Walleye Jig Pouring/Making

[Chirofish]

Where is the best place to purchase everything I'll need to start making my own jigs? How much do you think I'll need to spend to get the items I'll need?

[b1gf1sh1]

you can get almost everything you need ''to start'' at your local tackle supplier. fleet farm, gander, sportsmans warehouse, cabela's... etc.

lead from a recycleing yard. fluid bed (recommended) from cabela's (maybe have to order it). depending on how many colors and style jigs (different molds) you want you should get started pretty handily anywhere from 300-500 dollars. basic start maybe 200 bucks.

hope this helps.

[Wallyeyes]

My system is very basic....hot pot, mold, hooks, and 8 or so powder coat paints, some clear coat, and a couple of clamps. I think I'm into it for around $150.

Awesome to catch fish on your own stuff. Even if it is the simplest of lures/jigs.

[hydro]

Try Barlows or Netcraft for your supplies. Stick to one or two molds at first (they are pricy!) and choose molds with multiple cavity sizes to maximize your investment. Choose molds that use #570 aberdeen hooks for availability. Get a "Hot Pot" to melt and pour the lead. Get a gate cutting shear (craft stores have these cheap). For walleyes, start with hooks in the #1 to #2/0 range. Spend some money on the lead and get pure lead in ingots. A plumbing supply should have it. DO NOT use wheel weights or mystery lead because the alloying metals can cause it to quickly harden and not flow to fill the mold cavities.

For finish, use powder paint and get a heat gun to provide the heat. You can dot eyes with vinyl paint of Testors model enamel. For this setup I think you will be into it for less than $150.00. One word of caution, this is an addicting hobby. If you don't watch it you will have more jigs laying around than you will use in a lifetime

[jigginjim]

Ghirofish Welcome to the sites, I make 80-90% of my weights and jigs. Yes, it my cost you as much as $150.00 to start. I make them cause on a normal guide trip, we could lose up to 30 jigs in a days of fishing on the river. I also buy jigs of special types (Whisler jigs, plated heads and ice jigs). The amount of money to make them vs. buying them, is a cost factor. Hot Pot/$30-40. , Molds around $20-30ea, jig hooks $5/100 per size, molding sizes 4,2, 1/0 thats $15, How power paints another figure $5 minimum. per color. how add electric heat gun. and forseps for holding jigs. WARNING: keep water away from hot of lead. It causes the lead to pop. much like grease but a whole lot worse. you could need a doctor visit.

BEEN THERE good luck.

[mskyfshntchr]

Chirofish-

Where are you located? You might be close to a FM'er that pours their own and you could go look at their stuff.

If you are near Dodge Center (by Rochester), you can stop in sometime.

[river rat316]

It is well worth it, if you have the time. There are a few things to remember though, lead is very hazardous!

It takes less than an ounce injested by a little one to possibly kill them. O

Over time if not handled properly you can possibly get lead poisoning. Never ever let any kids around when you are pouring lead. A person should have a pair of "dirty" coveralls that they wear when they are pouring, something thats left in the pouring area.

Never eat or drink or smoke while you are pouring, it heightens the possibility for injestion.

Wear some sort of gloves (I wear tighter mechanic gloves), a thicker long sleeve shirt, eye and head protection. I learned all these (except for the eye protection the hard way)

As already stated water and lead do not mix. the water instantly boils and causes the lead to "pop" depending on how much water contacts the lead this can mean no big deal, or it could mean 10-20 lbs of hot lead flying out of the pot (there is lead on my ceiling in my garage to prove this can happen!!)

Never take wheel weights or any other form of raw lead you have just received and drop it directly into your pot, it could hold moisture, or becovered in enough grease that you are going to have problems. Instead take a propane heat source (I use a portable camp stove) place a cast iron pot on it, place your raw lead in this and start the melting process heating it up slowly (it takes me about 25 minutes to heat a 10lb brick up to fully melted) take a spoon or ladle and drag all the "slag" off the top, then I pour that in a small cupcake tin for small useable ingots that I know have no water in them!! Make sure that you are heating your raw lead in a well ventilated area! you will know if its not ventilated enough! I have my back service door open and my garage door open, if I am not doing it completely out side

People will tell you that these safety tips are not nescassry but believe me they are, I was melting a lead pipe one day, was in a hurry because I wanted to get an order done before I headed out to work, was running low on lead in the pot so I took some lead pipe I was supposed to melt down that morning , broke off a smaller chunk of it and was holding it with my hand as it was melting into the pot (with gloves on the hand I was holding it with) there was water somewhere in the pipe (even though I could see through to the other end) and it ended up exploding a half way filled 20lb lee pot. I had 10 pounds of lead flying everywhere in my garage, I had minor burns covering my forearms, forehead and scalp. I had glasses on that had a huge splotch covering the whole viewing area, without those my eyes would have been toast, and I probably would have had some type of lead poisoning! Now obviously this was extremely stupid and I knew better than to do this, but you know how it goes, I was in a hurry and thought ahhh it will be ok.

I am not trying to scare any one away from doing there own tackle, it is a great hobby and can be really fun and rewarding but if you can't take some precautionary steps its not worth doing!!

Ohh and btw, if your anything like 90% of people that do this, you end up not saving any money, next thing you know you have 20-35 molds, enough hooks to impale an army, and enough powder paint to paint a 747

[upnorth]

Very good safety points in your post river rat thanks for sharing the info. Too often folks bypass safety either thinking it won't/can't happen to me or just don't know what can happen.

[jigginjim]

Great job Riverrat, That is the honest true once you get into pouring you start buying more and more. Sounds like fishing tackle, "I need more baits".

[b1gf1sh1]

Quote:

Where is the best place to purchase everything I'll need to start making my own jigs?

i rarely if ever pour my own jigs or spinnerbaits anymore. i still pour slip jigs and ballast weights for my lures because of price but the rest i get at hagens. the time saved to me is worth a nickle or two. just something else to consider that's all. i color them still of course, not a lot of time involved really in that. plenty to do while they bake. a dedicated oven for powder paint curing is something i did'nt see mentioned yet. thats another expense. a good sized toaster oven has worked for me. i think i paid around 80 bucks for it at mills fleet farm. double stacker for spinnerbaits. if i was into it real heavy i'd maybe get a regular sized oven. or those trailer sized ones.

but as a hobby it can be pretty fun and rewarding at the same time. as stated theres really no feeling in fishing like catching a fish on something you made. i know my chest feels a little bigger every time me or someone else catches a fish on my handi-work. have fun!!

[river rat316]

If you wanna go that route there is a ton of choices out there for already poured bare lead heads, hagens, stamina, barlows, lurecraft, janns netcraft. Other smaller manufactorers. I have been thinkin about getting mine all done by cast, that way I don't have to mess with the lead part of things. But its just to handy to have everything there to put together stuff before a trip!

[b1gf1sh1]

Quote:

But its just to handy to have everything there to put together stuff before a trip!

heck yeah! theres always that emergency where you need your ''stuff'' . i'd never dream of getting rid of any of it. just too darn handy in a pinch. in the long run for me it's just time. i mean if i was a lead product guy only sure i'd do them myself, but i don't sell the heck out of lead products. i'm a wooden lures man. that's where i need my time spent. so i guess it just comes down to what individual needs are. when it was just a hobby only for me i made everything. well except hooks, lol. i was even working on doing my own powder paint. but i'd need to spend thousands for the supplies because it's all bulk only. plus the mixing stuff. so i'll just keep buying it for now lol. anyway, happy jiggin' all.

[RJT]

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[walleye4]

Another thing I didn't see mentioned was a respirator! I just started using one a few months ago when I decided to go into business for myself. Before, I only poured a 100 here & there and just had the garage doors open to ventilate the area. Since I pour 1000's at a time now, I figured I better get one.

Also, I started wearing a dust mask with a vent while powder coating. Probably not a big deal if your not painting with a fluid bed but when painting with one it sure helps to keep from inhaling all the paint dust!

[mrklean]

Check any store like gander, mills, scheels, i think the other spring i was in scheels and their molds were like $15 on sale, im kinda mad i dont make jigs like i use to no time but i still have all my stuff.