Any new products that look useful?

[Agronomist_at_IA]

So far the only new product I hear that is coming is some lure/jig molds for ice fishing from do-it molds....also just came across a mooska jig mold on e-bay.


Any thing actually new coming to the market that you other guys are excited about....haven't seen or heard much here.

[zcm_82]

Nothing has tickled my fancy for quite a while, but I also fish pretty simple/old school, and I think we've sort of gotten to a point with gear where 99% of "new" products are just reinventing the wheel. One of those everything under the sun sort of deals.

[filetandrelease]

 I haven’t seen anything that calls out to me 
 

[primepin65]

other than replacing some jigs I lost over the last two years, nothing stands out as a "must buy". I suppose if we had a longer season or if I was able to get out half as much as I would like when we do have good ice, I would be interested in updating things.

[Tuma]

Epic Bait molds has some micro / ice molds I have been thinking of picking up.

https://epicbaitmolds.com/collections/ice-micro-baits

[Monticatgeek]

So far the only new product I hear that is coming is some lure/jig molds for ice fishing from do-it molds....also just came across a mooska jig mold on e-bay.


Any thing actually new coming to the market that you other guys are excited about....haven't seen or heard much here.

Do you happen to know what sizes and brand of hooks that would work with this mold.

[kasilofchrisn]

Do you happen to know what sizes and brand of hooks that would work with this mold.

No clue on the hooks but, i did just order this mold yesterday.
Should be here in 8 weeks. Ships from Ukraine.
For the cost I'm not expecting much in the quality of the casting and machine work.
When it gets here I'll post up a report.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Do you happen to know what sizes and brand of hooks that would work with this mold.

I could not find anything on that. I’m holding off on the mold for now. It’s a mold I’ve been wanting, but do-it molds is suppose to be releasing some molds at the end of Sept. early October for the fall release. It sounds like possibly a mooska  style mold with multiple sizes and/or a small spoon mold that you can put a dropper hook on for perch and panfish.

If do-it does the mooska I’d rather have the Do-It mold due to quality and hooks being able to get easier. Plus I think it will be multiple sizes.

Hopefully Do-It releases a mooska style and a small spoon style mold. Those are about the only two types of molds I’ve been wanting.


With 1-2# line and people hitting the jigs ice fishing in the wheel house it be nice to pour and paint a bunch of mooska jigs.

I Loose quit a few and seems like the ones priced reasonably at the bait shops have the paint chip off pretty easy. Then the cheap ones seem to have hook quality issues bad.

I love the Northland hard rock jigs but just have a hard time paying that much when a big bass/perch/crappie/Gill puts up a fight and breaks them off.

[zcm_82]

Northland changed the hooks on those mooskas a few years back, and they are just trash. I had a bunch snap off on bluegills, and not big tanks, just little pond gills. That got old real quick at $3 a pop.

I switched out to the Acme Pro Tungsten a couple seasons, and have had much better longevity with the hooks. They're considerably cheaper, too. The paint does flake pretty quickly on them, though. I'll take chipped paint over snapped hooks anytime.

[kasilofchrisn]

Do you happen to know what sizes and brand of hooks that would work with this mold.

Just wanted to add I already have a hundred hooks that should work in this mold.
My intent was to send some off to my custom mold maker so he could use those to design and cut a marmooska type mold for me.
The style of hook used in The marmooska jig
Is pretty common and available for multiple online vendors if I'm not happy with the hooks I bought I'll switch brands and find something I like better.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Northland changed the hooks on those mooskas a few years back, and they are just trash. I had a bunch snap off on bluegills, and not big tanks, just little pond gills. That got old real quick at $3 a pop.

I switched out to the Acme Pro Tungsten a couple seasons, and have had much better longevity with the hooks. They're considerably cheaper, too. The paint does flake pretty quickly on them, though. I'll take chipped paint over snapped hooks anytime.

That sucks on the northland jigs. I got three from a few years ago….been solid….I had 4 but lost it when I got up to look down the hole and my 2# line touched the heater screen…..

 I did pick up a bunch of the beaver damn tungsten jigs a few years ago when Walmart had them on year end clearance at $0.50. I found the paint chips super easy on them and the hook is a 50/50 shot on being decent to trash….

Clam does have some nice jigs….but at the prices they ask I just can’t bring myself to pay it.

[ran7ger]

Northland changed the hooks on those mooskas a few years back, and they are just trash. I had a bunch snap off on bluegills, and not big tanks, just little pond gills. That got old real quick at $3 a pop.

 agree big time about the northlands.  buy the buckshot, change the hook.

[maddogg]

So far the only new product I hear that is coming is some lure/jig molds for ice fishing from do-it molds....also just came across a mooska jig mold on e-bay.


Any thing actually new coming to the market that you other guys are excited about....haven't seen or heard much here.

Looks like this mold has .44 gm and .88 gm sized cavities I'm assuming this is tungsten weight. Which means would weigh about 26 gm and 52 gm if made with lead.

[hawg]

Why would it be tungsten weight? Nobody can cast tungsten, it’s melting point is higher than that of that mold.

[maddogg]

Why would it be tungsten weight? Nobody can cast tungsten, it’s melting point is higher than that of that mold.

I emailed them. Here is what I asked:

What is the weight of the two different jigs in this mold?
What size hooks would i need?
What is the size of the jigs in MM.

There answer was:
The mold has 5 cavities with a weight of 0.44g and 5 cavities with a weight of 0.88g
For Pelkie Ice JIg L412 mold use hooks # 10-12, 0.6mm thick.
Regards

So it sounds like the cavities are larger to to accommodate for lead.

[SLAYERFISH]

Making jigs seems cool, but who has time for that crap?  And painting them?

[skifisher]

Making jigs seems cool, but who has time for that crap?  And painting them?

I agree. Rather spend my time fishin!!!!

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Making jigs seems cool, but who has time for that crap?  And painting them?

You’ve obviously never made them. Sure you can spend a run of time painting them with intricate designs.

But if you just pour the lead and powder paint with a heat gun. It takes maybe 5min to make a few

[SLAYERFISH]

No I never have made any.   I look at it this way- Whats my time worth?  $100/hr?  $1000/hour?  Ice fishing Ill maybe go thru 5 or 6 jigs in a season.  You need a mold, lead, smelter, hooks,paint,a place to do it, the stuff is toxic, etc. IMO certainly not worth it. IMO.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

No I never have made any.   I look at it this way- Whats my time worth?  $100/hr?  $1000/hour?  Ice fishing Ill maybe go thru 5 or 6 jigs in a season.  You need a mold, lead, smelter, hooks,paint,a place to do it, the stuff is toxic, etc. IMO certainly not worth it. IMO.

Lol ok….that’s one way to view it.

Fish the river with round head jigs and twister tails….you’ll go through 5-6 jigs in an hour or less. Once A person has the molds it’s like $0.05 for the hook $0.02 for the plastic. Lead is free from scraping it. Few cents for the colorant. It’s like $0.10 to make a lead head twister tail.

It’s a hobby something to do, and once you have the tools it does save money. Or you can make higher quality stuff then you can buy.

Time….it’s only time consuming if you want it to be. I usually get a few buddies together, have a few drinks pour a bunch of jigs & plastics for the season and call it good.

I mean sure you can look at it your way. However, if we viewed fishing in general that way….why would you go? I mean the cost of gear, gas, time….when the grocery store sells fish.

[DR.SPECKLER]

I enjoy making jigs,sinkers,plastics and airbrushing my own baits.yeah the initial cost at the start sucks but i dont have to buy another overpriced jig,sinker or crankbait again plus make money selling them.

[filetandrelease]

 , 1 of my buds pours and I dip , paint and tie for perch,  pans  ,walleyes , soft and hard water

[KingPerch]

I own lots of molds for lead jigheads and plastic bait molds. Injection machine for plastics. Lots of flake, colors, scents, fluid bed for powder coating..etc…..lots of money spent, but, when we need baits or jigheads, we take a couple of hours and pour what we need. For all kinds of species of fish. I’ve given away a lot of jigs to buds who like to tie/paint their own patterns. A good ventilation system goes a long way with removing harmful fumes. It’s fun to do on rainy days or snow storms that keep you inside.

[kasilofchrisn]

I enjoy making the majority of my own tackle.
From Jigs and sinkers to leader rigs and custom made inline spinners.
I have enough lead that I'll never run out of jigs and sinkers.
And I can make custom designs, patterns, etc that no one else has.
I've had days where a certain jig outfished everything else 10:1 and we only had one of them.
You can bet by the next morning I had a dozen of those in my box ready to go.
And it's a color pattern you won't find it any store anywhere that my ex's kid came up with that I thought would never work.
If you know how to work with lead and follow general safety and good hygiene practices it's not toxic or harmful.
I get my blood checked every year for work and my lead levels are low (3.5mcg/dl) and yet I've cast thousands of lures, sinkers, and bullets.
It's just a fun and rewarding hobby that ties in with my fishing hobby.
It may not be a hobby for everybody but it's fun and rewarding for me and some of my friends.

[DTro]

Lead is free from scraping it.

Surely you jest?

Going rate is $2.50 - $3 a lb for good clean lead.   I cringe at anything over $1/lb   

You can make a lot of jigs with a couple of pounds of lead, so yeah close to free but not quite.

Scrap lead is super hard to find and if you can find anything under $1/lb I'll take every last bit of it.

[filetandrelease]

My bud also has  a blade bait mold to 👍
  I’m lucky before a retired , I was on a site and 1 of the operators got a hold of a lead water line and I brought home  +- 100 lbs very little impurities

[Iceassin]

New products that look useful? Well...none that I have purchased per se. But I am improving on my minnow bucket. I had an old chest cooler that wasn't much good at holding ice when it got hot out so I thought...hmmmm. So I purchased an aeration system ( a 12v. Super Saver from Marine Metals)., a 30 amp lithium (Amped Outdoors) and a 110v > 12v converter (Amazon). I usually do a couple of ice fishing trips a year with the fellas and several 2-3 day trips to the Detroit River jigging Walleye in the spring. All of which requires a LOT of minnows. Now instead of multiple trips to the bait shop we can dip into the "tank" and take what's needed for the day. The battery will last between 12 and 15 hours between charges (for the commute) and then plug it in when I've reached my destination. Just refresh the water once in awhile. I have yet to assemble it, but pics to follow when I do.
 
As for making/painting jigs and lures...I purchase ice jigs and flies. Just not worth the time and effort for me. I do however paint most of my Walleye ( 1oz. ball) jigs. I use enamel model paint with a clear coat. They just take such a beating at the bottom of the river that it is easier and cheaper to just touch them up each time out. Done. I also have a local guy who paints my crankbaits at half the cost of buying them.

One more. I made my own Jaw Jacker/ Automatic Fisherman this year. Made 2 at half the cost of 1 if purchased...

 

[kasilofchrisn]

Surely you jest?

Going rate is $2.50 - $3 a lb for good clean lead.   I cringe at anything over $1/lb   

You can make a lot of jigs with a couple of pounds of lead, so yeah close to free but not quite.

Scrap lead is super hard to find and if you can find anything under $1/lb I'll take every last bit of it.

Last fall I bought 754 lb of mostly clean wheel weight lead ingots for 95 cents a pound.
Couple years before that I bought 776 lb of pure lead for 90 cents a pound.
Went through most of that first batch already but I still have all of the wheel weight lead that I bought last fall.
But I make a lot of salt water fishing tackle that's quite large in size and takes a lot of lead to make.
I've got a couple buckets of wheelweights that I got for free but you're right for the most part nobody gives it away for free anymore.
When I buy lead I usually get deals on it because I buy all of it the person has.
So why they might get more for it selling it piecemeal it's a pain in the butt to sell 20 lb here 10 lb there to 20 or 30 different guys.
So I usually make them one offer for all of it and it has worked out well for me.

[HWeber]

I've gotten lead at the gun range a few times. After a good rain it can be surprising how much is at the surface of some of the backstops. Of course it's dirty and you have to separate the jackets out but for the little bit I pour I've only payed for lead once.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Surely you jest?

Going rate is $2.50 - $3 a lb for good clean lead.   I cringe at anything over $1/lb   

You can make a lot of jigs with a couple of pounds of lead, so yeah close to free but not quite.

Scrap lead is super hard to find and if you can find anything under $1/lb I'll take every last bit of it.

No I don't

My lead is free. I became goods friends with a plumber and I asked him when he was doing some work for me if he could hook me up with some lead. Well....I guess he does a lot of work with drain pipes and runs into a lot of lead that was used to seal drain pipes. One day he showed up with some weird looking stuff and it was about 100#'s of chunks that was very pure and soft lead.

Took an old cast iron pan that had a broke handle. Fired up the turkey fryer burner/stand and melted it then skimmed of the crap. Made 1lb Lee lead bars and made ruffly 100 bars of super nice soft lead. Took the 30# of lead I made from weel weights and mixed it with some of the very soft lead so it would pour better and use in larger sinker molds.

That was a few years ago......I still have a huge pyramid of 1# Lee bars I made to use......just guessing but I bet I still have 100# of lead sitting in bars. All my fishing is freshwater in prarrie lakes for the most part, and the river once in awhile. 5oz sinker is the largest I pour for the most part.