Lead wire question

I want to add weight to my jigs without going to a bigger jighead.
Right now I’m using a size 8 hook with a 4.6mm tungsten bead , which gives me a finished jig that weighs .87g .
I thought about using a 5.5mm bead , but it would probably look out of proportion on the jig . I know the diameter difference between a 4mm and a 4.6mm is substantial IMO . But so is the weight .
I was thinking about wrapping the hook shank with lead wire under my chenille body but was wondering if adding weight along the shank would affect the action of the jig ?

Anybody ever add lead wire to your jigs .

No it will not effect the action . Are you using slotted beads ? You can wrap .025 lead free wire on the shank then take your needle nose pliers and flat the end of your wraps that is towards the slot and it should slied into the slot to seat the bead on the hook.
Steve-Stabgnid

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stabgnid

No it will not effect the action . Are you using slotted beads ? You can wrap .025 lead free wire on the shank then take your needle nose pliers and flat the end of your wraps that is towards the slot and it should slied into the slot to seat the bead on the hook.
Steve-Stabgnid

---

Thanks for the reply and suggestions.
Yes , I am using a slotted tungsten bead .
The lead wire I had already ordered is .020 . Should do fine .
Before I thought of using lead wire , I used two beads . A slotted 4.6mm on the front , followed by a smaller 3mm cyclops bead, then my chenille and rabbit zonker fur tail .
Looked a little odd but got my total weight up to 1.5g . A 4mm with a 3mm , got me a 1.25g .
I think the wire will be better .

The lead wire will work, but there are other options as well. Why not use lead heads with collars? I was weighing some jigs on #8 hooks with a 4mm diameter head with collar and they weighed 1.4g. While tungsten is heavier than lead the beads are hollow but lead heads are molded around the hook so they weigh about the same and with a collar the lead heads actually weigh more. I tie a lot of jigs with collars and you can't tell the difference between jigs with collars and those without. Collared jigs eliminate the need to wrap wire for added weight and much cheaper than tungsten.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JUNGLEJIMJIGS

The lead wire will work, but there are other options as well. Why not use lead heads with collars? I was weighing some jigs on #8 hooks with a 4mm diameter head with collar and they weighed 1.4g. While tungsten is heavier than lead the beads are hollow but lead heads are molded around the hook so they weigh about the same and with a collar the lead heads actually weigh more. I tie a lot of jigs with collars and you can't tell the difference between jigs with collars and those without. Collared jigs eliminate the need to wrap wire for added weight and much cheaper than tungsten.

---

What is a collar ??
Steve-stabgnid

I received my lead wire today and tried tying a couple jigs and then weighing them .
In my opinion, the amount of weight gained wasn’t worth the effort involved in wrapping the shank and trying to hold it in place while I tied it in .
Wasted $10 .

BTW , the collar is the lead that extends out from the head onto the hook shaft . Sometimes it has a barb that’s supposed to help hold a plastic body on . But most just tear up the plastic .

BTW , the collar is the lead that extends out from the head onto the hook shaft . Sometimes it has a barb that’s supposed to help hold a plastic body on . But most just tear up the plastic .


I knew that .. Just had a big brain Fart ... LMAO !!!
Steve-stabgnid

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stabgnid

BTW , the collar is the lead that extends out from the head onto the hook shaft . Sometimes it has a barb that’s supposed to help hold a plastic body on . But most just tear up the plastic .


I knew that .. Just had a big brain Fart ... LMAO !!!
Steve-stabgnid

---

Yes, Exactly as stated. Though this is true of most jigs that are bought, there are different styles. I have included a picture of two styles. There are some with the barbs staggard, on the sides, ect. I will generally buy just a ball head jig, or cut the collar off.Attachment 492832

Sent from my SM-S916U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

GillChaser99, Will these jigs help you ?? Found these from one the places I order jigs from..

Steve-stabgnid

Attachment 492872

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stabgnid

GillChaser99, Will these jigs help you ?? Found these from one the places I order jigs from..

Steve-stabgnid

Attachment 492872

---

Not really .
What I was needing was a heavier jig with a smaller hook that doesn’t look so out of proportion .
A size 8 Mustad Ultrapoint jighook with a 4.6mm tungsten bead gives me a jig that weighs .87g .
Some of the lead 1/32 lead headed jigs with a size 8 hook are around 1.0g . Not really that much difference.
I’m still experimenting with the lead wire with the lead headed 1/32 jigs .
I found some ball head jigs on the “bay” that are poured using the size 8 Mustad Ultrapoint hooks and ordered a 100 .

I have a 1/24 mold with a collar that will take #8 hooks, maybe smaller. I can pour some for you. Depending on hook they weigh 1.3- 1.4 grams. Head is 4mm. Mold also takes a roller swivel if you want some tiny spinners.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JUNGLEJIMJIGS

I have a 1/24 mold with a collar that will take #8 hooks, maybe smaller. I can pour some for you. Depending on hook they weigh 1.3- 1.4 grams. Head is 4mm. Mold also takes a roller swivel if you want some tiny spinners.

---

Let me try the ones I’ve ordered and I may get with you on pouring me some jigs .
Do you know if the Mustad Ultrapoint size 8 will work with your mold ? Mustad 32833NP-BN-8-100U.

The 32746 Ultrapoints will fit these molds. Unsure if the 32833 will fit. They have a heavier wire with a shorter 90 degree bend at the hook eye. I think the 32746 Ultrapoint would be better for you. I have a few molds that take #8 hooks. These jigs weigh 1.2-1.5 grams and were poured on #8 Victory sickles. I don't have any small Mustad jig hooks right now but if you buy some, send them to me and I will pour them for you.Attachment 492988

I can send you some of these to play with at no charge. I'm sure there's something here that will work for you. The ultrapoint hooks are longer than sickles and would give you a little more room on the shank for tying.

Jim , I like the hookup power of sickle hooks but the hook gap is one size bigger than a J hook .
In smaller sizes , 8, 10 , 12 , I prefer the J hook .
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be doing some casting experimenting with some identical poured lead 1/32 (1.0g on my gram scale) jigs on different length rods , at the lake ..
I’ll also be comparing my Tungsten 4.6mm jigs that weigh .87g, ( on my gram scale) which , according to Google search , almost 1/32oz (.885g.) .
These are both collarless jigs .
I have 100 , 1/32 collarless , poured jigs with Mustad Ultrapoint hooks , on order , that should be here by Friday . I’ll weigh these and post what they weigh when I get them .
If I find none of these work for me I’ll be in touch with you and see what we can figure out .
Thanks for offer to help .

Ok , I received my 1/32 ball head jigs today, pour on size 8 hooks and tied up 10 of them .
Tied they weigh right at 1.0g on my scale .
But , IMO , the head is too big . I’m going try them next time out .
I haven’t been able to fishing this week . Something keeps coming up that’s keeping me from going.

Anyway . I’m going to stick with my Tungsten jigs . The 4.6 mm with a size 8 hook gives me a finished jig at .87g . (1/32)
I really prefer the 4mm bead on a size 10 hook that builds a jig that weighs right at 1/48oz . .58g
Just hope the wind isn’t bad next time I get to go .

Picture of the 1/32 with the #8, would like to see what you're working with.

I got to fish a little over an hour this morning before the heat overwhelmed me and forced me to head home to some A/C .
I did more experimenting than I did actual fishing .
I took three rods
A 4’11” Major Craft Finetail Glass with a 500 size Shimano Soare BB
A 5’6” St Croix Premier ULF ,with a Daiwa Fuego lt 1000
And a 6’ TFO Panfish UL with a Daiwa Fuego lt 1000
All were spooled with Daiwa j-braid and Floroclear leaders .
I started off with the shortest and worked my way up to the longer rod .
All had poured lead 1/32 (1g) jigs tied on them .
The TFO won the distance contest but not by much , a few feet .
Then I tied on a 4mm Tungsten bead jig on all of them . About 1/48oz (.58g)
Again the TFO won but , the difference was even less .m.
The distance difference between the different jig weights wasn’t that much either . Again a couple of feet .
The gain in distance by going up in weight wasn’t worth the increase in size of the jigs .
I much prefer the 4mm jigs tied on a size 10 hook as opposed to the size 8 hooks used on the bigger jigs .
I am and will continue to be a micro jig fisherman and the , almost twice the size 1/32 jigs don’t qualify as a micro jig .
I had several hits on the bigger jig but didn’t connect until I was fishing with the smaller jigs .
I only caught one to keep the skunk away , packed up and headed home before I melted
.
In the pictures, the jigs on the left are size 8 hooks , top ones are a 4.6mm tungsten bead jig , with the bottom ones being the poured 1/32 jigs .
For comparison, the ones on the right are 4mm bead jigs tied on size 10 .
Thanks for everyone’s tips and suggestions, but it looks like I’ll be tying some more size 10 , 4mm jigs to fill a couple of boxes , that’ll slip into my shirt pocket.
BTW , that small shellcracker represents 90% of my catches . I do catch larger ones when conditions are better . Right now the water temp is probably in the upper 80’s or low 90’s and had a little foam floating around today . Just too hot .

Nice ties. They all look good to me. Maybe tie a gray ghost pattern or two. I bought some #10 32833's to play with and see what molds will fit them.

Jim ,
As you suggested before, using a collared mold might be the way to go, in a 1/64 and 1/32 .
Putting some of the weight on the hook shank , reducing the head size .

Jim , I have a question for you since you pour a lot of jigs .
First , I like the Mustad Ultrapoint hooks because , to me , they are the sharpest USA jig hooks I’ve found .
As I posted earlier, I bought some poured 1/32 jigs , poured using Mustad Ultrapoint hooks .
The hooks in these jigs don’t seem to be as sharp as the hooks straight from the package .
Could the heat used in pouring lead jigs cause the hooks to lose some of its sharpness ?

In the past , I’ve poured a few jigs and a few spinnerbaits.
To get a good pour , I couldn’t let the mold cool .
The heat will transfer to the hooks .
Maybe the guy who poured these , In order to speed production , overheated the molds and hooks ?
They look like the finish on the hooks is different than how they look coming from the factory.
Just curious.

I really don't think hooks lose their sharpness when poured even with heat transfer. I think it might have something to do with the process of them applying the black nickel finish on the hooks. Some boxes of hooks certainly seem sharper than others, maybe some batches are left in longer and have more of the black nickel finish on them and that could effect the sharpness.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JUNGLEJIMJIGS

I really don't think hooks lose their sharpness when poured even with heat transfer. I think it might have something to do with the process of them applying the black nickel finish on the hooks. Some boxes of hooks certainly seem sharper than others, maybe some batches are left in longer and have more of the black nickel finish on them and that could effect the sharpness.

---

Thanks for reply .
The reasoning behind my comment was the black finish on the poured jigs had a rough feel to them and don’t have the glossy look to them , like the ones in the factory packaging.
I don’t know what the process is for applying the black nickel finish , but I’ve seen this type of irregularities on some bronze finished hooks in the past .
Those also weren’t as sharp as others with a glossy finish to them .
Just wondering .

Back in 2010 I poured a bunch of heads and sent them out to be plated. The nickel and gold plated heads were perfect but the black nickel jig heads were not. Color was dull as were the points on the hooks. Hooks were rough like dirt had gotten in during the plating process. Ended up throwing some away.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JUNGLEJIMJIGS

Back in 2010 I poured a bunch of heads and sent them out to be plated. The nickel and gold plated heads were perfect but the black nickel jig heads were not. Color was dull as were the points on the hooks. Hooks were rough like dirt had gotten in during the plating process. Ended up throwing some away.

---

Maybe that’s what happened with this batch . Could be , the guy got a deal on some seconds .
Thanks for the explanation

I got some Mustad 32833 hooks in size 10 and poured these. Chub head weighs .7 grams. Round head without collar weighs .8 grams. Shad dart weighs 1.2 grams. Ball head with collar weighs 1.5 grams. Last two is likely what you are looking for gillchaser. I can pour some for you if you buy the hooks. Something different for me other than sickle hooks but like how they turned out.Attachment 493421

Those look nice Jim .
I need to go fishing and try the ones I’ve got tied and ready to fish .
I’ve switched back to 2# Floroclear line which should give me my distance back with the 4mm tungsten jigs .
I think my problem with distance came from using braid .
Going to a collared jighead would be the option to add more weight without a bigger ball .
I’m hoping I won’t need to go that heavy with the Floroclear.