Butterknife jigs

Here's a few more, next step is putting a snap-swivle on, the hook I attach on the yak so I can put them all in my pocket without getting stuck.
The knives cost 25 cents each at the good will, I put them on the camp stove (high) for a minute, then clamp them to a scrap of wood, then drill slow, it takes just a few seconds if you get them hot enough, all day if their cold, wear gloves, have cold beer handy.

Here's one with the hook. I attach it only when its going in the water.

Do you just throw them overboard and net the fish when they hit it?

How do you attach it to your line?

Thanks, Ben. I have a bunch of knives from Goodwill that I haven't done anything with yet. This is easier than cutting off the blade to make the smaller jigs & I saw your post with the fish attached . . . or did you just hook it to the fish for the pic? 

You attach the line right to the split ring, I assume?

Your line gets attached to the split ring. Use big strong split rings otherwise the jigging sometimes causes the snap on your mainline to got thru the splitring after a while.
Also, lube your bit with oil and watch out for the hot little frags of steel while drilling, I had one land on my sneaker and burn it and another fly onto a scrap of paper and burned that too.
This jig caught rockfish every drop, and that ling too, even the lighter ones shoots straight down like an arrow.
Dont forget the beer.

Your line gets attached to the split ring. Use big strong split rings otherwise the jigging sometimes causes the snap on your mainline to got thru the splitring after a while.
Also, lube your bit with oil and watch out for the hot little frags of steel while drilling, I had one land on my sneaker and burn it and another fly onto a scrap of paper and burned that too.
This jig caught rockfish every drop, and that ling too, even the lighter ones shoots straight down like an arrow.  Dont forget the beer.

Simple but effective    Thanks for sharing Ben.

I can attest that his knives catches the fish. I was there in person. unbelievable

....next step is putting a snap-swivle on, the hook I attach on the yak so I can put them all in my pocket without getting stuck.

Ya know, I just realized (yes, I'm slow  ) how smart the snap swivel is. Makes it so much easier to pop a hook on, esp OTW. Allows simple switch out of hooks if you want to change to a different type. Obviously, the fish don't mind the extra hardware, either.

Nice, helluv alot easier than mine.  Mike

Ben,
thanks for the tip on preheating the SS. It's always been such a pain to drill it I don't bother. I like how simple those are. Sometimes we just over think things... Did you consider using stinger hooks?

they seem kinda light, how deep can you fish with them?

If you dont mind a few extra bucks, stingers would be the way to go, $6 for 3, easy to lose 3 a day, I have a bunch of old swivels from my hauling days so I just used them. Use good hooks for sure, sticky sharp. Sean had an article about making your own stingers too...
The light ones shoot straight down, I had 'em down to 100' no problem.
Mike, those are badass man, nice work and as you know, sometimes a bit of color and flash is key. I was thinking of dipping the handle end in some bright red paint and polishing the blade to a shine.
I also noticed the cheaper the knife the thinner the blade= much easier to drill, so when you pick some out at goodwill, pick the ones with the flimsy blade, old Denny's flatware...
My next project is to make some jigs out of scrap copper tubing and lead shot. Rattle-jig. I have some I made out of some chrome towel-bars from Home-Depot.

Hey Ben,
If your looking for real cheap metal. Go to the dump and sift through their scrap metals. Plenty of chromy stuff there. I do make my own stingers. Pretty easy to do.

how well do they dive with the hook in the middle...

If you jig them hard do they clean your fish on the way up?