Dinky jigs

[ctom]

For some time I have been eyeballing the semi-custom 1/64 collar-less ball head mold. Its the only one that casts a full load of the one size. What kept me at bay was this apparent need for a down filling smelter and those critters and I are not good company. I have several of the pro models and a couple in that line that make the 1/32 collar-less and I have no issues with missed or bad casts. The other day I had Jerry on the phone and we got to yacking about this dinky head and hook options and what not. The conversation finally came around to the lead delivery and I finally moved to get a mold to find out for myself.

Here's the skivvie on this puppy.

I use a Lee magnum melter and pure lead for the small jigs and I don't mess around with mid-range heat levels. If I plug this bad boy in I have it on HI. So I started there. Next I made darned sure the mold was HOT....the metal portion that is. And don't touch with bare fingers is the hot I refer to. Next I did some empty pours, no hooks, just to see if any of the cavities had any little glitches and yes that sometimes happens so I always do blind pours on a new mold regardless of what it pours. Of the ten cavities I found 8 that liked to fill to one side or the other leaving a half head. Out came the old nylon stocking for the rub test and sure enough there were very minute burrs in the gates of those cavities. A quick light swipe with a convex jewelers file and another trial filling. Perfecto.

Now the hooks. The catalog stated a size 12 or 10 570 style hook or the Mustad equivalent. I ordered  500 of the size 10 Eagle Claws to work with but I also had a few hundred Matzuo sickles in size 8. I prefer the sickle hooks but they stop at size 8 so I just laid a few in the mold and tried closing it and all was good so now to pour. I started with the sickle hooks since I had them out and after a couple hundred I figured I'd switch to the #10 and do the same number.

The finished heads are all nice and clean. They hand snap off the sprues so tools are really not needed...at least I haven't needed any. The heads are clean, no joints showing.

The bottom line here is that if you want a nice, clean 1/64 head without a collar, this mold makes making a mess of them a real snap. If you bottom pour you are set to hit it. If you ladle pour like I do, keep the lead pure, keep it hot and use a ladle that handles about three to 4 ounces of lead so you can control the pour as a fast straight in pour works very well. A real large ladle will stand in the way of this kind of control. Number 8 sickles work fine as long as you "feel" for them to seat as you lay them in the mold. The 10's were a breeze. I didn't have any 12's to try so I can't say how they work but I'll assume they're aok.

The price on these semi-custom molds is a bit but in the long run the time they save in finishing the jigs is well worth it and the quality of the finished head is as good as a spin cast head.

[Fatman]

Great report Tom - thanks!!

[Muskygary]

I wish I could find a mold that would make a cobra jig. I'm not sure what type of hook it would use. Love that jig for ice fishing but they cost close to $1.00 each!!

[ctom]

Here's a picture of the heads as they come off the sprue.



 I haven't done a thing with the heads after snapping the sprues. What a change. Pay attention to that sprue end.

Take note of the Eagle Claw hook's open eye. I didn't see that when I was handling the jigs, now I have to go thru a bag of 200 to find that sucker.

[Fatman]

Tom - Nice looking heads.  I wouldn't worry about finding it right now.  Catch it when you paint them or on the water we all have needle nose or forceps and you can do it then, won't drive you nuts this way!!!!!!!!LOL

[ctom]

I use a ton of 1/64 during the summer when sunfish get on a tear and again in the fall and early winter when I fish docks and I down size plastics if needed. Buying the heads is one thing but finding any with a quality hook is another thing. I'm going to cast up another 500 #8 sickles tomorrow so I have enough on hand to fish and maybe sell a couple. I'm real happy with the way this mold casts using my ladle. Tolerance-wise, the # 8 sickle is right at the limit without needing any sort of re-tooling. I can't get over how clean these heads come out of that mold and how clean they break off the sprue.

[ctom]

These heads weren't around long as a bait shop decided that they really liked them. Yesterday I cast again and included another 200 of each hook style but this time I kept time to see how long it takes to do 100. For the 400 heads it took just over an hour to cast. Once a rhythm is developed things move along real smooth. Loading hooks is a breeze and getting 10 heads done per cast really moves things along. Snapping sprues was even faster with the tiny gate.

Black, white, orange, pink, and chartreuse was all the shop wanted for paint colors. Powder paint did the honors there. The painting is super fast on these little guys.

I'll be painting a few of the new heads in the near future and tying up some flu-flu style jigs for dock hopping later this fall. I'm also going to whip together some minnow imitations using the mylar tubing. The mylar minnows are a real favorite of mine and produce fish at times when nothing else seems to want to work.

[Fatman]

1/64ths and smaller don't stay on the shelf long in a good tackle shop.  Fly tyers will also pick up these small heads

Don't know if this guy has any left but he has some #10 red sickles http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/161250435355?lpid=82

If your really looking for 10's in Black chrome I can check with some of the guys on the jig tying boards or I can give you an email contact with a guy at Matzuo who helped me with replacing some bad hooks.

[ctom]

Fatman....

On the smaller heads I am sticking with Eagle Claw hook shown along side the sickle as the stock hook for the shop. The sickle is "my" pet. I'll always have a few of the EC heads too. But thanks for the offer of checking things out and the link.

I'm getting the 1/80th mold too and am going to try Mustad's Black Nickel jig hook in that in a size ten. I want to see if there is a huge difference between the Mustad and the Eagle Claw since both are higher end hooks and both black nickel. The 1/80 calls for either the 10 or a 12 hook but I refuse to go any smaller than a ten. I need glasses to see 10's as it is. I try hard to offer a " standard" jig, one of specific size with a specific hook size....makes ordering a lot easier and it makes keeping track of hooks on hand much easier too. Personal jigs are a horse of a different color, if you know what I mean. I have an old 1/32 - 1/16 combo mold, 4 of each, that will take a size 2 sickle in the 1/32 side. I don't use this head/hook size very often but on some baits I like the extra hook. Of course some of my fishing buddies have had to beg a bit to get a couple of them and then they let others use them and the next thing I know I am doing a couple hundred up. Casting these can get testy so stores won't see them. And I don't give these animals away. Being the only source for several hundred miles makes me happy too.   

[Fatman]

Glad I could have at least got you a place for the small sickles when you want them -  have you got a web site up and rolling yet???

Thanks

[ctom]

I'm still dinking with the website stuff. I might take it down after the current domain runs out.

[ctom]

My computer went on sabbatical this afternoon so I grabbed a rod and a couple of these small jigs/plastics and slipped down to the river behind our place while it fixed itself. Its been dry here of late but there was a fair flow below a line of riffles that drop into about 8 feet of water so I opted to cast on that for about ten minutes. Sunfish, rock bass and a smallie were good to go but the heat and bugs cut my time short. True to form, the purple/chartreuse plastic was the color to have on the jig. I was using one of the purple heads on the plastic.

I'm not accustomed to fishing a small head like this by casting. Most always I have used the light-weights vertically over the side of the boat or by dabbling along sunken wood. I found out there is definitely a learning curve to casting a 1/64. But the hits left little to imagine. BANG! Fish on. Like I mentioned, the bugs and atmosphere stepped on my toes during this adventure. Nordy called me this afternoon shortly after I got back inside and asked if I've been fishing.  I told him no. Maybe a half truth, but I seldom refer to messing around behind the house as fishing.

The humidity today is running about 70% and the dew point is something like 63 degrees. Its about like breathing paint. I shot some plastics for a buddy and the cup of plastic had more foam on it than a latte or a good head on a cold beer.