BigZ

You can add Super Floater Bubbles from Lurecraft. They are cheap and a little goes a long way. you have to use more color because they are white. I believe TAP plastics also has small grain floating media for filler in fiberglass, Microspheres. They're cheap and maybe worth a shot. Z

It's a good idea to let the mold sit for at least 3 minutes before you pop it open. The water will make them hold their shape as you discovered. If they are too hot when you put them in the water they'll deform. I'm off to throw some of the 4 inch baits right now...

I use the same molds. I like to use 3:1 plastic to softener and 25-30% salt. They are soft and they do wiggle and will outlast a regular senko by a huge margin. I think the wiggle has a lot to do with what type of hook you use. The stix from Bob's have more of a gliding action. Like you said, they catch fish. I like to run them without salt too because I catch most of my fish on a carolina rig in open water. If I am fishing somewhere with lots of structure I'll throw salty ones weightless, but most of the time I am fishing pretty barren reservoirs and need to cover more water. 4" stix on a carolia or splitshot rig are fast becoming one of my favorites. There is a previous thread in the forum that discusses s?nko-type bait formulas. Check it out at: http://tackleunderground.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=2546&highlight=softener+senko I've even cheated and added a little #12 Skeet Shot to a bait. it works best if you pour 2 color and add the lead after you pour the first half of the bait... talk about sink rate...

OK here is the first good fish on the Z-Liz. 18" ain't bad. They hit the thing like they have a grudge against it!

Get a good pair of pliers and bend the spout to a sharper angle, this will help pouring and you won't get as much runoff. You'll get a cleaner pour also if you wipe the spout after each pour. It's another step, but it's easier to pour if you get a constant stream of plastic and less dribbles. Hope this helps!

Bummer, most glitter settles when the plastic is hot enough. you need to keep stirring it to get better results. Keep up the good work.

Anyone got a shovel? Getting deep in here. Sorry 'bout the "Leaves" Tubeman. Shark Attack!!!

Out west your top ten would look like this. 1: Watermelon Pepper 2:Green Pumpkin 3:Junebug 4:Smoke blue/black/holo flake 5:Charteuse (french yellow...LOL) 6: Brown/Blue 7:pb&j 8: Pumpkin seed 9: Salt N pepper 10: sUMMER sHAD (Smoke top/GOld vein/white pearl bottom) These colors work all year round in that order. Unresponsive may hit red bug or other colors in the fall. Match the water color tfor best results. Geen pumpkin is usually the all purpose color that delivers in a bad spot.

OK , got to test the Z-liz at Shadow Cliffs in Pleasaton, CA today. 3RD cast I got a fish. Falls perfectly horizontal on a 2/0 Owner EWG. It sure feels nice to know your baits work! More bait desgns in the next month, I have 5 on the burner now! I'll post em as we go. Z

The links don't work on those 2 posts. When do you thnk 2 part molds will happen? Will they replace CNC molds entirely?

I know the Zoom tubes are half junebug and half what looks like pumpkin with red flake,but maybe there's a little red in it. Everyone's camo is different.

I think the karo makes it sticky,which is most likely not desirable for a bait. I don't remember how much glycerin we used, it was a LONG time ago. I know that it does thicken it quite a bit and you use VERY little water in the mix. I think heat is going to be your worst enemy. There are a few biodegradable plastics on the market and they boast about being super effective, but I have tried Exude, Gulp and AAT's NitroPro baits and only the AAT has given me any positive results. Their 4" pumpkin grub is a killer . I think just the scent on those is BioDegradable even though they do get kind of crusty after they have been in the water and then dried out. The exudes are kind of cool, they get really slimy after they are in the water, but I haven't caught many fish on them. Gulp worms are NOT worth the money in my opinion, maybe if you put one under a bobber it would work better than a plastic worm, but I think bass strike from aggression and hunger and are mostly hitting on looks.

V&M is history now unfortunately. Chompers bought their patterns and probably their patents too.

Your baits look awesome! I think you'd better order more plastic when you order your molds...LoL. I see you're using that holo string glitter in the grey ghost bait, I pour a smoke worm with that stuff and it works great anywhere there are shad. Nice photos too, plastics can be a real (4 letter word here) to take pics of. Keep up the good work!

I think you should try with a regular gummy worm first to see how long the last in typical plastic bait fishing. Another thing is, I know that the special FX guys use glycerin in their gelatin mix to give it a more coagulated texture when they are making gory stuff. We used to make our own halloween blood stuff that was Glycerin, Karo Syrup and Knox gelatin and it was Really rubbery once it cured... worth a shot!

I like the design, probably has a killer action, keep up the good work!

VENT: I don't think most of the people on this board are worried about having their bait knocked off (MOST) or anyone making a million on them. Certain people are in this for selfish purposes. They need to realize that this board is for sharing ideas, not furthering commercial interests by leeching off the wealth of knowledge that is freely shared here by people who enjoy making their own tackle solely for the enjoyment of it.

If you don't want to spend 32 bucks a pound, Tap Plastics sells their 1 pound RTV kits for 19 dollars in a kit with all the stuff. They offer green (slow cure) and blue (fast cure kits.). 4? pounds is 65 bucks. Half price when compared to LC and worth it compared to Plaster molds. Here is a link: http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=61&{/url]

You need to heat both plastics pretty much simultaneously, pour the first color and pour the second color right after that. I wouldn't do more than 5 or 6 cavities with the first color as it needs to stay hot otherwise the plastic won't bond well. With practice 2 color pours will be easy. You do have to work pretty fast to get good results. New plastic is a hell of a lot easier to work with than remelts, but they are good practice. Have Fun!

Buy the wife some earplugs, call in sick and turn off the lee pot for a while. That should do it. I am using a cheapo program called "DesignCAD 3D Max." supposedly it does everything that the bigger $$$ cad programs (Ii.e. Autocad, RHINO, etc..) can do, but I can say from experience that the learning curve is pretty huge. I am getting aggravated at this point with it. I did autocad a long time ago, so I do have a bit of experience, but this thing is hurting my head. Don't let this discourage you, there are a couple free 2D Cad programs that will give a basic sketch and export to .DXF(autocad's Drawing eXchange Format) and the guys with CAM programs can import the drawing directly but will have to do a lot of work on it themselves. I have a lot of drafting and graphics experience (see my avatar and Charkins) and a ton of patience for this kind of stuff. I still get irked sometimes when I don't know how to do a step on the schematic. I intend to have the cad stuff fully wired by the end of the summer, but it would be nice to have a better quality CAD program, in this case you certainly get what you pay for. If you opt for a cheap cad program, make sure you don't get an "express" or "lite" version, they are neutered in a big way. Another consideration is that your computer will need to be decently fast to run any 3D cad. I have an AMD 2.4 with a radeon9600XT and 2gb of ram and it still bogs down a bit during some operations, it depends how many things you are trying to have it render (draw to the screen) at once.. Good Luck!

I should have read the post better...and understoood it. It's when you add the glitter it starts foaming. That could be a couple of things. Either the glitter you are using is junk, or the plastic is TOO hot, OR you need to add some stabilizer to your plastic. I always add salt and gltter last, the only foaming problems I have had are with cheapo crap plastic. that actually foams/bubbles at working temp (3G). I would get a different type of glitter (poly) and see if it behaves the same. Good Luck!

dtrs5kprs-- Try using an O-ring (or a rubber band folded over a couple times) around the bait and slipping your hook under it. 1 bait will last all day regardless of the number of fish, unless it's a real Senko... those fly apart when a crappie looks at em. Del, I like the Mojo weights for almost everything (wish they made 3/4), and I agree about the saltfree stuff for C-Rig or mojo'd stick baits. Has anyone actualy added floating stuff to a stick yet?I fish some rocky crap and those weights are the best thing since....um...walking sinkers.

My buddy was already wanting a smaller one for dropshotting, so we'll probably look into a smaller version of the bait, probably not smaller than 3.5 inch due to machining limitations. We're gonna add eyes and make the feet a little bigger than the prototype. My favorite ponds just opened for the year (They close cause the creek that feeds em has steelhead in it) so I'll test it there this week I hope. Bob is gonna list the mold on his site in a couple weeks. I wanted to share it with everyone, I am not in this for selfish reasons. I feel that this site/forum is a place to pool our ideas, not to hoard trade secrets. Fishing is all about fun! Let's keep it that way.

In the earlier pics you can't see it, but the body is ribbed as well. I enhanced one of em so you can see it better. As far as naming it, I think "Z-LiZ" has been hung on it, but that could be short fo zlizard or zleaper. LOL. Thanks for the encouragement guys! I can't wait to fish it!

I wanted to design a cool bait for Carolina Rigging since I fish mostly deep reservoirs here and I like reapers and lizards a lot, so, I figured I would combine them. I also wanted heavy feet on the legs so they would have more action and cause it to flutter a little more than if it had wispy little legs . I hammered out a cad drawing of this lure and Bob Jones from Bob's Tackle Shack machined it up! The "Z-LIZ" as Bob calls it now is just shy of 5" long and 2" wide. I am really happy with it, it looks even better in real life than in 3d! I think it came out looking damned good for my first design,but I haven't gotten to test it yet!!! I just need to stick some hawgs on it and I will be even happier! This mold will be super easy to do 2 color pours too, Green Pumpkin top/Watermelon bottom? I think so! I'd appreciate it if you fellas would let me know what you think, I value your opinions! A Huge Thank You To Bob for being a CNC Wizard and making my bait reality instead of Virtual Reality!