Senkosam

Thanks Brent for the reply. Jim has high praise for you and what you did for him in buying direct. Both of you have good baits, good prices and great service and most important, I don't have to buy locally from Dick's or Gander Mt., the most inept retailers of angler tackle! IMO most all soft plastics from BPS are consistently inconsistent in shape, color or salt content. Their service and customer service don't come close to Cabela's and their price increases across the board make them less competitive. Thank god for the garage based businesses to the larger distributors like Alluring and Tackle Warehouse. You can't get any better!

On the whole, I agree that some sellers are clueless, but on the other hand, a few mass producers can sell baits for far cheaper than the guy who pours a few baits at a time and where the time factor makes production a big factor. I've seen some handpoured baits sold on Landbigfish.com I would'nt give you 2:twocents: for. This retailer sells a good stick (mass produced for many large retailers) at a price no one could beat. http://www.niffken.com/product_info.php?cPath=50&products_id=179 You're talking 14:twocents: each for a 5 1/4" bait! Even Stik-O's on sale are never that low! His swirl trailers are 13:twocents: each. As was mentioned, Alluring baits has the same sticks for 20:twocents: each and makes them for the above retailer. http://www.alluringbaits.com/products1.php?id=60&subcat=50%20Pack&id2=63 Laminates, core shot and swirl baits take time for the handpourer to produce and with consistent quality or color and hardness; these retailers sell these mass produced baits at rock bottom prices! The variables we offer are only important to a few: colors, softness and additives. The other things like copying discontinued baits for someone or offering a new design, may be important, but still only to a select few. What bring customers back is product loyalty and service, with price a factor up to a certain point.

The you reheat, the more yellow or amber the tinge in clear. Like JMik said, heat stabilzer works to a degree, but any temp over 350 is going to result in amber plastic when reheated. I try to pour at 300 or less and note that the tinge is less even after 2 repours. LC and M-F seem to be the best IMO; others like Ozark also.

A while back Earthworm (EW) posted an idea of how to get deformed soft plastics back to their normanl shape. Yesterday I was going through some soft sticks that someone gave me for Xmas and noticed quite a few that were deformed and harder than they should have been. I liked the colors so I gave EW's tip a try and sure enough the worms straightened out and got softer. Nothing changed after an hour cooling time and the dozen sticks will get used rather than get melted down.

Thanks. Wish the violet and maroon didn't bleed when heated to 350. @#&*@!&

It works and baits will come out more translucent depending on how much salt used. The nice thing about floured salt is that it stays suspended long than large crystal salt. An idea to try would be to use both and see if the larger crystal stay suspended longer or fall slower in floured salt. I showed a comparison picture a few years ago and cloudiness was less than you would expect. Personally, I won't use anything but Diamond fine salt vs. regular table salt along with floured salt.

Agree with the logic and realities of both posts. Do you have the legal resources, funds and time to fight and infringement? Few of us do and k/o's come out of the woodwork from the big boys who browse this site. To establish the bait: 1. produce it in numbers that the distributor(s) can count on 2. maintain customer loyalty with service and good price If the bait is as good as you say it is, it doesn't matter how many fish have seen it. It will work year after year and be a standard, regardless of how many of the big boys discontinue selling it. Good Luck FrankM

Chad, I have the Canon A540! Think about the attachments I mentioned for your camera from Amazon.com. Truly amazing results considering the cost. (Of course they get you for shipping. ) For an SLR camera the prices would be triple. polarized filter lens macro lenses (1x-4x) fog filter lens Very good quality shots BTW! FrankM

I'm an informed dummie when it comes to photography but still be believe KISS. LOL The picture shown was taken with a 4x macro lens, no flash (auto setting), on my porch railing at sunrise and handheld (no tripod). Tips I've found useful: 1. You can find attachments for various digital camera lenses. For example, to enrich outdoor colors when the humidity and distal mist is high, you can use a UV filter or fog filter. For macro (closeup) detailed shots, you use a macro lense rated the same as reading glasses (IE 1x, 2x, 4x). The lens magnifies. To attach any lens you need a lens adapter that you snap it into place and then screw in the lens. Adaptor and 3 lens kit with cap cost less than 30 bucks on Amazon. (The three lenses with protective cap cost 12 bucks!) Make sure your camera can take an adaptor. Note: A lens adapter is a metal tube extension that will shadow some of the flash on the subject if the shot is taken at an angle. So if you must use flash (I try not to), you must be directly over the or in line with the subject for macro shots. No adapter/ lens, no problem. 2. If your camera has lighting source settings, use them if the mode your in has them. For example, mine has settings for florescent light, sun, clouds, tungsten and a few others. Auto is good for most work, but mode setting can sometimes do a better job. For example, if I wanted to use a nightime setting for setting sun light, the natural color warmth would enhance all colors and shadows. (Tripod may be necessary.) Regarding light, I suggest using available light without using flash, keeping in mind that a few variables are key: enough light so that the camera can compensate enough with proper shutter speed and the background/ subject color brightness. I use a goose neck lamp with a 60W or less bulb and which is more than adequate. Light tents are probably nice, but I'd rather KISS. 3. Regardless of which mode, always use the macro setting. The icon looks like a flower. 4. If your camera doesn't have anti-hand shake compensation and you can't be totally still, use a cheap tripod. They cost around ten bucks and are of different sizes (heights) that adjust with telescoping legs. I use a desktop tripod that extends up to a foot. They all have infinite angle handles. The shot shown would have had even more detailed if I used a tripod. When you can show a .015 flake clearly, you've got resolution! 5. Think about trying different backgrounds - natural if possible - but of enough contrast with the subject that the subject looks more 3D. (IE dark colored wood with grain, pebbles and stone, rock, sand and rock, rusted iron) 6. Photo shop type programs are very useful and many cameras include one on the driver disc. Picasa is a free photo program offered on Picasa.com. I use a cheap 20 buck Microsoft program as well as Adobe. I use the following controls to enhance my photo: sharpness -emphasizes edge detail. contrast/ brightness - a balence you can preview before saving color saturation - for washed out hues tint - 6 opposing tints alow overall color modification (IE warmer or cooler) and most important, 7. Cropping, which allows you to crop-the-crap surrounding your subject. Too much background is not a good thing and may be distracting. Cropping allows you to form a square or rectangle or free form line that keeps everything within and deletes everything outside. It is previewable so you can redo or cancel. and 8. Size reduction! The camera has settings for megapixels - the more used, the bigger the picture, but not necessarily the higher the resolution. Less works fine (unless you're making a large poster.) Regardless, most pixel setting still require a percentage or inch size reduction. Use it please!! The pictures are too large when first taken and reducing to 4 or 5 inches along the wides length helps the on line viewer see everthing in one frame plus the upload time is less to various photo sites. Just a few tips to keep in mind.

Any idea what you'd like to improve upon? The picture resolution is good, the lighting good (even with a little glare). Are there photo properties you see in the picture below that you would like to duplicate? If so, there are some tips that have improved my macros significantly. FrankM

Nice work!

As long as the coating is thin enough, detail is maintained, but fish could care less about minor details; lure action says it all! The problem with boot tails is getting them out of the mold. I think I'll have to buy RV silicone make make the swimbaits tha I have prototypes. Good luck.

For those that truly notice what lures of a similar design can do, that may be accurate and I know it is for the majority of experienced handpourers. But for quite a few anlgers that expect the lure to catch fish and not the fisherman, it matters little how special a k/o is ; many anglers just aren't sophisticated enough to care! What many do care about is a special color and whether a particular lure ctaches fish consistently without much effort. The Senko is a soft stick-for-dumbies type lure. Is is versatile? IMO no. The overall shape is a winner, but the handpourer or big k/o company will change an original that impress anglers that notice the little things and correlate them to seasons, structure types, activity levels, etc. , as Del said. And that's where we come. Customizing baits is as old as the plastic worm and better is as better does in the right hands or from the hand that produced it! I like Dels 5" stick better than Bobs, but I think Bob's 4" is better. That's just my opinion and as we all know, everyone has one. I get a kick out of pro endorsements of one bait over many unmentioned others. But what you don't see on tv or read in Bassmaster is that many other lures can do as well if not better given the same circumstances, even k/o's. The most difficult thing for the garage based luremaker is consistency so that what someone has bought in the past will be the same in the future; same color, same hardness, same action, same quality. Even the novice notices inconsistency, whether it be a k/o or standard brand lure. The k/o's we produce in order to satisfy the customer or ourselves, must be within certain specs and therefore the statement , is not accurate. Some lures are crap and rarely get noticed, much less bit. Inferior lures (especially k/o's) are usually discontinued and end up in the clearance bin. But some lures that end up there are because of angler fickleness, not the lack fish-catching quality or higher versatility. The great thing about copying defunct baits or those in short supply is that the customer is provided a service that keeps his favorite baits available. Is it wrong? I think it's wrong if the patenter says, 'I don't feel like providing this lure anymore and don't want anyone else to supply it' or 'I'm giving one retailer exclusive rights to sell my patented bait and no other'. Sure Basstix or Reaction Innovations have the right to limit supply, but is it right? Do they have the right to limit innovation? As far as I'm concerned, once a lure or product is in the public eye, all bets are off. Supply is one thing; innovation to make a lure unique in other ways, is the other. It's like saying a baitcast reel patented and sold years ago should not be made better or cheaper by another company. It will never work that way.

I've seen underwater videos of some of the k/o's and I can't say that I'm impressed. Most have the action of a hard jerkbait than a soft hollow swimbait. The key I guess is producing something that is different than a hard jerk or large Sassy Shad and the stampede to jump on the money train has many swamping the market with confusing options the don't perform. Poor consumer. So true!

Anyone notice how many Basstrix hollow minnow copies are out there? I got a few 2008 fishing catologs and wonder if there is any protection for the original design. At least if I decide to mold and sell the prototype I came up with a few years ago, I'll be safe because the bait is nothing more than a 3" Fin S Fish fused to a Sassy Shad tail. Talk about shimmy! Looks like some more copies of the Beaver came out, one that is the spitting image of a 3.5" Beaver called the Tiny Beaver made for BPS. Maybe Andre is supplying them for BPS. If not, the patent wasn't worth the money since these baits are much less per bag. (Color selection sucks.) BPS has a new version of the Swimming Senko called the Swimming Stik-O. Wonder if either bait works? Is nothing sacred?

IMO the crawbug works because it's hollow and wide gap hook can easily hook bass when the lure thickness is crushed. Similar to Basstrix hollow swimbaits, it would be impossible to duplicate without and injection process. If you want to try it in a one part mold, it's possible in plaster but that thick chunk of plastic would require and exposed jig hook rather than a T-rig. For legs/ antennae, you can pull some round living rubber through side-to-side (IE the YUM craw daddy picured).

Purple emerald I found can be made my using violet flakes that bleed in emerald dyed plastic and cooking it to 340 degrees. It's a chameleon type color that looks different in the hand vs against a light background. At least, that's my interpretation of the color combo which I've been pouring for 2 years. Sometimes bleed is good!

Tell us how they work out. It's a lot cheaper than Spike-It.

To add to what nova said, laminates have been called shad colors by the big boys (ie black shad = black/ pearl; red shad= black/ red pearl; blue shad = black/ blue pearl). Later on laminates came to mean one color (usually lighter) adjoining another, whether it be on top or bottom. The benefit of a laminate is not so much its natural appearance (in fact reverse camo means dark on bottom, light on top), but the strobe-like appearance as the bait rolls or sways back and forth, flashing one color, then the other. Crafters like nova produce multiple pour laminates more than just 2 colors and are something to see.

Nice trout color! The middle bait will catch fish, but soft plastic is needed IMO to get any action. I was a little disappointed in the design so I modified the tail connection by cutting the mold with a scalpel, making it deeper.

Reheat clear plastic (especially Calhouns) four times at 350 degrees; add black, silver and a little lime green the last reheat. Perfect match! Swampbait knows his sizes!

A sure fire way for cold molds is to pour 75-80 percent of the cavity; let cool a little; then pour the rest. The tops will be solid almost everytime. If one or two are not, I cut off the hollow portion, put the lure back in the cavity and pour the the rest, topping off any contraction back into the hole.

They came out with a full round senko and slim senko mold that produces excellent baits. The only problem is that they are one-cavity silicone molds. Their swimbait molds and other designs are supposed to have a flat side, with the tail action being crucial. Like EW says, flat top sticks and most other designs work very well with a flat surface; the action depends a lot on the softness of the baits and how thin certain parts are poured. The flat matte surface is the only drawback using silicone unless you coat the cavity with vegetable oil or other angler oil. I prefer glossy baits myself because they are pretty. ha ha

I made a plaster mold of the regular Paca and was impressed by the action of the claws. Other than the hollow head part, the design is nothing more than a grub with thick flappers spaced further apart than usual. I've caught fish on it and used it as a trailer. You should do well. Nice mold.

Have to agree. Why Zoom puts so much salt into their Horny Frog is beyond me. It's supposed to be a topwater bait and salt hurts the action as well a weighing the bait down. If I were to use a finesse worm as a drop shot bait, I'd want it to float perpendicular to the line and not drop down like a Senko. I'm not a believer that fish hold on longer because of salt.