Senkosam

Does D & L have a web site?

Two of the three pictured sticks are laminates poured into a 2-part aluminum mold. I really like the detail and ease of pouring, especially two part molds. The mold was cold when the second half was poured. I'll definitely buy more forms cast in metal. Sam

That goes without saying!

What it mostly comes down to is convenience - yours and maybe someone elses (if you sell). The other thing I find even more important is the hobby and challenge of lure creation and design. Just to make a few lures for my own use, is not really worth the startup costs. But to design something no one has and that catches fish, is like leafing through Bass Pro's annual catolog and buying the latest design or newest colors.

Bob, any lure's total cost is never what the list price is and always depends on the source and it's location. If you just happened to be at Walmart for something and bought something from the fishing department, you might only have to include tax. (8.25% county tax where I live) If you drove to the tackle store for something specific, figure your gas mileage, round trip and add that to the unit value based on $2/gal. If you order from mail order, count shipping charges. For small orders, shipping pushes the unit charges much higher. Once someone is completely outfitted, the long term cost (after a few years or more), are less than a dime for a larger bait and a few pennies each for small ones. (This includes energy costs for the microwave and room lights.) Plus you never will run out of colors or sizes. Sam

Wow exceptional !

As Woodsac said - the more memory in the card (that can be downloaded in an external source), the better since more pixels mean more memory used up per picture and the more pics that can fit on a card. They keep coming down in price and if you can wait until after the holidays, sales should be good at the chain stores (Best Buy, Circuit C. etc) Sam

jpegs are usually the compression format, but gifs are okay if you don't mind a little loss of color. Reducing total pixels shouldn't result in grainier pictures, just smaller ones. If you're using a 1 or 2 megapixel camera, it's possible some detail is lost, but only when you magnify. jpeg quality is no different than the bmp format except much smaller.

As long as the plastics aren't swimming in oil, there's no problem surface salting. The best way to keep the salt from washing off on the first cast is to heat the worm over a flame and roll the lure in a little bit of spread-out salt. I do it for black worms that I want to apply glitter to the outside and make it stick permenantly or curly tails that I want to have extra flash.

A few tips to consider: Outside lighting with a dark background improves color and lighting (even sunlight coming through the window). Prop yourself on or against an object to keep from twitching or use a $10 tripod and the camera's timer for absolute, camera stillness. Try with and without the flash. This was taken without the flash: If in still life mode, use the zoom rather than moving the camera too close, crop the picture to reduce size, minimize and sharpen with the program and play with brightness and contrast settings.

Finely ground salt in clear plastic

Original Fish Formula gamefish or craw scent is the cheapest per oz. and works fine, either in the hot plastic, in the mold for a super glassy surface or in the bag as a lubricant. Walmart's Baitmate works as an alternate (but the craw doesn't exactly smell like craw).

water purifier salt - is that the same as water softener salt? If I grind it, it won't turn the plastic milky?

Agree with basskat, especially for Kalin type grub tails. The important thing to remember is to build the tail's attachment to the body so it's not fragile. A large wide tail needs support and causes a nice rock & roll of the entire grub - the most total-action of any soft plastic. The lure actually wags back and forth like a fat, sick minnow that ate too much! I pour from the tip of the tail (with very thin hot plastic) and tilt the mold to constantly direct the flow toward the body. I then concentrate on building the body (in a one part mold) to reduce the flat side. This is a copy of a 5" Berkley Power Grub and was used like a spinnerbait to catch bass and pickerel, as well as an occasional nutty crappie. Tail thickness is always option. The thicker and wider the tail, the more total action; the thinner and narrower, the less affect on the body. Sam

http://bassresource.com/fishing/pouring_plastic_worms.html Sam http://senkosam.tripod.com/index.html

NJ, read the tips in the tutorial. If you still have a problem, e-mail me. If the mold breaks, one side wasn't hard enough or the edge far enough away from the cavity. The foil idea works! http://bassresource.com/fishing/pouring_plastic_worms.html Sam

Light gold is plain gold and looks like fools gold; yellow gold is deeper and more yellow. Copper penny is what a copper penny looks like new, except buffed; light copper is more faded, more silvery; almond is a light brown-silver; light blue is a blue-silver. hologram looks different in different sizes but give a rainbow affect, especially in .008 powder put in clear plastic. Different shades of green are very different in clear plastic: kelly green is bright green; lime is kelly green intensified; chartreuse is yellow green; emerald green is just like the gem and the most subdued. It was suggested that various glitter colors could approximate different crankbait colors and for certain color patterns, dye would do better and black flake or Spike-It for spots. Florescent colors are not supplied, but most others are. The thing about emphasizing glitter color is to keep the plastic a light shade and very translucent. Opaque plastic (with salt or opaque dye) only allows surface glitter to show itself and the effect is lost. Some of LC flor. dyes aren't really florescent, just like LC's purple is really blue grape, in dye and glitter. Each general hue (blue, purple, green etc.) is a category of many subhues and really makes a big difference when trying to match a particular color scheme. Marigold is orange-gold (like the flower) and very unique. Sam

I will try to post clear plastic pictures on my web site.

Softener seems to dilute the plastic and thin it a bit. The worms still aren't flimsy after using it, but a good point was made about improving the baits action. Softener does three things: 1. makes pouring easier 2. makes bait munchably soft (a prime reason soft baits are held onto over any hard bait) 3. greatly improves action and flex versus the hardness of the original Creme worm. Try wacky rigging a 5" worm with no softener and one with. Fill a bucket with water and let the worm fall, twitching slightly on the way down. There is a world of difference! Salted worms require softener even more or the action will rival that of a popsickle stick! A large 2 cup Pyrex is alright for multiple pours as long as: 1. The cup is at least half full because the glass will be hot with that much hot plastic in it. 2. The temp is at least 275-300 and pours like thick cough syrup. 3. The plastic is allowed to settle a bit to make sure the temp is uniform from the container sides to the center of the plastic. One more stir and then raising the metal stirrer to see consistency, is in order just before the main pour. Zap time to reheat is only 20 seconds or less, again with a quick stir-and-check. Plastic should not smoke nearly as much as LC's, initially or when reheated. Bubbles are sometimes unavoidable due to humidity and settling may be necessary to stir the bubbles out (unless you want a higher floatation for C-rigged baits). Bubbles will rise to the surface and can be poured off. A lot of good replies and tips! Sam

Plain ol' table salt ground with a $10-coffee bean grinder, (which doubles to grind my Dunk'n Donuts beans ). Sam

Zoom and Riverside have done just that but only in laminate form, using pearl and opaque layers. Others have followed, but those two companies perfected the process. Riverside's firetiger consisted of emeral green dye with a small amount of pearl, yam yellow with pearl and a florescent orange belly. The green had black flakes. I came close enough last year and caught fish with my fire tiger laminate. Using only glitter may not produce the same effect as that of a crankbait pattern, but then again the handpourer is looking for a different effect using soft plastic.

CJ, I've found that the flash is the most visible thing in the water, in clear plastic. I think your right about totally clear, but pearl also has a great flash affect. The two sticks on top are the same, except that when viewed from different angles, look totally different in color and flash. Clear plastic was poured half way up the cavity, some flakes sprinkled in the middle and then covered the rest of the way with clear plastic. Clear plastic is a magnifier, so when viewed from the top, shows glitter 2x it's size. When viewed from the side, only a thin line is seen. (The stick at the bottom consists of clear plastic and floured salt to give it a milky appearance, showing the opacity of salt in clear plastic. It may turn out to be an interesting laminate - salt/clear with flake.)

What happened to the post modify function? It works, though the button is invisible. Thanks, Sam

Years ago I decided to try a Roger's clear deep dive crankbait and was surprised that it caught bass. But recently, I put together a few reasons for a clear baits success that has nothing to do with color or it's absence. Subsurface lures displace water and, according to research marine biologists, can be felt by the lateral line and amplified by it's air sac. If the lure has a pronounce action, so much the better for easier detection. If rattles or bb's are included, they can be felt and heard. Supposedly the lateral line can detect object size, direction and speed of movement. It reminds me of the enemy aircraft silhouettes used during WW2 by civil defense watchers, to determine which type of bomber was entering their airspace. No details, just outline. Maybe a lure in muddy water or on a moonless night, is nothing more than a sonic silhouette. (As far as I know, bass night vision hasn't been comparable to a cat's.) I'll bet if you make certain styles of baits in clear plastic or plastic of a light tint or a little tiny glitter, they would be as effective as translucent or opaque lures much of the time. We think of finesse meaning small and delicate, worked slowly and methodically. Colorlessness might be considered a finesse characteristic. Clear-with-flake is nothing more than clear%pepper, when the lure is seen by a fish looking up at it. When I send samples out, I'll include some sample clear sticks with tiny glitter. I've observed that clear with a medium amount of glitter produces a laminated effect. The same lure viewed against a darker or solid background, with the light source above, is almost solid color appearing. Laminar solid color / same stick (*the colors are marigold, lime and kelly green) Sam

Chris had the best answer. Wood will force bubbles out of it, but moisture is th biggest culprit. Once the hot plastic settles and the surface plastic is poured off, few bubbles will be in the rest. Sam