ice, especially panfish are looking for a smaller presentation. Also I don't think nightcrawlers and leeches are readily available in the winter months. As you know minnows are a killer for walleye and bass. Finally, it's good to have several baits with you. You can buy waxies and spikes in bulk as they are cheaper that way, and can be kept in a cool place.