I've been playing....

[ctom]

.... with the new Hybrid Grass Jig mold. It's certainly a great mold to work with, very problem-free for me. I hand poured this trial batch and haven't tried the bottom pour.



To start, I used both the 10886 Victory and the Mustad 32886 BLN hooks in the recommended 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0 sizes. There's virtually no difference in the casting using both hook brands. The Victory hooks are shown cast in here. I also stepped a bit outside of convention and tried the different hook sizes in cavities where they are not recommended. The 4/0 and 5/0 both fit nicely in the 3/8 cavity. I actually like the 4/0 for that size better than the 3/0. The 3/0 and 4/0 fit well in the 1/2 ounce cavity but the 3/0 is a bit tight for the 5/8 cavity. The 5/0 fits all of them. The 5/0 in the 3/8 cavity takes some tinkering, not because of the cavity, but because the hook has little support and closing the mold can be trick. BUT, that 5/0 casts perfect in that cavity. My bottom line is that this is a super easy mold to work with, with lots of variables possible.

The eye pockets are super generous and for those in the picture I used the Attack Series Warmouth in a size 4. A size 5 will easily fit in the 1/2, 5/8 and 3/4. You'll notice I have airbrushed these heads. I hate the way powder coat fills in the eye sockets and on heads of this size I love the use of multiple colors so they got the airbrush treatment. These were done using Do-It's Bait Blast airbrush paints. CS Sealcoat finished the paint part before the brush guards got glued in. No, they have not been trimmed just yet.

I'll be coordinating skirt colors to the head colors. This is just a simple perch color pattern.

Its super humid here for the last couple days. Dew points in the mid 70's. I used Gorrila Super Glue on the guards. As soon as this glue was exposed to the humid air it frosted over as can be seen at the base of the fibers. I'm not happy with this event. So just a heads up thata this may be an issue for others when using that brand of super glue.

These puppies are almost ready to go fishing and I know just the perfect place to try them

[21xdc]

Those look amazing.... I had trouble casting the 4/0 EC 3886 BP in the 3/8oz... Even with heated hooks, mold and my RCBS on high, I could not get a full pour/barbs. 

I only tried a few times. I was on another pouring mission....  I'll graphite the mold and try again soon.

[ctom]

When the mold was cold I had two incomplete barb casts on the 3/8. I sprayed a bit of dropout on a q-tip and wiped that portion of the mold where the hook's shank lays in the cavity and everything seemed fine after that.

I made about twelve casts in each cavity and those first couple in the 3/8 were the only glitch in all of the cavities. After wiping the dropout on the channel where the barbs are things sailed along nicely.

[bigjim5589]

Ctom, those are awesome!   I had some issues with the 3/8 filling too on the first couple until I got the mold plenty hot, and was also using the 4/0 Victory hooks.  4/0 or 5/0 here are standard, and even though I'll use 3/0 too, most of my customers don't ask for it, so I'll likely just continue with 4/0 on that 3/8 cavity.

When the mold got hot enough that the sprue fell off as I opened the mold, I knew it was hot enough.  I poured with a Hot Pot, so no control on the heat other than when adding more lead.