Two different jigs

Ultra minnow heads @ 3oz. Not the best pics, but I'm not up on new tech yet lol.

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The bottom 1/2 of a 6 oz. fluke ball rig.

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Nice work...

Well done BLT...... Nice ties

Those will hunt for sure...

Good stuff BLT - are you powder painting?

Yes, all powder. All the ultra minnows have blaze orange lips, hard to see from those pics.

I just bought a powder paint air brush, but have not used it yet. Should also be good for powder coating spoons and spinners.

Cadman was a big help to me from another forum I go to.

I just read on another forum a guy puts one of those plastic grocery bags in the box and has it clipped open. The overspray goes in and stays. Dump into a container and screen it to make sure nothing got into it to clog sprayer, re use it.

I have a feeling most of my spraying will be using powder clear coat.

Excellent looking jigs and very clean work! :jig:

The fluke ball is something i have never seen... very interesting. Could use something like that double duty as an attractor/downrigger to drag around some big flies or jerkbaits on the deeper reservoirs i fish - but it would have to be a bit lighter weight! At that size it looks like it would make my kayak tip to one side. haha!

Nice ties blt

Doc.,

I heat jigs with a 1200 degree air gun. If doing single colors, a torch works for the larger stuff. I use white as a base coat 90% of the time in a fluid bed. It makes 2nd color stand out better. After the white dip, I dip my paint brush into the second color and tap the paint on where I want it. Hold the jigs over the hot air gun again to smooth it over. Now substitute the tap tap tap of the paint brush with using the air gun.
I have done some jigs where I have had to put the jig over the hot air gun 5-6 times or more to get a special order just right.
The air gun was mainly bought for clear coat. I have tried several clear coats and all have made my white paint get green looking specs on them after baked. I have tried different temps of baking, and no help. Now, I bake, and then clear coat the white jigs, hold over the hot air to smooth out. No issue then.

I will use a hot air gun for the spoons and spinners also. TJ's site has a good video on doing spinners/spoons with the air brush.

Air brushing

Attica,

I have a mold that goes from 1 oz. to 2 oz. with sizes in between, but there would be no eye on it. That mold makes round ones, where this mold is made with a "flat" spot on each side for the tape eye. This mold for the eye goes from 2,3,4,6, and 8 oz.

Doc, when I get to the point of what I would consider being good with the brush, I will post more detail.
As of now, I have a regular air compressor, 5 gallon tank, double moisture trap on it. Years ago, I bought a cheap badger air brush to paint a model car body. We had the double moisture traps at work that were not going to be needed, Supervisor said I could have them, they were headed for the dumpster. This system worked for the airbrush then, should work well again. The air brush is really a Badger abrasive brush..like for sand blasting. You only need like 5 psi to use it.
If you are not going to use it a lot, those propellant cans for air brushing would work also.

I will post more when I get this all down. I am new with the brush. It's not meant for doing fine detail like a regular air brush with liquid paint.

These jigs in the pics were pulled out of the poly bags with my labels on them ready to sell. I make several thousand jigs a year, 3/4 of them are 2 color. I am hoping this gun will help with making things faster, but if I don't like the results, I will just consider it a $30 test, because that's all I have wrapped up in it for now. I'm not like Corp. America, I will not cut back on the current quality for more production, I'm searching for ways to increase both.

Which one of you guys has that ear ball mold in the small sizes .

Toad, I said I have the mold, but made a mistake, I have the 1.5 to 2 oz. That is the smallest I have.

Very nice.I'm very impressed.What size and brand of hook are you using in your 3 oz. Ultra Minnows?

Wow, how long have you been tying hair?

Toad

Don't you have enough molds already LOL

What does the other half of a "The bottom 1/2 of a 6 oz. fluke ball rig. " look like?
NightProwler

Salty....Mustad 91750st 7/0 for the 2 and 3 oz., 91715 duritan coated 8/0 for the 4 oz. Mold calls for 8/0 for all three though. For next summer, I am making all of them in 5/0 also to be more Flounder specific. A lot of people think the 8/0 is to big for Flounder. Need some hooks? The 8/0 box I just opened this summer, and have around 950 left. I have maybe 200 of the 7/0. I'm placing a big hook order next week. Most are from a wholesaler in Allentown.
I also have some that would like me to do these in the 5,6, and 8 oz. size also, but I'm not seeing that happening.

Hawnjigs...been doing it for 3 years now. A lot of them have some type of flash on them also, but these didn't. I also add hackle feathers I think they are called to some. Someone gave me a big box filled with yellow, and red/black stripped ones. I gave some to the De. Fly tying club to teach younger people, along with some tails, the rest are mine lol. Look at my "welcome" post, one of the striper teasers has 2 on it. Saddle or neck hackles maybe?
I ordered 150 tails last year, and am ordering 180 for next year. I get some really big tails from this guy, (a furrier) and dye them myself. Some of the white hair is up to like 6" long.

I will take a piece of 48" long, 30# Perlon stick leader material, and snell a hook/teaser on it with some beads. I tie the other end to the other eye of the ball jig. 8" above the ball, I will tie a swivel on. When you hold the rig by the swivel, the teaser hook will be about 20-24" below the ball. When the rig is drifted on the boat, the ball/hook leads the way, the teaser hook trails the ball. 20-24" behind. People say it is split pretty even which hook the Flounder go for.
The rig is really popular in the northeast, and is working it's way down the coast pretty fast.