Doing some casting….

[ctom]

I cast up a few of the new Hoover jigs in the 1/16 size to try next week on fall crappies. They’ll be paired with the Crappie Fluke. The mold casts nice and the castings need very little clean-up. Nice mold.

Then I got a wild hair and modded out the 1/8 ounce cavity of a Poison Tail mold to accept a 570 style hook and wire keeper. I love the head design and think this modded version will be a good addition to the corral of crappie jigs I use. I’ll add another pic when I get them dressed up a tad. This one has a #2 Victory 570 style hook and will be paired with some larger profiled plastics for old silver sides.

[basscatlildave]

Oh yea. Time to paint em up now.

[Fatman]

Can't wait to see them painted up!!

[ctom]

Here are the modded Poison Tail heads with some color.



These reflect my die-hard preference for purple and purple/chartreuse. The chartreuse is Do-It's Bait Blast. The purple is a Createx Wicked series color. The eyes are Do-It's 4mm Attack series Sexy Silver color.

[Apdriver]

Nice looking mod and a nice jig, also. Tom, do you see any benefit in this mod versus the Diner Shiner? The reason I ask is I just finished a 10 day Smallmouth trip and used it for the first time and really liked it. Caught a bunch of Smallies on it. I liked it so much I ordered the small size mold when I got home.

[Lines]

Good looking mods and colors ctom. Fantastic job.

[ctom]

. Tom, do you see any benefit in this mod versus the Diner Shiner?

Just off hand I think this head has a bit more weight in a shorter length. Honestly, I love the detail the Poison Tail head has, but I'm not crazy about the cast on keeper barbs and hook. I want a compact head in a smaller size. This is a 1/8 with the collar and keeper barbs. The wide hook certainly weighs more than this #2 wire hook and all the lead in the collar and barbs is gone so the head is much less than 1/8 now. We're entering the fall crappie bite and the fish will be hugging near deeper water. I'll be dropping 2-1/4" and 2-1/2" Fry baits and feel this head will get the baits down quickly without any spinning on the drop, something I have noticed with the Diner shiner in deep water with a couple larger profile baits. I did this mod a month ago and have been playing with it a bit unpainted while chasing crappies in deeper water on the big river and haven't seen any indication that the rig spins while dropping. I painted these up to put to the test on Weds. while we're fishing water to 37 feet.

[Apdriver]

Thanks for that explanation. The Diner Shiner seemed like a well balanced jig and I fished it in the 1/2oz size in 20 to 30 feet of water Damicki style. I didn’t notice any spin on the drop but the Smallies hug the bottom pretty tight so it really doesn’t matter in this style of fishing. The next size down in the larger mold is the 3/8 and I would throw it to drop offs in 3-4 feet of water and bounce it back to about 10-12 feet of water. It worked well but would have liked to have some of the smaller sizes down to about 1/8 oz. I’ll have to modify the smaller sizes for a larger hook for bass size baits up to a 5” fluke.

Sure like your mod on the poison tail as I’m not a fan of the poison tail hook. Prefer a round bend.

[21xdc]

Modify this mold and have all of the sizes. Poison swing tail.

[Apdriver]

Modify this mold and have all of the sizes. Poison swing tail.

Thanks Mike. That would be a nice candidate, for sure.

[ctom]

Thanks Mike. That would be a nice candidate, for sure.

No doubt. Interesting but I think I can get by with what I have already.

[Apdriver]

No doubt. Interesting but I think I can get by with what I have already.

Absolutely and didn’t mean to hijack your thread.

[21xdc]

No doubt. Interesting but I think I can get by with what I have already.

I was talking to Apdriver

[bigjim5589]

Some really good looking jigs Tom!   I like the Poisontail design a lot too, and may have to give this a try. I have some high temp silicone, so may just fill in the collar & barb with it and see what I can do.

I already have extra poisontail molds, that I've modified for spinnerbaits. 

These hurricanes that we've had lately are playing havoc with the waters. I haven't been fishing in awhile, the lakes been drawn way down in anticipation for all the water coming down the rivers from up in the upstate & NC.

Hopefully this current storm doesn't affect us much, but I think FL's going to get hit hard again. I'm praying for all those folks!

[ctom]

The heads worked great with a crappie fluke and a Fat Fry. Couple nice crappies, a catfish, a perch and a huge ol sheephead, maybe 12 pounds.