This past Wednesday, I got an unexpected call from my good buddy, Mike Burton. Mike was an agriculture teacher in the same school district that I was a middle school counselor. We share a passion for fishing and both fished in a same bass club years back. In fact, Mike was the person who invited me to join the club.
Mike loves to make his own bass lures. He pours many different styles of jigs, spinnerbaits, and blade baits.
Mike called to invite me to his home to pour whatever jigheads I may need. I told him that I could really use some tubeheads and ballhead jigs in different weights on 3/0 and 4/0 hooks.
So, this morning after breakfast I headed to Mike's home to met up with him and pour jigheads.
Here's the process...
Mike owns all the necessary equipment. He has a melting pot that heats the lead to the desired melting temperature. He has a dipping ladle that is used to transfer the extremely hot melted lead into the heated mold.
Mike has a ton of different size hooks. Today, we concentrated on 1/16th, 1/8th and 1/4 oz. weights on our jigheads and tubeheads. These particular molds we used today are sized according to the size (length of shank) of the hook being used. We used two different molds for the 3/0 and 4/0 hooks. Each mold had three separate sized heads.
Once the mold is heated and the led is amply melted, we were ready to begin. I did the pouring today and Mike cleaned each jig head by trimming the mold sprues(excess lead).
Dad carefully pouring lead into the molds
Once complete, I used a pair of pliers to remove each jighead. Not only do I not need to touch the lead, but the pliers helped me not burn my finger tips.
We always do the best we can to not touch in excess the lead we are using throughout the day. We also have ample air circulating through the garage by cracking open the garage door and the back garage door. I was a bit nip in the garage, but by the pictures you will see that we dressed rather warmly for the 31 degrees this morning.
Mike removed the excess lead form each jighead.
Finished products... 376 jigheads! Tubeheads - (76) 1/4 oz and (160) 1/8t) oz. and Ballhead Jigs - (70) 1/16th oz and (70) 1/8th oz.
I really enjoyed spending the day with my old fishing buddy. We had a lot to catch up on since we last seen each other in the late fall. We ate lunch at his home that his lovely wide, Marie, prepared... Homemade Bean Soup and Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwiches. I certainly did appreciate the hot coffee that Mike and Marie brewed for us as we sat in the cold garage!
Thanks Mike and Marie!
Dad
