I was rummaging through a box of "stuff" the other day and found some mylar tubing.
Pretty coarse struff, was thinking about how to use it for jigs.
Can't really put it on after the hair, as is done for flies, so went to Google to get some inspiration.
Basically came up with the following where the tubing acts as a "fluffer" for the skirt, although the term does feel a bit weird 

   

   

   

I lack the killer instict to target C&R species, but VMC team angler Nils is an avid asp angler. I joined him on a trip yesterday. You can think of asp as piscivorous asian carp - they are not even that bad eating but terrribly boney, nothing you want in your fridge as long as you have some walleye/Zander left. On the upside, they are demanding light tackle sport fish with an unpredictable mood and strong fighting will. During summer, they slurp herring fry mashed by the ship propellers and are extremly difficult, but now in autumn we have a very good fishing on flutter jigs and shad spoon tins from the 3/4 cavity. The biggest fish yesterday was 78cm/roughly 10lbs.

in safety and accuracyI have slowly depleted my last big supply of lead and am finding good quality scrap lead virtually impossible to find.  Looking to resuppply so looked at rotometals and find lead is almost $3 per pounds.  was not too long ago that it was readily available for under $1 pound. But I think I am about to bite the bullet and order a couple hundred pounds to keep me going.

Rotometals does supply virtually  pure lead which with all Ive seen on this and a few other sites is probably as a good idea as much of the lead being found, scrounged, otherwise located is eother wheel weights, #2 alloy or lord only knows what else .  I saw some lead being advertised a while back n ebay asked how it was being tested and the answer was fingernail.  other than my fishing lures, I cast a lot of round balls, mini balls and maxiballs for muzzle loaders.  Those guys do care about having pure lead and it does make a difference especially with safety and accuracy.

The one on the left is what I’ve poured almost a hundred times. The one on the right, well, I poured over 5 ones that look like this after a couple of perfect pours. 

Lead was hot, mold was hot, lead was clear of residue and like I said, I’ve poured a couple of good ones early on and they started getting like this. 

I can’t seem to get my head around it. Any other problems that could cause this?

Is there a tutorial on how to brush Tap?
I'm a visual learner, I've tried it with sucky results. Either I'm using the wron kind of brush
Or I just don't have a talent for it. Either way I could use some help. Thanks

Since switching to Gulp! never used em because the Gulp! latex (?) material is prone to permanent package memory which means the tails end up pretty much any which shape EXCEPT the planned straight perpendicular to the body.

However, JiggerJohn suggested a lift drop retrieve for finicky wipers best served by wedge tails which vibrate on a drop rather than my usual tiny fork stick tails of the Gulp! Minnows so I got a few embedded head chartreuse shad 3" Power Bait Pogies from Walmart and they indeed got bit.  Since then I've alternated them with my usual 3" Gulp! Minnows on a jighead with good results, switching between them when the bite slows.  Downside is that the 3" Power Pogy #1 hook seems too small for larger wipers and I got a lot of drop offs recently during a big wiper bite, so currently shopping for Power Bait Pro Shads in 2-1/2" & 3-1/2" sizes to attach onto larger hook jig heads.

So, anyone else like em?  Or not?

I used protec powder paint for the first time and this os the result.

I used a heatgun, dipped, tapped the excess powder, run it on the heat fun again and I let it cool. 

Will baking smoothen this out or I did something wrong?

I've been wondering how folks here paint their ice-fishing tungsten jigs.  The few I've seen look like a basecoat of powderpaint, and then fine details with some kind of liquid paint over the pp.  I've been thinking it was fingernail polish.

I did some for a friend, as he was wanting some powder-painted heads, but was rather insistent that the jigs have eyes.  I got some fingernail polish, and some bamboo skewers, which I sanded the tips off.  I did a nice dip into pp, then back over my oil lamp to melt the pp some (not a full cure).  Painted the eyes on with the skewers. 

   

My plan was to reheat the jigs, then dip into 200% clear for a top-coat, then cure them in the oven.  Here's what I got:

   

That was weird.  The "eyes" shrank in circumference, but puffed out, forming a weird 3D eye spot.  I have not heard if my buddy likes these or not.

I've done a test by coating a similar jighead with Loon Flow UV Resin and hitting it with a UV torch.  It works as a topcoat, but I'm not sure how durable it is.  I may have to go with a clear epoxy of some kind, or just leave them without a topcoat.  I may even buy a few vinyl paints and give that a go, but working in this basement that I'm renting, with no ventilation, is probably not a good idea.

Got to take a quick peek at the Mustads that I ordered. They look pretty good and appeared to be a bit heavier. This AM I grabbed a mic and compared with a EC that was close by and it appears that the mustads are about .004 heavier. I’ll have to check closer maybe tonight to make sure I was comparing same sizes but they seem stiffer.

Ok, measured some #4" and 2/0's tonight. 
EC Nasty #4  .027
Matzu #4      .029
Mustad SJ     .032
Mustad also had a .120 longer shank

EC Nasty #2/0 .036
Matzu     #2/0 .037
Mustad   #2/0 .040
All were the same length but the bends are a little different I suppose for patent reasons. Sharpness seems to be about the same but I haven't checked the whole bag. Have to see how they hold up to the stress test when I get around to that. Someone here has probably already gone through that.
With the larger shank I'm hoping to eliminate the flashing on the shanks and up around the eye's on a couple of my molds. Was more of a problem on a couple of hilts that I have.

Been working on these since a few years back. If some of you remember old thread about John Fujita's No-Name lure. Jack Fujita ( his nephew) sold me some of the old original No-Names so I could compare with the ones I was making. Basically I quit worrying about trying to imitate the curved front part of lure. I like two sizes # 12 hook pattern and # 8 hook pattern. Used ice fishing blade for front part. Can use standard hook or if you want vertical use jig hook. I substituted Ram's wool instead of chicken feathers for trailer hook. One strand of flash to make it pop.

If ever a case of less is more. Trying to get this lure to work as good as the original was hard. Mainly I kept putting too much material on . Last year I started tying with less and eureka .
All the patterns worked to some degree.  But the minimalist ( final pattern ) are just DEADLY.

While Mr Fujita designed is as a trout /panfish lure. It also took big fish back in the day. Well that has not changed. To prevent too any break offs I use modern braided line to connect the two hooks. After comparing in tank and actual clear lake water. These resemble a very small whitish minnow. The supreme test will be through the ice this year.




Took pic of pattern while wet to give idea how small it really is. While small the results are usually big. Next pics just a few of today's victims of Mr Fujita's idea.








Didn't take ruler with me but those planks are 6 inches wide.