The product recommendations on our site are independently chosen by our editors. When you click through our links, we may earn a commission.
This is an introduction to pouring your own jigheads at home. It’s not terribly difficult but you do need to know what you’re doing and have not only the right tools and supplies but also an open work area, with good ventilation and proper safety equipment. Basically you need a pot to heat the lead in, a heat source, a mold, hooks and then tools like gate shears to trim excess lead and gloves to handle hot pots and potential splashes of molten lead.
In this video Jason uses the following equipment to pour his jigs:
And the process for pouring a homemade jig is straightforward as follows:
Melt the lead
Place your Hook in your mold. Also add in any keepers, weed guards that the jig requires as well.
Close mold and hold it tightly closed.
Position Mold under lead spout.
Release lead quickly into the mold. If you pour too slow lead will cool and not fill the cavity.
Open Mold and wiggle hook loose.
Cut excess sprue off the head with gate shears.
Set jig aside to cool.
WARNING: Please use extreme caution when using and pouring lead. Proper ventilation, proper equipment and proper precautions should be taken. Don’t pour lead around children or in areas without good airflow. Wear protective masks and gloves and clean your areas thoroughly.
Currently working as Senior Advisor to Wired2fish. Former COO and Publisher, Jason Sealock came to Wired2fish shortly after inception in January of 2010. Prior to that he was the Editor-in-Chief of FLW Outdoors Magazines. He worked up from Associate Editor to Photo Editor and finally Editor in Chief of three magazines FLW Bass, FLW Walleye and FLW Saltwater. He set the content direction for Wired2fish while also working directly with programmers, consultants and industry partners.
Sealock has been an avid angler for the better part of 40 years and has been writing and shooting fishing and outdoors content for more than 25 years. He is an expert with fishing electronics and technologies and an accomplished angler, photographer, writer and editor. He has taught a lot of people to find fish with their electronics and has been instrumental in teaching these technologies to the masses. He's also the industry authority on new fishing tackle and has personally reviewed more than 10,000 products in his tenure.
He has a 30-year background in information technologies and was a certified engineer for a time in Microsoft, Novell, Cisco, and HP.
He mostly fishes for bass and panfish around the house. He has, however, caught fish in 42 of the 50 states in the US as well as Costa Rica, Mexico, and Canada and hopes to soon add Finland, Japan, Africa and Australia to his list.
