Jigs

Posting a few jigs I made. I'm NOT a pro. Had to hand paint the weed guards because I bought them in clear. "clear" is more like white, which I don't want on these jigs. When powder coating the heads the weed guards spread out a little, even using the heat tube to protect them, so I tied a little fishing line around them to firm them up. Wire tied the skirts and have collars for rattles. I tried the living rubber thicker skirt material, but not sure if I will like it. Do I need to do anything different when storing these versus silicone skirts? Thoughts on making these better?

Looks good man, I have found that powder painting with the weed guard in place is a pain. I always powder coat mine without the weed guards. They make a 1/8" Teflon pins that stick in the hole while powder painting. and remove the pin while paint is still hot.

Thank you for the tip.

I am curious on how you are hand painting your weed guards if you dont mind sharing..

Sweet, yeah the guards can be a pain. Another note to what @kens3313 mentioned. Lurepartsonline sells Guard covers (basically plastic heat resistant tubing) that go over the guard when you paint and heat, this is if you have already secured your guard in place. Just a thought. I'm more into spinnerbaits right now.

Your mixing living rubber and silicone. Sometimes this goes well and sometimes it doesn't. Living Rubbers is a little more trouble to take care of. It does not like rubber trailers, the rubber banding material, contact with silicone and being out in the open air in a jig box. The skirts will become gummy if not taken care of properly. The rattle bands are bad about doing this. That is why I designed my Baby Doll jig with rattling eyes.
- Remove trailers when finished fishing.
- Rubber holds scent excellent; so keep them dosed while fishing.
- Place jig in Dawn Dish soap solution after fishing to remove the oils before storing them away.
- Let the jig dry completely before storing.
- Sprinkle lightly with Baby Powder before storage.
- Use some type of air tight zip binder and I even put each jig in it's individual 4m 3/3 sealable bag then store in zip binder.

The PLUS of Living Rubber:
- Different strand weight and width give different action for presentations.
- Rubber holds Scent.
- Rubber floats; so you can bulk up a heaver jig with a big hood and fish shallower with it; as you can control the fall of the jig.
- The floating Rubber continues to move when the jig is at rest.