Author: Austin Porter
How to Make Fishing Jigs.
Hello all,
I have a business called Gettin' Jiggy where I make fishing jigs. I make every jig from pouring the lead to tying the materials people want. BULLBUSTER asked me to make a how to about my jigs. This will be the first part of two parts, part two will be how to tie jigs.
Step 1: Pour blanks
Before I just throw the hook into the mold and pour, I will pour blanks meaning no hook inside the mold. Pouring blanks allows the mold to heat up so when you put a hook inside the lead will fill the whole mold (Pour on cold mold and the lead might harden to soon which can create the lead to not fill the whole cavity).
Step 2: Place hook into mold than pour
Once you believe the mold is hot enough, place the desired hooks into the mold. Than pour the lead.
Pour enough jigs as desired before moving onto next parts
Step 3: Trim the excess lead
Every time you pour you will have excess lead. Take a pair of gate shears to trim the excess lead off.
Step 4: Heat the jig heads, than dip to paint
I use a heat gun (You can stick them into oven and pre heat tons of them, however you have to use pliers to dip them. I tried it and just doesn't work for me) to heat the jig heads before I dip into Pro-tec powder paint. Times vary on the heat gun for each jig head due to the size of it.
Step 5: Place jigs into conventional oven
Once I get desired amount of jigs painted, I place them into an oven. Depending on the size of the jig heads for the baking time. Baking a jig head creates a chip resistant finish. Chip resistant finish means if you drop the jigs the paint won't chip. Even when mackerel hit them, only teeth marks go into the paint.
SAFETY: I wear a mask at all times (Some people say it doesn't do anything and some say it works), better safe than sorry. The MOST important part is being in a well ventilated area. As you see in the video below, I make my jigs outside on the patio.
Bullbuster Mono: When I am going to use jigs, I use 100% mono. I love the movement that happens when you have that little stretch. I mainly use 12lb mono but if I am jigging in deep water on a plug real I will use 20lb mono with the heavy jigs.
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