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Tried to give the rubber legs a grizzled look. Monkey with a marker.
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I am assembling jig boxes and need some blues and some pinks. Long ways to go to get them filled.
Printable View
Attachment 466442
Tried to give the rubber legs a grizzled look. Monkey with a marker.
Attachment 466443
I am assembling jig boxes and need some blues and some pinks. Long ways to go to get them filled.
Here's some with the cup turned in and coated with UV resin. Your mileage may vary.
Thanks to you, I have about 17,000 of these little shiney guys. May last me for a while.Attachment 466500
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Jungle Jim’s latest idea is to strip chenille fibers to create a flopping tail. I like this idea.
Attachment 466554
The end gets burnt to prevent further unraveling. I decided a daub of UV resin at the other end might help keep everything together. I used too much resin on the top one, but the others I used my bodkin to smear it about.
you can use a mini Zonker strip the same way.
Nice work. Those look very natural
Great work as always.
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I think that for plastic baits, a large eyeball will be best. That is a 6mm ( 1/4” ) Super Pearl eyeball. I used epoxy to secure them. Beautiful colors as they are turned about.
Visited one of the nicer springs in the region. Juniper Springs. Located within the Ocala National Forest, and owned by the National Park system. This is an old Civilian Conservation Corps project from 1935-1936. The pool itself has two, maybe three boils. The depth is about four to ten feet, with an average temperature of 72 degrees. There is a water wheel that is very old and still works. The water flows from the pool into a creek that runs a long ways Eastward and dumps into Lake George. As do so many other springs in the area.
The walking trails are all closed due to the dilapidated elevated boardwalks. They are rotten now and you can see where folks have plunged through. I imagine budgetary demands mean that money goes somewhere else. Any old who, we like this spring because it is not crowded like so many others are. We were there 10:00-12:00 and there were scatterings of people, but no where near a crowd.
We would have stayed longer had I done what I should have done. Her words. Bring food. She wanted to lay out and read her book by the water wheel. I wanted a cheeseburger. She floated around in her tube. I snorkled. We walked to the campground area and that is very nice. They have a container to place food inside so the bears don’t bust open the car windows, or god forbid enter the tents. LOL. They had a pole with a hook at each site, but I am not sure what they were for. The place was clean and they looked like they were designed to accommodate RVs and campers and such, not tents. There is another section of sites that might be for tents, but we didn’t go lookie see there.
Juniper Creek is gorgeous but no swimming allowed. People rent kayaks and float down stream. Canoes and such, too. It is absolutely the most beautiful part of Florida I have seen yet. Simply gorgeous. They claim it is chock full of gators and snakes, but I have seen none. There are mosquito fish, small slender minnows, but no fish are around. So I doubt there are gators. The water in the creek is a foot or so with small pockets to three feet deep. Crystal clear and slightly warmer than the pool above.
$12 or so each to enter, with a laid back family feel to it. I asked if anyone steals stuff while we swim, and the staff said no way. They had three or four staffers roaming about watching everything. I liked that. No alcohol, coolers subject to search. Boo Hiss.
If you live anywhere near the Ocala National Forest, you should go and visit. Best way to get cool in these the Dog Days of Summer.
Poles to elevate food containers to keep out of reach of the bears and other critters?
No Sir
Five feet at best.
BooBoo likes picnic baskets, too.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by slowhand
So I tried attaching the sequin the way you did, convex side outwards. It produced a more brilliant flash. My way, concave outwards, produced more of a glow. Fiddling about last night I think I prefer the glow over the flash.
Thank you again for the comments. Sorry if I lead you down a rabbit hole as I awkwardly traipse about. Eyes are great, but this is a neat way to add some interest to the jig head. A “Hot Spot” of color. I am going to make some more heads with sequins and will share photos.
A bear could easily reach a bag hanging from those hooks. Each site has a bear proof box right there, so I know it isn’t to prevent marauding. The pole rises about five feet, then there is an arm that extends away about a foot with the hook underneath. Like I said I couldn’t figure it out.
DUH…… the pole with hook is to hang a lantern.
DUH
Nice work as usual.
Purty cool heads fellas…
Attachment 467029
I like these sequin eyes. They really do give a nice glow. The colors are bright and vibrant.
After curing the UV resin, I used a paper towel with some rubbing alcohol and wiped the resin down. To my bare eye it seems to maybe make a difference. To magnified eyes, I would say a definite improvement in the shine. It is a have to try it yourself kind of thing I suppose.
My jig boxes are getting fuller every day.
Sometimes I wonder if I had wasted money on this material or that, but then I find myself reaching for a material I no longer like. Repurpose. I still like craft fur, ostrich, peacock, mareaboo, deer tail, rubber legs, etc. They all have a purpose and can be just the ticket for specialty ties.
Everyone seems to think making six jigs all the same is the way forward. Maybe it is, but I get completely lost, and end up on fashion misadventures. I haven’t made two the same way yet. LOL
One of the club members told another that I was dumb for gifting away my lures. That I should be selling them instead. What he doesn’t realize is that if I sold my jigs, they wouldn’t really sell and would stack up and I would have another five pound mess. The only real advantage for me is the entertainment of fiddling and having jig boxes that are out of this world crazy.
I picked up some chiggers again. Man I love chiggers. Australian Tea Oil provides relief from the constant itch. Slab sells the stuff in the Store above. It is not instantaneous relief, but after a few minutes the itch goes away. Much better than digging at it for relief and creating oozing open festering sores. Which had been my standard practice. Scratch it till it bleeds. Even then the itch remains you know. Love me some chiggers. Locals round here call them redbugs. I would call them that too, in a completely false way of appearing to fit in, or at least wanting to appear to want to fit in. I just can’t see the little devils, so I stick to chiggers unless I think I need to fit in for some reason. They bore a hole through the skin and inject a secretion of saliva with chemicals. This dissolves the skin cells and creates a hollow tube of sorts. Then he sucks up the soup of dissolved skin cells and once he has his fill, falls away. Takes a day or so. Many locals daub nail polish over the sore thinking falsly that they will encase the critter in a membrane and suffocate the devil. Doesn’t work. I mean they will appear to fit in with all the locals that have pink and purple spots on their body, but it is pretty much useless.
I have always said a dip in a hot tub loaded up with chlorine bleach is the best defense. As soon as you finish walking amongst the red devils, dip and that kills the creatures part way into the excavation. Pouring gasoline on the sores and lighting it also works. Well kind of works. I mean you wouldn’t notice the itch for the pain of the treatment. This morning the itch was driving me crazy. Tea Tree Oil and now the itch is bearable if only slightly noticeable. Get you some of Slab’s oil and give it a try. I think you might be surprised.
Been super hot lately. Central Florida in August, who would have thought. Soon the Fightin Gators take to the field. The doves start gliding into the killing fields. Deer get poked and proded. We have a Mama deer in the back yard and she has kept her baby hidden away. She stands out in the open like a bird pretending to have a broken wing when you get too close to the nest. Look at me, look at me, don’t look over in the bushes. The baby is just now making appearances and is growing up so fast. I wanted to hunt with my crossbow, but my wife will accuse me of ambushing the BABY. It could be a huge deer with horns, but it will still be the baby.
I still haven’t shot my new rifle. I need to get that done. I used a laser to bore sight align the scope’s cross hairs. That will have it close, but I want laser precision so that when the bullet hits, it hits exactly where it needs to hit. I like to see them react by doing anything other than running away. The gambrel awaits.
Attachment 467123
The flash is added in the part that looks like a suit tie sticking out of the neck. Water will draw the material in tight to the belly and provide action and flash. Just an idea I had but I like it.
As per your protocol...individually concocted 'one-of-a-kinds"! Nice. Do all of the 2nd photo(6-pack) have the sequin eyes? I would enjoy seeing them from the side from a fish's perspective.:HandsClapping
Micanopy, I really like the looks you have going here;
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My question is are you bending the eyes open on the secondary swivel to attach it to your jig and the blade? If yes, How please. I really like the setback of the blades but the closeness to the bodies. These will smoke the Crappie here where I live and fish.
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I like peacock feathers. They are brittle and easily snapped, but I was told that fish really don’t ruin them and more than other feathers. The insect metallic green shimmer is awesome in most any sort of light.
I attached the feathers where it looked like the tail length should be, then allowed the ends to jut out without trimming. This provides some movement in the belly without having to fashion in something else in addition. This works even better with the ostrich feathers.
The fish should like all of these, it is just that right now most jigs simply will not work due to environmental concerns. HOT OUT THERE.
I have to run Momma around Saturday morning, so no boat riding. Sunday the wife and I plan to go for a scream around the lake. When it is HOT HOT, a boat ride beats just about most any other outdoor activity. Stiff breeze through your hair. We have been working on her boat steering skill set. She goes way too slow but has a huge smile on her face as she does it.
I left two auto inflate preservers in the bow of the boat and both popped off. UGH. I have to order some cartridges and refold, tuck, and fight the material back in place and rearm.
The insects found my engines pee hole thingie again. I usually insert a piece of a pipe cleaner and when I start the engine it pops out if I forget to pull it out. Blocks the entrance. These insects just love a hole that can eased up into for laying eggs. Ants climb in there too but I think they get stuck or something.
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Fiddling before I get started with my chores. Cool in the garage.
:ThumbsUp
Took wife out on the boat yesterday. It was destined to be a boat ride kind of day. So we got her in some practice driving the boat. She wants to maintain a speed less than 20 mph, but the boat is not on plane. I keep explaining and explaining and explaining. The boat does not want to go 15mph no matter how many times she adjusts the throttle. It wants to cruise at 21 mph, on plane and gliding along at 3,000 rpms. Sipping gas.
She really does not like the fact that there are no brakes.:yikes
Anyways the rods never left their secure spots, and no fish were even attempted to be caught. HOT BABY. So we just rode around the lake for a while and came back home. At the ramp I saw a man that had his son with him. They were getting ready to launch. Said they was gonna catch some bass. Hmmmmm……. Anyways I gifted him a handful of my hand ties jigs. He liked the underspins best.
Here are some I recently tied.
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I was tying away and noticed that I was getting low on jig heads again. So…. I made up some more.
Attachment 467670
These are simple affairs. 1/16th ounce Big Eye Minnow Heads with Eagle Claw 571 size 1/0, painted Glacier White. Then a thin coat of BSI epoxy and I eased the 4mm sequins in place. Pretty easy to manage. I might add a drop of UV resin later, not sure I want to. It will depend on how much the sequin catches as I run a finger across.
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We are half done with the Dog Days of August. Yup, August in the Heart of Florida is as bad as it gets round here. Soon it will be September and we will start to see some relief. Oh it will still be hot, but the tide is going out on Summer. Old Man Winter will be along soon enough and all our Yankee friends will be so happy. We will be suffering something terrible down here then. LOL
I left my auto inflatable life preservers in the boat and they went BOOM.
Bought some beer on sale and wife doesn’t understand why it can’t just be kept out in the garage. I used to like Coors but something changed and it just didn’t taste the same. It might have been a bunch that had gotten old or something. Anyways I had enjoyed some beer while in the mountainous jungles of the Mexican beaches along the Pacific ocean. El Presidente, Modelo, and Pacifico. All three are available to me here and of these three I far away prefer Pacifico. Cheap, too at $12 a twelve pack. Normally $20. So I got some extra figuring it I would drink it eventually.
On a blistering hot afternoon…….beer on ice is hard to beat.
Attachment 467735
Now I have some jig heads to work with. :)
I decided to try powder painting without the shielding of shrink wrap on the hook eye. One quick dip in white is all they get anyway. The eye is large enough to leave a plunge bob hole for the fishing line, and the surface is smooth and slippery.
Attachment 467736
Looks like a lot of feathering but once it gets wet they will draw up tight and leave a remarkably skinny appearance.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/atta...e-img_1950-jpg
I love these. Not sure if fish would though. Sometimes I think patterns like this maybe look like something poisonous so fish stay clear. Dono, just thinking out loud.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slab
Well Damn.
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I’m liking the last one. Mixture of ostrich and mare-a-boo. Been watching videos on Steelhead Fly tying Intruder patterns. Steelhead like brightly colored lures, and crappie are similar in preferences. I think their eyesight must be similar, so what works for one……will work for the other.
Well having had some time to consider the fear of poisoning, and how that might correlate with a fish’s hunger, I have concluded that a scary creature might elicit a defensive bite.
Attachment 467949
Grizzly hacklings are extremely popular with fly tiers, and with chicken farmers. I don’t think they would be so if fish avoided them. I shall continue to persevere with the weirdo look.
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I like the idea of dark on top, light on bottom. Minnows are that way. I have also been trying to stick with my 1:6 ratios. While these appear to be too fat, once swimming they will skinny right up.
My fly boxes are getting plumped right up, too. :)
Those look nice! They’ll skinny up in SlabSauce too!
I tried the shrink tubing thing too, and hated it. I use mosquito hemostats now, and grab the eye of the jig before heating and dipping. They protect the eye from buildup and are easily cleaned during the process.
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I use hemostats as well.
Thank all three of you for visiting.
Now I remember what it reminds me of, a Lion Fish!Quote:
Originally Posted by Slab
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slab
We will be off of an adventure today. Oh Boy. We will be tubing down the Ichetuknee River. Crystal clear cold water flowing from multiple spring heads. We will be lazily floating down river on our tubes. Past the massive cypress trees that have been hanging out along the banks of the river for hundreds and hundreds of years. Alligators swimming by. Water Moccasins curled up on over hanging branches. Fish and craw fish and snails and river otters and all manner of other creatures that come to these waters.
The heat indices are predicted to be 111 degrees today. Great day to go for a jog, or do some heavy yard work. Me……I will be floating down river with a chilled butt. You should take a break from your Jeep’s issues and take a ride down this fabulous river. A must see for any Floridian. I mean if you enjoy the water, this river has some of the best water there is. They require you to use a tube and stay in it the whole time. In Winter they allow kayaks and canoes and such. Seriously, you have to visit this State Park at some point.
I have been filling up my jig boxes. Here is my rubber legs collection.
Attachment 468045
My Under Spins
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Then just regular old hand ties.
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I also have a fine collection of plastic bait jigs. Everything is 1/16th ounce. I figure I need a couple more of these Gamakatzu jig boxes. I will need more room as I continue to explore possibilities with feathers and fur.
I saw where the FWC does fishing camps with kids and so I will look into donating some of my lures to them. A kid could play with some of my stuff if he doesn’t want to fish. LOL
Once I get my mind set on a few good designs, I might focus on just making up those, and forget about taking six boxes of lures out for a days fishing. I mean I get confused and then I have to pee. I still haven’t dived into my crank bait collection, and probably should be trolling those around a lot more often than I do. Too many options.
Might go fishing at O’Dark Hundred tomorrow. Hmmmmmmm…….
Have fun today! Awesome gesture to donate some of your work.
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Made up some more under spin heads.
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I think they look pretty good.
The trip down river went well. The place was a zoo. I mean it was packed end to end with screaming children. We managed to find soft spots in the stream of people so we could focus on. nature a little bit. Seems the kids think they are at Disney.
We saw lots of turtles. They climb up on dead trees lying in the water to sun themselves and worm up after swimming in that cold water. They seem horrified that all these people are swimming past, bothering them. Some have algae growing on their shell, some ar smooth and shiny. There are also these very small snails that they are trying to protect.
I saw people exit their tubes and climb on the rocks. Signs everywhere telling them not to. Yet, there they were tromping about as if the rules have never been designed to guide them.
As with any crowd you get a handful of jerks. Here they came on their paddle boards and their yaks busting through the tubers as if we were in their way. Rude people. We are drifting downstream and they just have to go the other way, or faster than everyone else. The place was packed, too. After having a few of these fine people ram us, I decided that fair was fair. Here came one fast, headed right for us. Couldn’t go around us mind you. Paddling away straight at my wife. WHOOPS……… sorry about that. Them paddle boards are hard to stay upright on when they come out of the water like that.
The pointy ends of their boats and their boards actually hurt when they strike you in the head. Ask me how I know. I decided I needed to be a defensive tuber, and my wife didn’t care for my approach. She thought it fine if they collide with our faces. It would be different if they weren’t being jerks. Isn’t as funny ramming into people’s heads when one of them suddenly defends themself. I wasn’t opening up a can of whoop butt, but don’t like being a chump neither. They shouldn’t allow those idiots on the river when the place is packed with tubers.
I considered taking the boat out today.
Nope I have to clean and organize garage.
You certainly have been busy, just read this thread. I noticed you use reptile rubber on a lot of your jigs but didn't see one particular color that's my favorite. Camo(Green pumpkin/Lime & Orange Print). Just a suggestion for you to check it out. Couple of questions #1 With all those single lure color combinations in your boxes how do you decide which one to tie on? When I first started tying I did the same thing but when I found the right one that they liked I would lose it and didn't have another and would have to choose something close and it wouldn't work as well. Three became my favorite number then. Could lose two and third was used to copy and make more. #2 Where are you getting those roller swivels with the open end or are you opening them yourself?