cadman

Thanks for all the compliments guys. Very much appreciated.

I have been playing around for awhile with a bluegill color for jigs and then left it on the back burner. When you get to all those colors it is pretty hard to get all the colors to blend into an attainable solution. You have to concentrate on what colors go first and which colors will be more dominant and overtake other colors. So finally I received all of my custom powder paints and came up with a jig head that I really like. The skirt combo came second with some pieces I had laying around. I have to give a big "Thank You" to G-Man for motivating me to finish this project. It came out better than I thought. Enjoy.

Well done G-Man. I like black/blue. My #1 go to color.

Yes, they are all 3/8 oz heads. The top and bottom are 4 and 3-1/2 blades and the middle one is 4-1/2 and 4.

Jimmy, I sent you a bunch of info should keep you busy for awhile

I have only bought from Roto-Metals about 4 years ago, never had any problems. I believe freight was either free (don't quote me on that) or very minimal. This past year Illinois was suposed to go lead free it didn't pass. But I'm sure it will eventually. The problem is there aren't very many choices as alternatives. Jigfishn10 mentioned bismuth. That wil be one of the options. The other two are pewter and zinc or a combination of some or all. The problem with all of these is weight. None of their weight properties is even close to lead. So that means bigger jigs to compensate for deeper water or we will have to all learn how to fish with finesse. Second problem with the above metals is cost. It will kill a lot businesses and your custom jig makers. Bismuth is at least 5 times the price of lead. So guys buying jigs will pay more and guys selling jigs will pass it on to the buyers. In reality this whole lead ban is a bunch of C@@P if you ask me. Sorry for the rambling.

Bill, That's the way he wanted them tied. Opposite the way the jig and blades. To each his own. I've seen guys paint color schemes upside down on a jig. Personal preferance I guess. I tried it on my avatar and I've caught a ton of fish on that pattern as well.

Guys thanks for the compliments and the feedback.

John, Try Roto-metals, they have any grade of lead you want and it's priced fairly. Here's the link http://www.rotometals.com/ On the beeswax, I have used that from day one and yes it is excellent to flux with.

The intial cost for start-up is expensive. However if you intend on making your own jigs over the years, and maybe selling some to friends and neighbors, the cost naturally will be absorbed. Like JigFishn10 mentioned, it is a good winter hobby to build up your stock for the season and keep from getting Spring Fever. I have some tutorials I can send you to give you a rough idea on start-up costs of everything. PM me your e-mail, this way you can see if this is something you want to invest in. For most guys that do this religiously it is a passion to create something from nothing and then catch fish on it. Like anything else there are good days and bad days, hopefully you have more goood days. Good Luck

I had made some custom spinnerbaits for a friend. Curious what your favorite is? Thanks for the input.

If you are looking for colors, I personally like Uni "Big Fly" Thread. If you're looking for strength beyond compare. Coats and Clarks upholstery thread. You will never break this with your hands.

If you are using them on a worm for wacky rigging they work great. If you want to use them to keep skirt tabs together to make a skirt and then put it on a jig in lieu of tying with thread or wire they do not work because of what I mentioned above. I believe the skirt collars you buy from any lure tackle component company are rubber. I believe the "O" rings are made of silicone and they do strech a lot making the skirt and strands move and/or fall off. I will tell you that I have had rubber collars on jigs at home for two years with no sign of stretch or anything else and they work to this day. However I do not like the rubber collars on the bigger jigs and spinnerbaits because they eventually stretch as well. The biggest contributors to rubber rot (decay) are exposure to sun, hot car or boat compartment and finally water. Believe it or not water when it sits on a rubber collar and skirt combo after fishing in the hot suns dries the rubber collar faster. Reason being is the water magninfies or intensifies the sun onto the collar and skirt. Skirts because most of them are silicone or some sort of silicone are not nearly affected. How do I know this? I have done experiments outside in the summertime on my deck and found out these scenarios to be true. Believe it or not. Just my personal opinion. PS: You can tries those you mentioned on the link and let us know your results. It's only $5 plus shipping

I have tried them several years ago and for a permanent fix in an actual fishing situation they do not work. They are too stretchy (is that a word). They do work great when you are combining skirt strands to make a single skirt for tying as they roll off really easy. JMO

Top Notch

Wow, those are some beautiful tied jigs. Dude you have some amazing talent. Nice and clean wraps.

I vote for sick gill.

Job well done on all GMAN 8-) 8-)

Nice looking spinerbait 8-) 8-) What color skirt numbers are those if you don't mind telling??

Shad Master, That is way tooooooo hot. When it gets that silvery you are already at melting point. For one thing that is quite dangerous when using a heat gun. How do I know, by experience. I did that once and the hot lead melted into the heat gun, shorted it out, started burning, blew a breaker and scared the c**p out of me. The best way to know if a jig is hot is by trial and error and the counting system. Let's say you have a 1/4 oz football jig. Put it over your heat source and count to 5 seconds in your mind, swish it in your powder, if the powder doesn't adhere, put it back in for 3 more seconds. Once the powder adheres, try your next jig and let's say you counted to 8 seconds, swish it through the powder and see if the paint adheres and glosses over. If not add another second or two. You don't want the jig any hotter than it should be. The reason being is the hotter a jig is the more powder paint will melt and adhere causing way toooooo much paint. Then when you go to bake it, henceforth the dripping and paint nipples. Naturally when you go up in size or down in size in weight adjust accordingly. A 1/16 oz jig takes a lot less heat to paint than a 1/2 oz jig. Hopes this helps.

You can use a torch like Jig Man does. I know several guys that use it. It's all personal preferance on what you like and what you are comfortable with. If you use a torch though, watch very carefully so you don't burn the paint on subsequent colors or melt the lead head.

Bone-Head Jig, I will definitely agree with you on the practice. Just like anything else it takes time to be good at it. Also if you are not using a heat gun, then I would strongly advise in getting one. Here are the reasons why. #1 In order to do multiple colors , you have to keep the jig body warm to hot to the touch all of the time. #2 You really only want to heat the lead and nothing else if possible. The reason being is this. If you heat the whole jig with the hook any paint that falls on the hook will stick to it and you don't want that. #3 If you are doing jigs or spinnerbaits or buzzbaits and you use a fluid bed you should only be heating the body. Because what happens especially in a fluid bed is this. If you heat the entire bait as mentioned above, you will get powder paint melted on the bait, hook and all. So by heating only the body(via a heat gun) you will see that when you put the bait into a fluid bed, the body will gloss over, and the powder paint on the jig hook will, well look powdery, and this is what you want because with the powdery hook, you can just wipe it off with a rag. Hope this all makes sense............Good Luck

Bone-headjig. With all honesty I only use a fluid bed for one color applications and that's it. I am going to get into airbrushing with createx, but just don't have the time. I have never used a powder air brush, although I heard good things about it. I'm old school. So what is old school. I taught myself my technique, 7 years ago because I didn't know how to use an airbrush and I still use it to this day. If you are trying to do something like a pic in my avatar, you have to plan out what colors you want where. My whole process is to dip a brush in the powder paint and tap it on a hot jig. That's it nothing else it's that simple and no B.S. Plan where you want the paint to go and put on light coats. I will say it will take you several months of a lot of practice to get it to look that way but as you can see, if I can do it so can you. In the case of the avatar, the entire body is done in beige textured powder paint (everything is powder paint). Next is to turn the jig over and put on the org belly. Turn the bait over rght side up and then you do the yellow, then the green and then the black. Once this is done put on your gold powder glitter, bake in the oven and your done. Put on eyes and clearcoat with D2T. I like my colors to flow into each other so there are no clear defined lines. But that is a personal choice.

Man those are sweet. I like both of the minnows in the 4th pic. If you can make them smaller than 4" definitely PM me. I'm interested

I don't believe one is bettr than the other. It's a matter of personal preferance and what you're used to. I personally like to tie with thread. To each his own.