hey guys,

 

I have a customer that is an FLW pro, he buys a lot of jigs from me and just came to me with a request. My arky head / flippin jig mold is model #FLIP-3-AY. He has been requesting me to find a way to include a wire bait holder much like the football jigs I make for him (pictured below). I am wondering if it would be possible to use something and create a slot in the mold for the wire keeper, but I would hate to destroy the mold. I was hoping that someone else had done or at least attempted something of the sort.

 

He has been talking about putting my logo on his boat next season so I really want to make him happy!

 

I modified my swim pro head to accept the same keeper on my bladed jigs. I used a Dremel and a small cutting head. Just make a very slight channel right next to the hook (it's easier to do it on the back of the hook instead of the front IMO). I've modified a few molds, including some pretty major modifications, and haven't messed one up yet and I'm not real good at stuff like that.

You don't have to modify the mold at all if you thread wrap a wire form onto the hook shank and secure it with a drop of thin super glue.

 

http://www.barlowstackle.com/WB400-Keeper-Wire-Form-P2534.aspx

 

http://www.barlowstackle.com/WB800-Keeper-Wire-Form-P3024.aspx

 

 

 

Depending on the wire diameter that you are using, you may not have to modify the mold at all. Here I use 0.024 ss wire in a std mold to get a keeper. Cut the wires to 1.5" and bend the tip a little to mold the wire in place. lay it next to the hook and pour lead. I did mod the eye to accept a flateye hook.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Dave

Thanks for the feed back. I seen a video last night that I thought was interesting... I don't know if this is possible with a do-it style mold but it would be great if I could do it this way...

 

 

I don't think he would like the idea of it just being tied on there, he could just as easily use a drop of superglue when he put the bait on the jig to hold it in place.

 

I guess I am just going to have to break out the dremel here and hope for the best.

 

Here is a picture of my version of the Bitsy bug, it is a weedless banana jig mold. The jig in the pic is 1/4oz but the way I added the wire keeper can be done to any jig mold. Put you hook in the mold and then position the wire keeper where you want it and carefully close the mold and hold it tight to keep the hook and keeper in place. Place the mold in a bench vise or use a C-clamp making sure to use wood on each side of the mold so the vise or clamp doesn't damage the mold surface. When you have the mold in position tighten the vise or clamp until the mold is completely closed or close to it and then remove the mold and open it up. What you should have is a solid imprint of the wire keeper so the only thing left to do is to take a needle file or small Dremel engraving bit and just make the imprint on each side of the mold slightly deeper to allow the mold to close easily, it actually took longer to type this than it does to make that simple modification, I hope this is easy to understand, good luck.

 

that makes a lot of sense and we have a bench vise we use in the shop.