Panfish 'SLAB' Ice Spoons

[AtticaFish]

Have been asked about these in the past so thought i would show how they are made. Will post as i go through the process. Going to stock up on a few extras for on the ice. Labor of love for a simple little spoon.........

They are pretty much a 'slab spoon' style but downsized for panfish. The red fly added to the hook i believe really helps and have even had a few days on the ice where the fish were willing to bite on them without having to bait the hook. That doesn't happen often for me.

I use a metal hole punch from work made for putting .125" holes in metal sheetstock. The hole punch is not intended for such a small item so, just have to guess with the placement on the first couple. It is all just by 'eyeball' so end up with a few shorter than others in the end.

These are made from #1, #2, & #3 willow spinner blades. The #2's are my favorite size to use. They are 1" long blades to start, but once the end is rounded off, they are closer to .75".

 

[AtticaFish]

Once the extra holes are punched, i use a metal table shear to snip off some of the ends so there is not as much excess to grind off from the point.

Clipping them into a pair of vise grips makes it easier to hold them while you shape the end. I just use a simple hand rasp to round it off and try to make it even. Then go back over the edge with emry paper to make sure there are no sharp edges left.

 

[AtticaFish]

To help give some extra area for the solder to sit in and give a little more weight, you can bend the blades slightly. It is not necessary to bend the blades though. In theory, the bend should give them a little more action as they are falling in the water if you are jigging them.

I was out of solder so took a trip to ACE and found this 95/5 leadfree solder. It worked really well. Just clip the end of the willow blade in the in forceps and hold over a heat source (I use an oil lamp with a glass chimney) until the blade is hot enough to let the solder flow when you touch it to the back of the blade. If the solder is thick, you may need to heat the end of it to help get it to flow. Just keep the blade over the heat and continue to add as much solder as you want. The surface tension should hold it together and create a small bubble. Once you have as much as you want, pull it away from the flame and hold it as still as possible until it cools. Takes maybe 10-15 seconds.

That is as far as i am with these........ you can paint them and dress them any way you want. I will post back here with what other componets (paint, splitrings, hooks, etc.) i use to finish them off.

 

[Pup]

Very neat! Ever thought of casting a few of those with a fly rod?

 

[LedHed]

Outstanding!! Really enjoyed this tutorial - very informative. Thnx Russ.

 

[AtticaFish]

Pup - Never have thrown them on the buggy whip, but certainly could do it with the #1 & #2 size. My heavy weight fly rod casting skills would result in hooks in the back of my head with the bigger ones. They have a very erratic motion with a stop and go retrieve below a bobber so would be well suited for stripping on a fly rod.

LedHed - You should give some a shot out there. Nice small package that sinks down pretty quickly and gives of a nice flash. Got out last weekend for a short trip to my home town reservoir and brought back 10 bluegill in around an hour and a half. This time i culled at 8" instead of 7.5". They HAD to be tipped with bait last weekend. Waxies worked fine. Had them hanging about 6' below a float and slowly reeled in with the occasional jerk and bump on the rod.

 

[CrappieHappy]

Nice tutorial Russ....

 

[AtticaFish]

Got these painted up. ALL powder paint on them including any stripes and eyes. Lots of glitter and mica powder in the mixes.

Into the oven to cure. I have an odd bake schedule compared to some, but it seems to hold up very well. I bake them at a lower temp (250° or so) for 10-15 mins before cranking the heat up to just below 350° for another 10-15 minutes.

 

[AtticaFish]

Majority of my colors are pearled looking also....... do not show all that well in a photo under fluorescent lighting. Will try to get these outside later for better pics.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Those look wicked deadly! Have you looked into Hagen's Swing Spinner Blades with holes on both ends?

http://www.hagensfish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26&products=801

 

[StumpHunter]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. Very good work and something I have to try!!

 

[AtticaFish]

Thanks again!

Hawnjigs - Have never seen those before, but think those would work perfect! Too bad you have to order 500 of a size/style. I would need about 5 people to split them with.

 

[fishmilwaukee]

Thanks again!

Hawnjigs - Have never seen those before, but think those would work perfect! Too bad you have to order 500 of a size/style. I would need about 5 people to split them with.

You can break minimums at Hagens. There is a dollar per line-item surcharge for ordering less than a minimum. Orders without a federal excise exemption on file pay the 10% tax and there is a $5 fee for orders totaling less than 50 bucks, without shipping. So figure that you are paying the tax anyway when you buy blanks from anyplace else, order more than 50 dollars worth of stuff to avoid the 'small order' fee and you are really getting components for a very reasonable price.

 

[Hawnjigs]

You can request a free hard copy catalog from Hagens - much EZer to browse than the online. Not hard to rack up $50 on a first order.

 

[AtticaFish]

fishmilwaukee - Thanks for the clarification. Even with the extra $1 per line-item of their net pricing..... lots of those prices are looking good to me.

Hawwjigs - Usually have no problem working an order up over $50. Just requested a physical copy of the catalog. They also have an online copy of the paper version you can 'virtually' flip through here:

http://www.hagensfish.com/catalog/#/Hagens 2013-2014 Catalog/0

I also want the actual paper version so i can hang a few pages down in my dungeon and knock-off some of their color combos. They show a lot of ideas that i like.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Paper cat is way more time efficient when you want to jump multiple pages to reference points.

Don't hesitate to order big on particularly useful items. Altho I only have time to tie for my own use, I'm down to my last few out of 1,000 "lifetime supply" of #1 brass propeller blades. On the commercial casting end, manys the time I wished I had inventoried more hardware which got discontinued, quality compromised, or hugely increased in price.

The curious exception is while ultra premium jig hooks have more than doubled in price since I started using em, bottom line hooks like Mustad Classics, VMC Aberdeens, and Matzuo Sickles have actually gone down.

 

[AtticaFish]

Got some pics taken of my powder painting setup. Use an oil lamp with a glass globe as my heat source.

Also made a contraption for adding eyes & stripes with different sized stencils made out of alum. sheeting. Even have some stencils made up to create scale shapes. They snap on and off with magnets and steel strips.

To put the eyes on spoons, or jigs, just paint as i always do. Then i make a dent in the paint while it is still hot with a nail.

Line it up under my stencil. Helps if the spoon is still hot when you go to tap on the paint.... it sticks better to the metal.

I load a paint brush up with the powder and tap it on. Eyes don't come out as perfectly round as some do with liquid paint..... but they do not come off.

Make another dent with the nail to line up and tap the second color of the eye.

 

[AtticaFish]

Most of my painting is done by tapping powder off of a paint brush, but do dip into my paint jars to get solid base coats also. DO NOT heat things to hot if you are gong to dip them in a jar of powder or in a fluid bed. If it is too hot, it will allow way too much powder to stick. Just get it hot enough that the paint will stick but not gloss over right away. This was dipped in a custom mixed pearl with added mica and blue hi-lite.

Then tapped on the second color, only on one half of the spoon. This is a mix of candy chartruese and mica powder.

Just put it back over the heat for a second to get the tapped on paint to stick.

Added a slightly darker mix of candy chartruese just to the edge of one side.

Then put my candy red & glitter mix on the bottom corner.

Dented the paint with my nail to line up an eye stencil.

Finished product.......

 

[AtticaFish]

Last couple pics here are just the pile of spoons i got cured last time i was in the basement. I keep the heat a little lower (250°-275°) for the first 15 minutes then crank up the heat to just under 350° to finish the cure for the last 15 minutes.

Couple of close up pics. I own more glitter than my 12 year old daughter.

Last one shown some of the stripes for a perchlooking pattern.

 

[Pup]

I have some Northland Spoons that have 'natural' paint patterns on them. These look as good, if not better than those.

Really nice work AF.