Thread: Jig Maker ……. Jig Maker

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Sunday morning I awoke early with no plans, so I poured some jigs. Filed, painted, cured and added eyes. I seem to be getting much quicker at it. Made a hundred heads.

I pour with a Rowell Ladle which works very well. I had a bottom pour pot but never really liked being unable to watch, and it clogged. Gifted away. The Lee Production pot and ladle system works pretty good. Wish I had a half pound ladle.

All jigs require filing, and I do this by leaning the file against something to give me an angle, with paper towels beneath to catch the filings. When done I just roll it up and toss it. When doing this I examine the hook eye as it exits the jig for lead build up. If there is any I trim it away.

Next I cut my shrink wrap into little pieces, just large enough to cover the hook eye, and attached. Ready for paint, I use a heat gun with a tunnel tip to concentrate the heat. 1800 watts, it heats to an acceptable temperature in three seconds or less. Then I dip into the container and hang the jig to cool along the rim of an old ceramic planter. Every so often I put the lid back on the paint container and rotate it to loosen the paint. Once cooled, I use my thumbnail to ease the shrink wrap away.

Next I add jigs to my aluminum and silicone jig holders that I made and into the tabletop oven they go. I know each powder has it’s own unique temperature and time, but I just do 350 degrees for 15 minutes and it seems to do well enough.

Then I attach the eyes with jig in hand. Squeeze to secure them and into one of my wooden jig clamps to hold it still. I mix BSI epoxy and use a small brush to cover the eyes and down onto the painted surface of the jig head. Not every bit of the painted surface, as I try to avoid the hook eye. Just to get an over coat over the eye and onto the paint so when cured, it has encapsulated the eye. Wait several hours until it is no longer tacky and done.









The eyes is a 6mm Super Pearl. The paint is special from Barlows called Nova Stone in Sunburst. It is a color shift paint, so when jig is in hand you can move it and see new colors appear. The gold color you get has small flakes in it and is rather brilliant when in direct sunlight. The eyes are also color shift and will change as you move them. Reds, blues, and purples all come at you when the jig is in sunlight. I used just this one paint and one eye.


The top left jig is a Free Style shape in 1/10th ounce, with a Mustad Skipjack hook in size 1/0. These are what I will use to tie jigs.

Under it is nifty little 1/16th ounce head with a short shank 1/0 Eagle Claw 571 hook. This head is flat and I have chosen not to add eyes so it can emit more of the color flash at the fish. Because the hook has a short shank it is great for plastic baits. Less error with misalignment and more of the plastic is left free to produce action.

Top right is the minnow head in 1/16th ounce with that same short hook. Again, these are for rigging plastic baits.

Bottom right is a 1/8th ounce with an open swivel jutting out of the bottom. This allows me to take a blade, add an open eye swivel to it, squeeze closed, then attach to the jig’s swivel and close it. This works much faster and easier than fiddling with little split rings. It also allows the blade to hang a little better so it spins much easier than a Road Runner. Spins at slower speeds. Again, the short shank hook means they are meant for plastic baits.




I have a pile of ready made jigs with plastic baits. Problem is they are unorganized and if I catch a fish on one, it will be near impossible to sort through to find it’s twin. LOL. So I am going to lay everything out on the dining room table and try to come up with a way to have some sanity to the mess. There are some plastics that I really like, but have no idea how many of them are actually ready to go.

Most fishermen use bags of plastics and root through those to add to loose jig heads while on the water. I tried that but my bags of plastics easily became unmanageable. Because I make my own jig heads, I can add a plastic to the head and super gel glue it on, then store them in lure boxes without having to buy a bunch of heads. This is what I have to organize if I can.