Tackle Blog

While bottom pour furnaces excel when pouring smaller jigs and sinkers their flow rate is limited and insufficient to fill cavities larger than 1-1/2 or 2 ounces. The limited flow rate many times results in wrinkled or incomplete castings. Those larger cavities are better poured with a ladle from a dip out style melter. This allows for a more rapid pour rate that fills the cavity before the lead begins to cool.

3D Stick-on Fishing Lure Eye sizes are as follows:

2 = 1/8"
2.5 = 5/32"
4 = 1/4"
5 = 9/32"
6 = 3/8"

If the sinkers are allowed to cool removing the pin can be difficult if not impossible. The pull pin should be oiled slightly or smoked with candle soot before starting and occasionally during the pouring session. An oily rag works well. Insert the rod from the hinge end of the mold. After the lead is poured into the cavities, the pull pin should be removed immediately using a twisting motion. Failure to oil or smoke the pin before the first pour, or allowing the lead to cool in the mold will make withdrawal of the pin difficult.

We get various question about trouble with getting the collar area to fill all the way, wrinkled surfaces, more flashing than expected, etc. These things are easy to correct.

There are many things that can contribute to these casting problems. The casting problem diagnositc guide addresses some of the more common problems and their solutions. Try some of the casting tips located there and if you are still having problems you may call and speak with a shop tech. toll free (866) 984-3408.

Some fish never get the respect they deserve.

The stars of the angling show are bass and walleyes. We see them on television, on the covers of outdoor magazines and in our local newspapers. Sometimes, however, fishing isn't about old glamour gills. It's about spending a few hours on the water. It's about feeling a tug on your line. It's about sharing a day full of laughs. Maybe it's about bragging rights and the camaraderie among a group of anglers less concerned with the final results than the common experience. And for the sheer pleasure of fishing, it's hard to beat the homely, hard-fighting sheepshead.

Please use caution when working with lead

Please use caution when working with lead

Using the correct alloy makes a difference

Where to get your lead

Recommended lead casting equipment

Useful tips to help you get started

A guide to help troubleshoot some common problems

We're sorry, but we do not do custom work. We do offer Blank Molds for custom design. Your local machine shop could possible mill one to your specifications.

Living on the shore of Lake Michigan my entire life, I’ve used spoons to catch trout and salmon almost as long as I’ve used a spoon to eat. It’s a year-round work horse for many species including walleyes, bass, trout, salmon, and even panfish.

The float drifts lazily down the river bobbing through riffles and seams in the current. As quick as a blink of your eye, it’s gone. That split second rush of adrenaline when you realize that a fish has nabbed your offering is very addictive.

If you fish salt water or follow the salt water beat, you have probably heard of Butterfly Jigging. Right now it may be the hottest thing out there to take a variety of species of salt water game fish. Originating in Japan this technique involves a lure that looks very similar to a normal jigging spoon, but it acts very different. The jigs used in this technique are travel in a side to side manner very similar to a walk-the-dog surface bait.

I can't even begin to tell you the entire history of the spinnerbait. I'm guessing that they have been around for fifty years or more. I know that they have been around during my thirty-two year angling career.

Bass, Pike, Musky, and even Walleye will take them throughout the entire season. Down sized versions will even take Crappies and other panfish.

Jig it deep. Retrieve it slowly along the bottom. Bird dog open water with long casts and stop and go action. Or burn it over shallow weeds. Bass, walleyes, pike, stripers, even trout and salmon they catch nearly everything.

Tail spinners have been around since the 1960's when Tom Mann introduced the now famous Little George sported a simple tear drop shape and is still available today in it's original shape.

I don't know exactly when the evolution of the jig and worm rig started. Early accounts can be tracked back to Ted Green and Gayle Marcus of the Mar-Lynn lure company in 1956.

The Bass fishing history books also note that the great Bass fisherman and inventor of the reaper tail, Harold Ensley won the World Series of Sport Fishing in 1960 on a jig and worm combo.

In more recent times, serious Bass anglers both casual and professional have kept the success of jig and worms a tight lipped secret.

In my thirty years of pouring jigs, weights, and lures I have accumulated quite a few molds. Some I use quite often and some I only use from time to time. But there is one mold that I have used probably more than any other I own. I consider it the "McGiver" of tackle making tools. Without it I'd be like Batman without his gadget belt. it's beauty is it's versatility. Let me go through some of my favorite uses and I think you'll see why you shouldn't be without Do-It's SLIP-6-A mold if you love lure making.

As most savvy anglers know, there are few things in fishing that are as reliable and effective for both numbers and quality of bass, and many other game fish, as a leadhead jig and some form of plastic trailer. And, as many of those same savvy anglers know, Yamamoto plastics lend themselves very effectively to this form of fishing. However, the real problem, in many cases, is not finding effective trailers for the leadheads, but rather finding quality leadheads with sharp, tournament grade hooks, in the style that is most effective for what you are fishing.

Picture this: You've been stranded on an island in the middle of a large wilderness lake teeming with gamefish.

There are no swimsuit models to keep you company. It's just you and your spinning rod. However, you get to choose one small box of tackle to take along. What's it gonna be?

Do-It Molds have been an essential part of my fishing enjoyment and success for over 35 years. Yep, for over 3 and a half decades I’ve been using Do-It molds to give me a level of customized fishing tools that simply are not available "off the shelf"�. In this article, I want to share some of my favorite Do-It molds and the applications that I find most effective for my styles of fishing.