Attachment 406181
Attachment 406182
!/16th oz FreeStyle jig with the wire extension. Later I will bend the wire down and away and make a loop in the end. I plan to figure my best wire length at that time. The 2” curly tail grub will not be much of an issue, but the blade size will. Shouldn’t be too difficult to get the proper distance for blade spin, where it is as close in tight as possible. Two adjustments, overall length and angle of wire.
My biggest concern was getting the wire set solid and it certainly is that. These can be rigged drop shot fashion with second jig hanging off this one.
Stopped shielding my hook eyes, too. Instead I make sure the eye is up top during the heating process, then dip. Then I use my flush cutters to nip the scrap lead around the shank of the hook where the eye comes out, and twist and then scrape coming away and any excess paint sluffs right off. Quick and painless.
White heads go with any color plastic. In my opinion that is. It also allows the eye to be easily seen and recognized as such. I dab on fingernail polish between the eyes for a dash of enhancement.
I glued the eyes on of course. I use Gorilla glue and squirt it on a piece of plastic, then use a tooth pick to dob a dab on the jig, then slide on the eye. If the eyes are solid I will forgo the UV resin overlay as it tends to steal the luster from the eye. Makes them cloudy. Guess it wouldn’t be the end of the world if a few eyes fell off during battlefield operations.
I am very happy that the wire comes out in perfect alignment with the hook shank. Again I am much happier with the way these cobbled together jigs swim vs the Herring Head. That wire allows the jig to achieve the horizontal attitude, vs. the angled up look. Moving the blade backwards affords this alignment. Also there were no spinning around tricks or such. The blades whirred beautifully and the swim tail tickled along wonderfully. Quite an attractive lure actually.
So the FreeStyle mold had fallen from my favor, only to return to the top of the heap. The Herring Head mold will go into the storage box as I see no use for it now. The mod on the FreeStyle mold was super easy and once done very difficult to notice.
Attachment 406183
1/16th oz
Size #1 EC hook
2” curly tail grub
Who could resist those beedy little eyes ?
I adjusted the blade in closer by shortening wire then bending it to fine adjust it. Wire bends by hand so future adjustments will be easy enough.
I was also making something very similar using drop shot swivels, but they offer almost no adjustability. Not a big issue, but these wire inserts are easier to form up and don’t require anything being wrapped with thread.
So another arrow in my quiver.
