Fluke ball jig advise.

[makokeith]

Last year I did real well fluking with Tsunami ball jigs. I got the earball mold from do-it and modified my lee down pour spout so I can pour 8oz jigs without the rippling. I even built a nice fluid bed for PC.   I have poured a ton of earballs with swivels on them. Now they need a split ring and a hook or an open end hook added on to the swivel. But my question is if the swivel even neccessary? I googled fluke balls for a while and only tsunami really does it this way. I could just do a breakaway clip, hook right to the eye,or a snap swivel with mono to a hook. So why would the swivel be better? Will you lose less fish? Does it matter much if the hook is not always in the up position? I am probably thinking too much into this but I would like to get some opinions from guys who fish the fluke balls.....Thanks, Keith.

[IrishAyes]

I pour smaller ball jigs and used the ball both with and without the swivel. Didn't really notice much difference.

I connected the hook a couple different ways. One being with a split ring. I have also tied a snelled hook to the eye of the jig. I would do this if I wanted my bait further back from the ball.

Question for you. What mold do you have from do-it for the 8 oz ball?

Can you post how you made your fluid bed for powder coating?

What colors have you used with these?

[makokeith]

Thanks for the reply Joe. The mold is ebl-5-xlf or 3479. It has 2-3-4-6-8 oz cavaties. 77$ at do-it but much cheaper elsewhere. Got mine at fairfield tackle. I am still messing around with the fluid bed. But it is 4" and I am using the cheap white HF powder and it works great. And the white is suppossed to be the hardest to use. I am using Tyvek suit for the filter. It works the best out of all the materials I tried. I will try to post some pics up later.

[IrishAyes]

Thanks for the info Keith.

[makokeith]

Here is the fluid bed and a 8oz earball and 4oz bucktail. Not baked yet just dipped.

[IrishAyes]

Just ordered the mold from Barlow's Tackle. 

[BigAl13]

Looks good. the only benefit i can think the swivel would give would be a more fluent motion of the bucktail.

[striperdad]

Looks good. Allot of work?

[makokeith]

Looks good. Allot of work?

Its worth it for me. I get the lead for free. The worst part is the first lead melting to clean it and turn it into ingots. Once i get going with the molds I can do 100 real fast. Less than an hour.