Marabou..and blade bait questions

I found this site this year, and it has been a great learning experience. I'm a floatnig fly manufactor....I have my product down...no problem...but tying marabou, I don't get it! I'm using a collered jig...for personel use only! I can't figure out how clean and uniformed you guys marabou sits on your jigs...are you stripping the ribs? are you using the whole feather? I'm going on ya'lls recomendations on the size I have the right size just can't get it...if you strip the ribs and use those... or the whole feather can you explain how or where you start? bottom of hook? Sides of hook (meaning two feathers)? I just don't know? HELP. Here is the other question...I have a blade bait mold...from a major mold co. when I purchased the mold the mold came with a disclaimer...that this large co. who shall be name-less has a trade-mark on the style of bait and that selling them could get you into trouble....but they said that they felt like if it was tested in court it would not stand due to the long use of this style of baits for years before they purchased the trade mark...has anyone addressed this? If so what was the out come? Now I'm new here and do know I maybe crossing the line here with maybe something that is known about and just not spoken about so forgive me for crossing the line!I have found how fantastic a fish catcher...trolling these are...

On 95 % of my marabou jigs I tear off the barbules and stack them up until I have enough. I almost never use the tips, but save them for smaller jigs and flies and then only if the stem at the end is very thin. I will use a tip in mt stacked marabou if the stem is small enough to not matter, but the stem will make for less action. I do not use a collar on my jigs unless it's a thread neck jig.

I like my marabou tails like this...see below and click on link.

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I do both as long as the stem is not an interference. It almost never is with strung quills. Most of the time if you are using a portion with stem it is smaller/thinner/ than that of hackle which most people tie with. Its thinner than the thread you're tying with Marabou has action in itself, you can't go wrong. I just like it thick. Palmer it if you really want a floofy tail. A zillion salmon and steelhead tiers can't be wrong.
There was a good video of Lefty Kreh tying one on YouTube. I'll see if I can find it.


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Lift

You've got the pony/horsehead mold it's no big secret here on CC.com. As it stands right now you can pour and make the heads for your own use. You can give them away and trade for other materials or other jig heads you might not have. But don't get caught selling them.

There's been long chats on this board about the subject and if you do a search you'll find them.

Fatman

Fatman is right and I don't care who thinks their Trademark will not hold up (it will), but I can tell you the guy that use to make Stump Jumper jigs for BPS got sued and lost everything. It's up to you if you want to risk losing everything, but I would be very careful as there are more and more people advertising them and Blakemore is the only company that can sell them. I buy my Roadrunner heads from them and have their permission to tie and sell their products. I was contacted by the guy that made the Stump Jumpers after I posted a Pony head jig on CDC and he warned me and thankfully I checked his story out and it was in fact true. At first I didn't believe him, but I learned fast.

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Guys,
Can you just make alterations to the mold?


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No, it's the design of the jig head. Stump Jumpers, the old kind were different some, but it will not work the way they have their Trademark worded. I would think the more selling them the closer they are to hammering some people. When just a few people were selling them and just a few thousand were being sold it probably was not worth the expense, but I feel pretty sure this is changing.

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Thanks guys I knew that my jigs weren't right I'll try again...stripping the feathers and stack! The deal on the horse head is just what I had heard...I'll use them for personel use only!! I never intended to sell them any way...just give a few away to friends!!!

I do run into a lot of marabou that I thing some would use the entire thing, but for me it's maybe just a couple in each 50 to 100 that is so thin I will use it. I do save all mantis for other uses like on flies or really small jigs like for blue gills. The are perfect for that.

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