Hawnjigs
KISS
First, let me apologize for not being able to take and post pics.
Since Jungle Jim posted pics of this jig, thought it would be useful for occasional forays to a weed choked lake with decent #s of largies & bluegills impossible to fish with standard open hook jigs. So, bought the mold & hooks from Barlows. First impression setting the Victory hooks into the mold was that the point angle upwards from the short shank portion in front of the L-bend was unlike my Gamakatsu worm and jig hooks with parallel point & shank enabling a pinned plastic to have point leg sitting straight inline flush against the body of a bait. So, bent the hooks a wee bit to enable the above described fit but the point legs still had a space above the body which could be adjusted by curving the bait a bit to close the gap tho not IMO ideal. Field tested OK on about a dozen smaller largies staying stuck with very few missed hooksets or dropoffs. The straight senko style stick baits tended to straighten and re-open the gap with continued use. No problem sticking fish but the gap tended to snag weeds.
The hooks seemed a bit soft with the bend adjustment able to be undone with minimal pressure.
I've already posted that initial stress testing #6 & #4 Victory sickles without actually bending them out seemed excellent so now I'm wondering if bent out hooks can't be rebent and re-used having been drastically weakened ? Slightly bent out Gamakatsu hooks can be rebent without significant loss of hook strength once or twice and re-used with confidence.
Since Jungle Jim posted pics of this jig, thought it would be useful for occasional forays to a weed choked lake with decent #s of largies & bluegills impossible to fish with standard open hook jigs. So, bought the mold & hooks from Barlows. First impression setting the Victory hooks into the mold was that the point angle upwards from the short shank portion in front of the L-bend was unlike my Gamakatsu worm and jig hooks with parallel point & shank enabling a pinned plastic to have point leg sitting straight inline flush against the body of a bait. So, bent the hooks a wee bit to enable the above described fit but the point legs still had a space above the body which could be adjusted by curving the bait a bit to close the gap tho not IMO ideal. Field tested OK on about a dozen smaller largies staying stuck with very few missed hooksets or dropoffs. The straight senko style stick baits tended to straighten and re-open the gap with continued use. No problem sticking fish but the gap tended to snag weeds.
The hooks seemed a bit soft with the bend adjustment able to be undone with minimal pressure.
I've already posted that initial stress testing #6 & #4 Victory sickles without actually bending them out seemed excellent so now I'm wondering if bent out hooks can't be rebent and re-used having been drastically weakened ? Slightly bent out Gamakatsu hooks can be rebent without significant loss of hook strength once or twice and re-used with confidence.