I'm like Laner,i'm liking that second jig,pm sent.best of luck to you.

I would because I dont know when that fish of a lifetime is going to jump on my line and I want to make sure I have the sharpest hook in the water at all times to increase my chances of landing it.

I make these up with a zip tye, fast and easy.

A Zip Tie, a Swivel, and a clam weight...how cool is that? Wow! Very nice.

I would use some of both..... the gamu for experienced angler and would use the old standard for the rest.

BTW, I usually use 1/32, or 1/16th oz jig and I rig a little different to get most of my jigs loose with out break off. I would say I get back about 70 percent of hung up jigs.

I use a method of a 1/4 oz. egg sinker put on my line first, then I tie on my jig. Then I take a small split shot and pinch it to the line about 6-8 inches above jig, pegging the egg sinker.

This method keeps the egg sinker 6-8 inches above jig at all times except when you get hung up.
When hung, you can bounce your jig until the egg sinker slides down to jig and dislodges the jig..... most of the time! After you get loose, re peg split shot and continue fishing!

Not my idea, Tommy Tidwell taught me this years ago and that is how he fishes a jig setup also.
Not sure who showed idea to Tommy, or if he came up with himself, but it sure works good for me and my clients!

If you have never tried this method, you should try it.
It gets your 1/32 oz. jig down fast and also gives you a much better feel when you do get a bite.
I can feel a fish fart on my line.

It's funny that you mention that rig Kevin. I was talking with Terry (my brother) recently about where we came up with it. He has a very good memory and this makes sense. In the late 1960's there was an outdoors show on Channel 6 in Temple called the Harley Berg Show. Harley was a retired game warden and it was a good show even compared to those today. On one of the episodes, he was showing this rig to use for catfishing. I just took it and adapted it to crappie fishing. Up until about 15 years ago, I used a 1/2 oz. egg weight and 14 pound test line. It is even easier to get loose with the 1/2 oz. weight compared to the 1/4 oz. Then one year when we had lots of smaller crappie, I dropped down to a 1/32 oz. jig and 1/4 oz. weight with 10 pound line. I found that this set up would out catch the other lots of the time and totally switched over. Now I use this rig with 1/16 oz. jigs, 1/32 oz. jigs, and hooks. I think lots of fishermen would use a 1/32 oz. jig a lot more if they used this rig. There is no telling how much money it has saved me on jigs, hooks, and time over the years. With my job, the time to retie can be more important than the cost of a jig.

I recall when Laner first got into pouring plastics and I was living on CCL. I stopped by one day to visit and he gave me a bunch of his new pours. I tried them out and loved them but, next time I saw him I told him he was making a mistake. His dang plastics last forever! Now, that's not a good thing when you want to make something to sell! If your product lasts as long as his jig bodies, you don't need to buy nearly as many! BTW, they still last longer than anything on the market and definately catch crappie!

Jerry, I hope you will also offer the 'keeper' that Matt used on special orders of plain jig heads but, never sold to the public, that I'm aware of. He couldn't find a mold that would hold multiple jig heads with the keeper, only the multiple size jig heads, one per mold.
They don't look like they would hold a jig body but, I guarantee you they are the best on the market. I don't even carry super glue anymore on my boat.
I'd definately pay a little more for them, if you want to sell painted jig heads with with the keepers.

And, if you use Laners jig bodies on the jig heads with keepers, you have the perfect combo for catching lots of crappie with very little effort.

Sorry for the delayed reply - been working 14-18 hrs a day for too many in a row and just saw your picture this morning.

NICE idea on the zip! I didn't think about something like this for people who couldn't or didn't want to crimp their weights. This is pretty simple and clean and doesn't add much to the price.




Excellent idea with your rig. In the right kind of brush, you'd save a LOT of time (which we all know = more fish). Also, nice job describing that without pictures... hah!




Hey bud - I grew up around head pouring but haven't gotten into my own just yet. By spawn time, I hope to have my own molds and lead. There's sooooo much inventory involved with this, hard to get everything at once. To directly answer your questions, I plan on offering the WIRE keepers, not any other kind. I'm hoping this will be ready by April. As for anything Jigum helped you with, I'll do my best to offer the same product he did regardless of whether it's listed on my website.



Thanks to everyone for the input on this topic. I've had enough feedback to make a MUCH WISER decision than before. I sure appreciate the insight and whether or not I agree with everyone isn't the point - it's more about what customers want. This type of constructive criticism is invaluable for me and I truly appreciate the savings on my end.

I would.