Making Your Own Jig Heads

[Scalem]

Hi Guys,

As a follow on from another post that was started by Fish -n-dive "Making your Own Sinkers" I snapped a few photo's that might give you SP diehards some new ideas if you are interested in saving a little money on Jig Heads. Before I go through it, making Jig Heads might not be everyones' cuppa, but I find it relaxing, and I wanted to recycle all those shredded cast net lead weights from many years of chasing prawns. If you can imagine 3 nets worth of lead, I really have the raw material for a heap of Jig heads. I also will pay credit to a local fishing rag that had an article on making Jig Heads, so the idea was developed further from there.

Ist Photo shows the Raw Hook that I purchase in mainly 2 sizes, as shown.

[Scalem]

Next I needed to modify my existing moulds in both 0 and size 3 as the next few photos show. But the 1st shot shows the raw hook layed into the mould propped up and held in place by a piece of bluetac.

[Scalem]

But I found that the mould had to be modified for 2 reasons. The Eye of the hook had to lay in its own little hole, and where the shaft of the hook needed enough space around it for the lead to pour, a little freehand drilling did the trick. You engineers and precision tradespeople would most likely prefer to sit the mould in a lathe or drillpress, put I don't have the luxury of owning either

[Scalem]

Yikes! Bit rough but it did the trick!!

[Scalem]

At the other end of the mould, I have laid one of the Jig Head back in so you can see where the finished product came from, but of particular note, you will see the mould alongside it which was my 1st attempt. It worked to a fashion, only I found that the shaft of the Jighead was not long enough to hold the plastics in place, which is why I use only the ends.

[Scalem]

I found that a simple pair of side cutters carefully squeezed onto the shaft of the finished Jighead is enough to create the "Rib" which helps prevent losing the plastic once in place.
The emphasis is on "carefully" as you don't want to squeeze too hard that you weaken the shaft of the hook. Curtains for that good fish which might just break a hook with a nick in it.

[Scalem]

So that's about it! Your own Jig heads that you will turn out pretty quickly once you get the hang of it. Any questions I will be happy to assist where I can. As I said, might not be for everyone, but I enjoy making them as a craft on those days the weather has shut the fishing down. The photo here is of a size 3 sinker mould result, even though I have only shown the size 0 mould. Also, I found that some days I want slightly heavier than a size 0, but not to the extreem of a size 3, so rather than buying another mould I used a chainsaw electric sharpener (it's all improvisation when you don't have the right tools!) to enlarge the cavity of a size 0, which you will see is slighly more shiney than the other pots of the mould, because it was recently done.

I trust this gives you some interesting tips, and many enjoyable hours watching your stocks of usable jigheads grow at very affordable prices. And the final result is they work and catch fish!

Scalem

[fish-n-dive]

Geez Scalem.................you really are a cleaver dick!!! Great photos and dialogue to go with them

As an aside, I noticed in one of this months fishing mags, an ad for moulds to make your oun SP jigs.

Cheers

[TIM-DONSELAAR]

good work Scalem.......they look pretty good [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif]


cheers tim

[szopen]

They do look very well.

One thing that I do sometimes on heavier jig heads (if I want a lighter one) is to simply cut some of the lead away. Trying to make the cut more or less symetric but it does not matter too much.

[SCOTTYGC]

looking good mate
but maybe to much work for most

have a look at this place
there is a dealer in ballina nsw
http://www.do-itmolds.com/index.php?...203.42.126.129

just a thought

scotty

[Scalem]

Thanks Guys,

I wondered when we might start to see better availability of molds, and thanks Scotty for the link.....they look fantastic but still, what I have managed to make represents 3 sizes of leads. If I had to buy a mold for each of them, this accounts for a lot of dollars, and the old ones I have were sitting in the shed for years without use, just needing a little modification. I guess from my perspective, I am saying that my budget for fishing is scrutinized by my finance manager (wife) very closely, which accounts for my improvisations in every facit. I'm happy! A boat that floats, tackle that works, and fish that jump on!

Scalem