Molds for Making Weedless Bass Jigs

By Russ Bassdozer

I did many thing from scratch years ago. A lathe and drill press to make my own wooden topwaters, subsurface darters, lipped minnow and crankbait plugs. Even made the crankbait lips of plastic or metal. Made many custom silastic RTV rubber jig molds of my own design. Cut, cured and colored my own deer tails, pork and eel skins to use on jigs. Jigging and casting spoons hand-poured in lustrous tin. Even plucked a few dead fowls for their soft breast and butt hackles for tails on the topwaters and tins.

But today, my "lure making" often means that I buy pre-molded, unpainted jig, spinnerbait, and buzzbait heads along with skirts, blades, and other components from companies that provide quality components. I am satisfied just to assemble ready-made baits to my specifications rather than make them from scratch, which is time-consuming and laborious.

With that being said, I still do mold some bass jigs because I just cannot buy pre-molded jig heads in all the styles and specifications that I require. As far as molds that you can buy, I use four different aluminum DO-IT molds to make weedless fiberguard jigs. They are arranged in order of heaviest to lightest jigs:

1) Bullet Bass Jig. For heavily-weeded areas. A streamlined fiberguard bullet head for skirted jigs. A heavy hook for heavy rods/reels and 20 lb. test. Hook comes out the nose of the jig at a 30 degree bend.

2) Erie. For knocking rocks, wood and for flipping big profile plastics into cover. A triangular, round-bottomed stand-up fiberguard head. A saltwater strong forged hook for medium/heavy rods/reels and 15-20 lb. test. Hook (Mustad 34184 or EC 410/413) comes out the nose of the jig at a 60 degree bend.

3) Wally. For single tail grubs and ribbontail worms. Small profile wedge fiberguard head. Small sizes of saltwater strong forged hooks for 12-15 lb. test. I often use gate shears to cut the lead collars off these jigs, then glue the grubs and worms to the collarless lead heads with superglue. Hook (Mustad 34184 or EC 410/413) comes out the nose of the jig at a 60 degree bend.

4) Stand Up. A streamlined fiberguard head for finessing spider grubs and small profile soft plastics in shallow cover. A medium strength forged hook with a horizontal eye for 12-15 lb. test or lighter. Hook comes out the nose of the jig at a 30 degree bend.

5) Arky: This mold comes with 4 duplicate cavities to make 1/8 oz. fiberguard jig heads. A broad-faced jig design with a medium strength hook that comes out the top of the jighead at a 90 degree bend. For finesse with 12 lb. test or less. Because of the wide head and hook angle, it is not very "weedless" but it is snagless in wood and chunk rock. I like it in early spring before weeds bloom. I have used a Dremel Moto-Tool to modify one of the hook cavities to accept the horizontal eye hooks designed for the Stand Up jig mold. This modification makes it more weedless in wood, and makes it a good "drifter" in lazy creek currents.

So, if you truly want to DO-IT from scratch, you may want to look into buying some of these molds yourself. I have used a Dremel Moto-Tool to modify some of the hook cavities in these molds so I may insert different hook sizes and styles that I prefer. I am not too sure you should do this though, unless you have the skill and a good reason why your bass would require different hooks than stock.

You will also need a few more pieces of equipment in addition to the molds:

Lee Production Pot IV: An electric bottom pouring melter with 10 lbs. capacity. Four inches of clearance beneth the spout allow ample room for most DO-IT molds.
Lee Ingot Mold: A shallow pan used as a catch basin underneath the spout to catch small drips.
Lee Lead Ladle: Used to skim "slag" off the top of molten lead.
Gate Shears: Used to trim the pouring spouts and excess lead from molded heads.

Companies such as Stamina Quality Components can provide you with all the above-mentioned equipment to make jigs, including jig hooks, fiberguard inserts, paints, glitter, etc. As for me, I simply mold the plastic fiberguard right into the head, often molding in only half a fiberguard on the smaller sizes of jigs. I use all my jig heads unpainted.

Stamina also has DO-IT molds for making spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and spoons, tools for bending wire forms, and even tools for assembling your own color patterns of silicone and rubber skirts from scratch, tying hair jigs, etc.