Thread: Revisiting The Whirling Dervish

I like your work, the fish should too.

They look great. Looking forward to hearing how the fish react to them.

Love those Dakota blades. Just never fished them for crappie, let us know how they work.

Very interesting work. Never ceases to amaze

Great looking jigs. Ok I gotta know how you’re attaching the ball swivels and blade with out split rings.

Looking great! Do you foresee issues with blades trailing that far behind hook?

RJR- Cut as close as possible to where the straight portion starts to curve.



Insert blade and use pliers to very very gently close loop. You want to just lightly squeeze enough to get the loop to close. Done correctly it will look as if nothing has occurred. The loop still twirls, as does the other end. There is very little pull on this connection so it lasts just fine. You would never do this if it was going to take a strain of some kind, like casting or landing a fish. Blades though are no issue.

I feel that the spin I get is equal to a ball bearing swivel. Some swivels are very well made. Lay one on hood of car, if it rolls right off it is going to spin just fine with a blade. Minus the split ring makes everything cleaner. Very easy to do.

Originally Posted by DrNip

Looking great! Do you foresee issues with blades trailing that far behind hook?

The picture tricks your eye because they are short shank hooks.



Here you can see them with baits attached and the blades are back there where tail action would be expected. Very easy to shorten the length of wire and move blades closer to the front. Can simply bend the wire to move blade closer to bait or further away if clearance was needed.


The size #1 Colorado blade is too big for my liking, and the Dakota blades also seem large. The Indiana in size #1 seems a good fit, as does the Willow Leaf. I was using large blades in Summer and there were days they were tagging them, but it is Winter now and I didn’t want to be as bold.

The baits are close matches to or the same as what I am using in my non bladed lures. I have this many more poured and painted and waiting for blades to be added. I wanted to make these up and examine them before finishing those up.

I am liking the pink head with the white body and chartreuse tail and shiny Willow Leaf blade. ( left side second one down ) That is a Slabanator Hot Rod plastic. The Hot Rods have far less tail action as they just kind of trail behind. I have issues seeing them wiggling but certain that they do. I am able to move the blade in closer to the bait making everything more compact.

These are giving me the ideas I need to go forward. Bear in mind I am trying to limit the number of jigs I carry aboard. I got out my luggage the other day and looked through that and there were some beautiful jigs in there, but too many jigs is bad Ju-Ju for me. I only want to add just a few jigs with spinning blades to my lineup. I plan to test swim the Dakota blades to see what happens, but predict that the small chartreuse yellow Willow Leaf blades will rule the day in the end. My lakes are stained so flash is not really an advantage. They see whites and yellows pretty well.

I added some glue to the shank this time. Again I trim the tips off the plastics to get fresh material that has not been oiled up. This yields a pretty solid stick to the jig. Last trip out one of my plastics pulled away from the jig head. It was sliding back constantly. Upon examination there was glue still attached to the jig head, so the plastic was what pulled away. Sure enough forgot to trim that one to get clean material. The plastics really don’t stay stuck to the glue but trimming away the tips is a big help in this regard.

I haven’t been fishing much lately. Been helping a caterer cook meals for folks. Busy time of year for them. We set up on site and cook BBQ stuff. Mashed potatoes are probably our most popular item as far as feedback goes. Green beans, mac & cheese, stuff like that. If you ever want to feed people, mac & cheese gets eaten pretty well. We have large rotisserie type cookers that are propane fired and we add a few logs if we want smoke. Huge slabs of prime rib, turkey, chicken, ribs, pork butts, etc all come out beautifully cooked. Racks inside rotate in a circular fashion from the top to bottom and back again.

I thought the job was sit around and drink beer until the meat was done, but oh no. This is hard work. Controlled chaos mostly it seems. I am nervous the entire time until the meal has been served. The other day I had a few thousand dollars worth of meat going round and round. Big company Christmas party. Talk about pressure. I was doing prime rib and if you are not familiar, the temperature inside rises very slowly. Then as it starts to get close it suddenly shoots up. Overcook that stuff and disaster. Very easy to screw it all up.

Then there is the humping. Man we drag out pots and pans and chafers and tubs and spoons and all manner of stuff. All of which has to be washed when the people have finished eating. Of course they want dinner served around 800pm, so you can imagine what a long day this has no become. In fact I am going to stop to get dressed for today’s meals. Yesterday I had a small disaster with the turkey gravy. Had a tray slide and spew gravy all over me and some stuff. Can’t just grab a towel and clean that stuff up. It smears about is all it does. Burnt my forearm reaching into the rotating cooker. I tell you this business is hard and I have developed blisters on my left foot’s big toe and my right foot’s heel. My back is sore, but I am learning a ton of stuff.

Need some money as I lost my job last month. 24 years worth of faithful service, and the daughter has taken over the company and wants it to be hers and I was the only one left that her daddy had hired. He and I were great friends and that also kind of erked her. Mean woman, no severance, held my back wages for over three weeks to make sure I knew who was master. Laughed at me and said she was hiring some young people to replace me. Folks that know a few things all agree that she cut her nose of in spite of her face as I had my fingers in all the pies. Was manager for 23 years and kept things running smoothly. A manager has to be able to take a butt chewing. Has to be good at that too, as the boss wants some, the clients wants some and the staff all want some. Her business is going to suffer because she only thinks she was running it. Serving family run businesses can be like that when they transition over to the children. Sucks but then what in life isn’t a challenge ?

Had a few interviews with other companies but while I am waiting to hear back, picked up this catering gig for a chance to make some bills. Christmas is gonna be lean this year and everyone has told me that will be just fine by them. I love people that think about you and want what is best for you. That is a wonderful Christmas present if you ask me.