Hollow Frog!

I love how you solved the hollow body problem!

Thanks!

Hard part was figuring out how to seal it shut... Simple solutions are always best

Hey JRammit,

Great idea. I'm working on something similar and have a question. You say you pinched the back "butthole" shut and then poured hot plastic there to close it up. Can you explain exactly how you did it? Are you holding onto it with a gloved hand and then pouring a bit on the butt area?

I also was considering keeping the back open like on a Stanley Top Toad....

You nailed it... I did it just how you said..... But they turned out to be failures..... Some of the plugs Just fell off, and after enough use the weedless hook tears thru the nose and let's water in

i did manage to get one to float long enough to catch one fish.. So not a complete failure 

I used soft formula, maybe a harder plastic will do the trick..... I might try shooting some more when the weather warms up

Nova (member here) makes some really nice hollow frogs, I got the idea from an old pic of his here in the gallery, I just changed mine up a bit

I'm thinking I'll get some regular plastisol and try that but I bet saltwater plastisol is the right solution as long as the legs still have some motion. I basically cooked some sculpy clay in the rough shape of the inside and attached it to a wooden stick and installed that in a two piece mold. I'll be pouring my first attempts with this set up soon. I did get them to float a double hook by pouring two halves and bonding them together but that was tedious.  

Yes, I went thru a thousand ways in my brain, in the end this was the most simplistic 

The hollow shooting method works great, no failures there... Every bait was hollow, and they all pulled off the insert with ease (insert was sprayed with PAM before each shoot)....... Everything was fine except field testing 

and the legs only kicked when the bait sank.. They did nothing on the surface 

Update on this, I was able to pour and they worked well (they float the Stanley doubletake hooks).  No field test yet since it's been below zero up here. However, the sculpey insert has cracked and the epoxy is flaking off due to the heat. I'm considering either a wood or a brass insert.

Your insert is pine correct? How does it stand up to heat?

Yes, pine sealed with epoxy... I only shot maybe 10 frogs, no issues with the insert 

I also use a poplar dowel rod sealed in epoxy as my injector... They'll last several months  and well over 100 shoots before re-sealing or cutting a new one

Man that's quite a load!.. Mine would float a 4/0 worm hook, don't know if they could hold up a double hook though

And that's with regular plastisol without micro spheres.

What epoxy are you using? I've been using loctite 5 min. and it's flaking off the sculpey.

Devcon 30 minute.. I put that sh** on everything, just like Frank's Red Hot Sauce

 

i tried the microbaloons in a solid frog body before I decided to go hollow... Didn't like them!.. My baits aren't the prettiest in the world, but those microbaloons made em flat out ugly!

I'll have to get some. I've been using 5 minute and cutting w/ denatured alcohol. I find 5 minute epoxy isn't very durable comparatively. 

look at Ace Hardware.. They're the only place I know of that carry it in store (Lowes and Home Depot don't have it)..... It will say "2 ton" on the package

i use it so much that Santa stuffed my stocking with half a dozen tubes of it 

I just ordered it off of Amazon. I can't stand using the little tubes that are attached to each other so I get the bigger 4 oz. bottles.