1/24 oz. CRAPPIE JIG MOLD

[LIARS CORNER]

I make and sell 1000's and 1000's of crappie jig heads a year (12,000 in the last 2 months)
and one of the most requested jig head sizes is 1/24 oz. it would be great if we can get a 1/24 oz. round head with barb production mold and a 1/24 oz. ball head with no collar


and your jig molds need to be designed to accept larger hooks #2 and #4 are the most common hook sizes can we start getting these crappie jig molds to accept larger hooks without buying them and having to do the mods ourselves

if this could be done I personally would be glad to replace all my molds to get what I want

[Denny Welch]

Welcome to the forum LC.  Great first post.  Let's see what the head honchos at Do-It say.  Maybe some of the crappie guys can chime in as well.

[Fatman]

One reason why so many like the older Do-It molds is that there was no warming chamber on the bottom, it was all flat and you could use what ever size hook you wanted.  I've been looking to see if I can sand that area flat without messing up my molds.

There are a few video's on You-Tube showing how to do it. 

[LIARS CORNER]

well after years of many different people trying to get do-it to make this mold without any luck someone has finally done it

Jacobs Baits has made one a machined 1/24oz 10 cavity jig mold (5 with barb and 5 without) its only $50 I ordered 2 yesterday cant wait to get them 

[BareKnuckleJigs]

I don't know how Yawl do it...1/24th.  I've been pouring some 1/16 oz. Chubs with Mustad 32746NP-BN #4, and I'll tell Ya, those little 'heads are not the easiest to pour.  Gotta pour the Chub kinda slow.

[ctom]

LOL, Gary. I have that Chub mold and the 1/16 are big compared to some I cast.

I see Rick has up-graded that mold to one of three variations: the original with 5 collared and 5 without, all 10 collared, or all 10 collar-less. Same price on the mold regardless.

The 1/24 head in a panfish jig is like a 3/16 or a 5/16 in walleye heads in that it fills a weight niche that really widens a person's presentation window real well. Jacobs mold can handle hooks from a size 8 to a 1 or 1/0, I forget which. On my crappie and panfish heads I won't cast anything larger than a #2. I have a couple of 1/32 molds that cast the #2 hooks easily. A number 2 in a 1/24 head has my attention though. I get requests for #2's in 1/32 heads every once in a while...mostly from a couple guys in Ohio and one in Indianna. Its nuts because I think the hooks weight more than the lead.

The 1/24 would be a great addition here and I agree is a size that should be considered. I had a 1/24 mold years back that the handles broke off of. I sold it. That mold didn't do a very good job on the heads and most all of them would need to get cleaned up before I could paint them. For now I've been ordering the 1/24's that I want but I can only get them in 4's and 6's. I really want some 8's cast up but the party won't do it saying the mold gets too much flash with an 8 hook. I suppose the eye cavity is too wide and the lead flows into the eye of the hook.

 

[Lamar]

   You crappie guys are killing me. I thought 1/24 was small now your talking 1/32. Seriously ? I'd have to heat my line and roll it out with a rolling pin just to get it through the eye on a jig that small. You would have to use a line that sinks or the jig couldn't even pull it down. And speaking of that suppose the fish are 10 feet deep. How long does it take for a 1/32 jig to drop 10 feet ? A two beer fall ? A 300 count ? A wake me up when it gets there ? This could be a new sport similar to the turtle races. No wonder you crappie guys have all these different colors. By the time your jig gets to where the fish are your mind has played so many games with you that your ready to tie a new one on. Good Luck ! I'm sticking to my 3/8 to 5/8 oz jigs and 20 pound test.

[ctom]

Lamar, I can see we'd have some issues if you spent a day with me. lol

My primary line size is 4 pound while I have rods with 3 and 4 pound braid that has a 1 pound mono diameter and I also have a pair of rods strung with 2 pound fluorocarbon line. A 1/32 head and 1.75" small fry drop at a fair clip and its only a few seconds in 30+ feet of water that I can find crappies hiding in. I'd have to be in much deeper water to use a 1/16 unless we have a 40mph wind blowing and line bow becomes a problem.

[BareKnuckleJigs]

  Thanks Bro's...the laughs went very well with the warm Tervis of Southern Java.  I used to think I was throwing light with 1/8 oz., until I started "really" "downsizing" my gear for the Sacalait and Bream.  Since I broke my SpinFly, I replaced it with a store-bought rod, a TFO 7' 6" ML Spinning rod, same Penn Battle 2000, 6 lb. Sufix 832 Green.  I have a 200 yd. spool of Seaguar AbrazX 8 lb. I use for leaders.  1/8 oz. 'head is HEAVY on the end of that rod (1/8 oz. casts a Freshwater Mile)...1/16 will be better suited.  I couldn't imagine going smaller still...yet.  Mr. Tom, would You suggest lighter leader material for Sacalait?

[pjmcla]

As I understand it; the 1/24 th  head was developed by the crappie fishermen who long line troll for crappie ( esp. on lake Weiss ).  This size head allowed the bait to be at the correct depth at their desired trolling speed using plastic grubs / tubes.  This was mainly guides.  It soon spilled over into the Tourney and general long line trolling crowd.   The 1/32nd was a tad light and 1/16th got hung up when trolled at the speed they prefer.  Many used a 1/32nd head with a small split shot up a ways but this meant one more thing to do when you broke off and also had the potential to weaken the line on a bad split shot crimp.         

[Lamar]

Lamar, I can see we'd have some issues if you spent a day with me. lol

 Oh Tom I'm sure we'd be ok for a while. But I think you could help me catch a fish on Lake Superior. It's the only one of the great lakes I've never caught a fish on. That's got to be on my bucket list.

[ctom]

I couldn't imagine going smaller still...yet.  Mr. Tom, would You suggest lighter leader material for Sacalait?

Not sure about your line Gary. If I am fishing clear water with braid, I'll add about 18" of 4 pound fluor as a buffer to the solid color of the braid. As for my non-braid lines, they are all clear. A lot depends on the water and whether it is cloudy/dirty/heavily stained....if it is a leader isn't so necessary.

And Lamar...I'll let you know when we make a trip to the cabin and if it fits your schedule you're welcome to come up and we'll see about getting that fish.

[BareKnuckleJigs]

Whenever I have braid on the reel, I NEVER tie a lure/bait directly to the braid, even in the chocolate milk for Cats...never.  Right now, that TFO has an 8 lb. AbrazX leader about 36"-40" long, tied to a spinner, spinner clipped to the hook keeper.  Occasionally I'll use mono leaders in Freshwater if I have it and it's called for, or if that's all I have, but 95% of the time it's Fluoro.  I believe in a fishes' eyes, and I go to some serious lengths to keep my gear out of them.  I try to keep a little poundage there just in case a solid Bass decides to eat, but keep the weight down for the target, of course.

[ctom]

In conversation with a friend who has been casting this new mold in 1/24, he said that the jigs have to be cut from the sprue. If they are snapped or twisted off, as is possible with the Do-It molds, the new castings leave a dimple of round lead sticking straight up off the jighead that has to be smoothed down with a file or re-cut closer to the head. I tried a hundred hooks thru the mold yesterday and sure enough, if the heads are twisted off they have a larger piece of lead jutting up out of the head that has to be trimmed back or filed. If the heads are cut from the sprue with even small gate shears, the shears leave very obvious marks in the heads that have to be cleaned up if anyone has any thoughts of selling them. The mold is supposed to handle hooks down to #8's and I had issues getting all of the hooks laid in the cavities "just so" to allow the mold to close tight. 6's and 4's cast the best for me but those are the two sizes that I thought were the most plausible anyway. I do like casting some number 8's into 1/32 and 1/16 heads for use with smaller plastics and occasionally I like a larger hook in the small head sizes....I have a lot of requests for 2's and 1's in 1/16 and even in 1/32. I have one mold altered to handle the larger hooks in 1/32 and for winter walleye plastics I get a lot of people wanting that super light jig. Honestly the hooks weigh in more than the lead does.

These 1/24 heads are clean as far as having the mold halve aligning. Laying the hooks in the mold is a snap. Still, the extra handling to get clean heads after removing them from the casting sprue makes for quite a bit of extra time handling them for those who want to sell them. I won't sell heads that don't have clean breaks or that have hunks of leads sticking up out of the head. I timed my casting time and it took me 14 minutes to cast, de-mold the 100 heads I poured. It took me 22 minutes to remove them from the sprues and to clean the extra lead off the 100 heads. Using the
 Do-It professional 7 cavity molds, round head, no collar, in 1/32 and in 1/16, I can cast 100 heads in about 13-14 minutes so this element in the time factor is ok. But working with castings from Do-It molds I tie up only 7 minutes snapping the heads from the sprues of 100 heads. And I seldom have to spend any time cleaning up the breaks.

The mold is well built as is all of his products, but this jighead mold does have a couple of areas that need to be cleaned up to get them running as smooth as Do-Its products. If you are time conscious, maybe wait until this sprue design gets re-worked to eliminate the need for cutting and to offer clean twist-off's. To note, I only worked with the 1/24 mold. The other lead molds offered by Jacobs I have not  used or even seen. The head size is definitely one that has a place in the jig market even if it is squeezed between two very popular sizes currently in production. In my opinion, Do-It should be getting on this, making a 7 cavity mold to companion with the other 7 cavity molds in 1/32 and 1/16 and they should make this mold compatible with the keeper wires or shot without.

[Fatman]

Great report!!!!!!!!!!!  Thanks