cadman

Rick, You can do several things. Take a look at the jig to see if there is any glue around the weedguard hole. If there is, then you can probably pull the weedguard out. Secondly, take a pair of pliers and just pull the weedguard out to see if it comes out. You may damage the jig, but you will know right away if the weedguard is cast in place or glued in. I am going to bet that they are cast in place, reason being is that gluing weedguards is a slow process. Finally you can call Barlows and ask them or go on TackleUnderground.com and post a question for Jon Barlow. He is the owner of Barlows and posts there quite often. He will answer your question. Here is the link. I am there as many other tackle makers as well that can help you out. http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/forum/21-wire-baits/ if you need more help PM me.

As far as removing the weedguards, there are two ways you can buy jigs with weedguards. Jigs can have their weedguards poured in, or they can be glued in. If they are poured in place, then the weedguards usually will melt into the lead, and it is impossible to salvage the jig, because as you start pulling the weedguard out, strands will get stuck inside. Now if they are glued in, then many times you can easily pull out the weedguards and they will come out whole, this would be your best case scenario. How many jigs do you have to do?

Rick, There are tubes that you can put over the weedguards, that keeps them from curling when you bake your jigs. Personally, I never liked them, as you don't always get straight weedguards when you're done and with the tubes sitting on the jig, you don't get full coverage. If it were me, I would paint your jigs with a lacquer enamel and call it a day. Powder painted jigs need to be baked (cured) to get that hard finish. I know some people have done the tubes and they work, however the final product looks fair at best when done. However, depending on how picky you want to be, in reality the fish don't care. Good Luck.

Fished, Tichigan on Saturday, very slow. I got a 15-1/2" largie, 17" walleye and a 26 " northern pike. My buddy got an 18" and 15" largemouth and about 6 other bass under 12". Jigs and rattle traps. Fished lake Beulah on Sunday. We got about dozen largemouth all under 14". Lot of really small fish on jigs and rattle traps.

That's what I thought. Thanks for the reply.

Is Lake Miltmore open to the public? If so where is the launch, how much to launch and any boat/motor restrictions?

I have them as well in the livewell and on the transom, never a problem

Went out to Powers Lake this past Sunday. Beautiful day on the water and fishing was really good too. Best of all no skiers or jet skies. Now to fishing. (2) 18", biggest being 3.9 lbs, (2) 17", (2) 16", (4) 14" bass , (1) 28" pike, 1 rock bass and 1 warmouth. All on jigs and in 6 -8 feet of water. Water temp was 71degrees. Going to Pewaukee Lake on Saturday and Delavan on Sunday. Reports to follow later.

I found the same thing, that anywhere there was shallow water, it was really weedy and nearly impossible to fish a jig, unless you were fishing the outside or inside weedline. All of our fish were caught on the outside weedline next to deeper water Those 2 guys with the big numbers, that is impressive. Do you know what they were throwing?

Went out to Lake Beulah in East Troy WI on Sunday had a good day for a change. Fished from 6:00 a.m. to Noon. First fish didn't come in until 8:45, then it was pretty consistent until 11:00 a.m. Fished the island and got (5) bass 15-1/2" to 16-3/4". Went into a small bay and got (4) bass 14" to 15-1/2". Finally went to Mill pond area, and got (5) more bass 15-1/2" to 17". All in all, not a bad day for a very hot Sunday. All fish caught on a 1/4 oz jig and custom poured trailer. Going to Delavan this coming week. Will give report later.

Went to Browns lake on Saturday 9-5. Oh my god what a slow day for bass. We got 4 bass in 8 hours and 12 hammer handle pike and 6 lost jigs. bass were very hard to find. everywehre we went it seemed as we found pike. Biggest bass was 16-3/4".

Like, smalljaw 67 mentioned, you can do accent colors to a jig afterwards. I as well do not recommend painting an entire jig another color over the existing. Way too much paint on the jig for any type of good finish.

Fished Delavan on Sunday 8-30-2015. Man what a slow day. Should have stayed home. I got one 36" pike at 8:00 am then got my only bass a whopping 15" at 9:00. My wife did better. At 10:45 she got her first fish. 20-1/2" weighed in at 3.6 lbs. This fish seemed skinny for its size. See pic below. She also got a 16-1/2" bass as well. All fish caught on jigs.

Was out to Powers Lake on Saturday. Fished for 4 hours in the pouring rain. Did get six bass biggest being 16" while raining. After the rain stopped we fish a bay with 4 feet of water and got 6 more. Nothing big. Fish caught on jigs, white spinnerbait and Senkos.

Don't feel bad I lose a lot of jigs to Pike as well at Delavan Lake.

I graduated H.S in 76 and I used to live in Chicago around Belmont and Central. Roliing Stone ( Harlem and Irving) was the only place where you could buy any album that was available. If they didn't have it they would order it for you, and then came the cassettes for cars. Back then I used to smoke, and I remember going into Rolling Stone with a cigarette in my hand and they had ashtrays everywhere. At one time they gave out black ashtrays with the Rolling Stone logo on it with every purchase. I still have that ashtray but haven't smoked in 30 years. I loved my teen years. Bands I listened to then and now: Alice Cooper, Ozzy, Zepplin, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, Elton John, DIO, Rainbow, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Eagles, Foghat, UFO, REO, Foreigner, Styx, Nugent, CCR, Three Dog Night, Doors, Chicago, Jethro Tull, Quiet Riot, WASP, Dokken, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Fleetwood Mac, Janis Joplin, Bad Company ,many more I can't think of. I now listen to Three Days Grace, Disturbed, Halestorm, Seven Mary Three, Godsmack, Guns and Roses, Shamans Harvest, Seether, Evanescence, Stone Sour, Sixx A.M., Shinedown, Royal Bliss, Redlight King, Saving Abel, Pop Evil, and a whole bunch more. I always loved hard rock music and still do to this day. Never liked any country music other than Johnny Cash. Can't stand any of the country music now. That about does it for me.

bassh8er I really like Jig Man's answer, but I haven't been successful with this process. Maybe I should practice more. Anyway, his theory is correct, as long as you don't overheat the jig and you hold it by the hook eye, paint will never get in and be an issue. My problem is I tend to heat the jig to the point, that when I swish it through the powder paint, my jigs gloss over immediately ready for the rack. If the jig is done like I do, you will have to either be really fast as to not get a lot of paint on the jig head and hook eye, or you do like I do and keep a drill bit or wire about 1-1/2" long, that will fit into the hook eye. Once you swish the jig through the powder immediately stick the wire into and through the hook eye hole and out to the other side. This will pull any and all paint out of the hook eye. This seems complicated but to me it really isn't that big of a deal. This is a process that you will have to try to see what works best for you. Everyone that powder paints, has their own tricks that work for them. On bigger jigs, this is never really an issue.

Pm me your e-mail and I can give you a tutorial on powder painting.

Well I guess I was very lucky. Bought some other things from Amazon, that were crap and I got burned.

I got my first Type "R" from Amazon which came from ABCD Sales, and had no problem . What issues did you have? I also bought 2 more from Amazon 2 weeks ago, no problem with those reels either.

If you are referring to the stranded wire used for a weedguard. It is called Sevenstrand or Surflon and you can buy it coated or non coated. It comes in different strengths (lbs) Most guys use the 90 lb and glue it in the jig after it is painted. You can buy it at LPO, Jann's Netcraft, and Barlow's Tackle.

I bought a Tatula Type "R" when they first came out, fished it for a year and it casts much further than my ABU Revo Premier Gen 1. I liked it so much, that I bought 2 more a couple of weeks ago. You will be very happy with your purchase.

Alec, I, posted on the Illinois forum about the fish I've been getting lately. The surface water temp the last two weeks on our waters was 81 and 82 degrees. With that said, I was getting fish in 6-8 feet of water in weeds or on the edges with-in about a 2 or 3 hour window. Once that window was over I couldn't buy a fish on the lake. I am not a deep water fisherman and will only fish max 15 feet of water. However my go to bait is always a jig and I can always get a bass to hit a jig. So you might want to drag a jig or pop it off the bottom with a trailer. I'm sure you will get bit. If you need more info, PM me.

Fished Delavan last Sunday, got 10 fish, 2 over 18" the rest were 14'-17". Fish were as fat as can be. Caught all fish from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. Fished Browns today. Got 8 fish, 3 fish just over 16", the rest were 15-1/2". Caught all fish from 5:30 am to 9:00 a.m, I noticed this year that every time I go, there is roughly a 2-3 hour window where you catch them like crazy, and then you can't buy a fish anywhere.

I just read smalljaws post, and yes you will get a lot more responses on tackleunderground, as that is a website specifically designed to help the hobbyist in all aspects of tacklemaking.