cadman

Pretty cool looking. Have you ever caught anything on that bright of a blue?

Nice looking jigs. Are those Owner #5304 hooks? It looks like them, but yours seem rounded off. Nice umbrella rig as well.

Hang in there, everything gets easier the more you do it. It all comes down to spending a lot of time practicing painting. Patience is a virtue and you will need plenty of that as well.

Don, All said and done, it goes back to you as a builder and wanting to take the initiative to want to learn. Catch some big ones on it. One last thing don't blame me if you get too addicted to making jigs. LOL.Finally if you ever need help you know where you can find me

I put suspend dots on my crank baits or jerk baits to get them down deeper. Does not affect lure action at all if centered properly.

x2, I use them mainly in Spring and Fall when the water is colder and getting colder. As stated excellent tight wobble. Definitely not a jerk bait. I use the Husky Jerk for that. Another excellent bait from Rapala.

Good looking jig Don, I'd throw it.

Very nice, hope you catch some big ones with those.

Matt, I am looking in their catalog and they have a whole buch of wire forms all the way up to 2oz heads. In their catalog, it is on page 107 in the 2013 catalog. I also just went on their website, and if you type in wire and then look for looped wireforms, a picture of the looped wireform comes up, click on the arrow next to the picture where it says select. Then a whole pull down menu pops out with all the sizes . They are there.

You can bake them a year later if you want. That is not a problem. However if you are going to wait a year, I would put them in a plastic bag so they don't get dusty and dirty. Just some info for you if you don't have the time.

They are easily available the last time I checked. Go to Barlow's, Jann's Netcraft, or Lure parts on line and look for closed loop spinnerbait wire forms. They will all have different lengths on the arm and on the herad along with different wire diameters. If you can't find them. I'll look into it for you. But I do know that they are available.

There you go lookin' good. Gotta love those Owner 5304's.

Guys, I never try to dissuade anyone from doing what they want. Maybe your hobby will grow like mine did into a hobby/business. I started out making my own jigs because 9 years ago the jigs in the stores wre garbage. The paint came off, hooks were poor and they just didn't last. At that time, I was fishing walleye in the rivers and going through a lot of jigs. Fast forward 9 years and you have some pretty impressive jigs now in the stores. Many jigs have good hooks and there paint is far superior than of years past. The nice thing about making your own jigs is you can customize it to what you want. If you want a 2/0 hook instead of a 3/0 or you want a Gami instead of an Eagle Claw, well than you just go and make those jigs. If it is something you really want to do, start out slow and ask a lot of questions.

It is cheaper to buy jigs at the store when it comes down to it. Start -up cost is about $200 give or take with a mold and all the hooks, safety equipment, lead, melting pot, powder paint, toaster oven, and a bunch of other things I'm sure I forgot. Now if you want to do this as a hobby and a passion to make something with your hands and then fish it, well then I would say go for it. All the stuff I'm referring to is regarding jigs. If you are going to start out pick one avenue to follow. Don't try to do them all. If it's cranbaits stick with that until you've mastered it if it's jigs or plastics then pick one and stick to it. If you try to do them all you will get overwhenlmed with too much info and you'll give up for sure and waste a lot of money in the process. Just my thoughts.

Gman, You will run into some snags, don't give up, it does get easier. Your jigs will come out just fine. If you have more questions you can post here or Pm me and I will help answer all of your questions.

Well this is what I checked on my #5304 hooks. 3/0 hook.... wire diameter is .057 with an inside radius of .060 on the eyelet 4/0 hook.... wire diameter is .057 with an inside radius of .061 on the eyelet The eyelet diameter of the pin in the mold is as follows: 1 oz = .092 diameter 3/4 oz = .083 diameter 5/8 oz = .090 diameter 1/2 oz = .076 diameter 3/8 oz = .074 diameter 1/4 oz = .066 diameter Now mind you my molds are pretty well used so the pin diameters in the molds are worn, that is probably why the 3/4 oz cavity diameter is out of normal sequence. It's probably from constantly putting 5304 hooks in there to make them fit and the pin got smaller. All this info is really irrelavant. I know that the #5304's do not fit in both of the Brush jig molds without some pin modification. The Mustad fit perfectly, which is what that mold was intended for. But like you, I love the #5304 hook, and have modified the mold to use that hook. Also a side note. If you do not get the mold halves to close tight all the way , you will get a lot of flash on the jig head. Which is a pain to constantly keep cutting off.

Gman, Are you saying that the 4/0 #5304 eyelet is smaller than the 3/0 #5304 eyelet? I will check and report my findings to you tomorrow.

To be on the safe side when you do modify it, try to file the hook eye pin that is in the mold to sort of a point on both mold halves. This way when you put the Mustad 32786 or the Owner 5304 hook in the mold, the pin will at least hold both hooks in place whlle you pour. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

The 5304 hook is not meant for that mold. The inside diameter on the 5304 hook eye is smaller than the pin in the mold. The brush jig mold is meant for a Mustad 32768 hook as every Mustad hook size fits in each one of those cavities. So with that said you have several options. You either file down the pin in the mold or you completely remove the pin. Now if you file the pin, at least it will hold the hook in place. If you remove the pin, your hook eye especially on the #5304 will be loose in the mold resulting the hook eye moving around and may result in the hook eye being poured too close to the lead. However you can remedy this problem, by pushing the hook eye as far as possible to the top of the hook eye cavity, when you do this, take some tape and tape the hook bend to the mold. This will keep the hook from moving around. I filed my mold, because I love the #5304 hook. If you have further questions feel free to e-mail me.

The hook on the Trokar Arky is a vertical hook or regular eye not a flat eye. With that said, you will have to use double split rings on all these hooks. I'm not saying it won't work, but to me double split rings is a hokie way to make a quality chatterbait. JMPO. Also I don't know how big the eyelets are in all the hooks, so a split ring may or may not fit in all the hooks eyelets. I know the 5304 have smaller eyelets. All you can do is try it and see how it goes. If you have the mold you have nothing to lose.

If it were me and I wanted to buy a another mold ( I already have a 150) of them , I would buy the Trokar Arky mold. Reason being is you can use Trokar hooks if you want to spend the money on hooks, but better yet you can use a whole bunch of the listed hooks if they actually fit. With that said, you can use your 5304, 5317 and then you can even use EWG hooks. Overall it is the best possible choice with a lot of options. Also an Arky jig is excellnt for skipping under docks, open water swimming and rocks. Its only drawback would be weeds. Not too good for weed with its broad head, however buy yourself a different mold for that, and you will be set for any and all conditions. As far as chatterbaits go, I would buy them from someone that makes them and call it a day. Not worth screwing around with opening up hook eyes. I know you will not open a 5304 hook eye as they are very hard and they will snap. Hope this helps. One other thing go to Tackle Warehouse they have the mold you're looking for and it is the cheapest price I've found anywhere on the i-net, and if you order over $50.00 free shipping. If you need any more detailed info PM me. No I don't work for Tackle Warehouse or am affiliated with them in any way.

Wow, that's impressive. Very nice work on that real.

Nice ideas guys. definitely something different. Don't worry Spring will be here soon and we'll all be back on the water. I remember a couple of years ago when the chatterbait hit . There were so many copies it wasn't even funny. Many of the luremakers I know were getting cease and desist letters from the chatterbait lawyers. What a fiasco. I never got into them either. I have a couple of the originals and never caught a bass on it.

Well that's thinking out of the box. Very creative. I'm curious how well that works with the hook moving around?

Keith, Very nice looking bait. When I fish cranks especially for smallies a #5 and #7 Shad Rap are my go to baits. Very nice tight wobble.