Green_Fingers

Hi Brian, I am not a collector either but judgung frm those photos you have some lovely old lures in pretty good condition. I would do some reasearch on collectible lures, you never know might be able to get yourself a new boat with the profits if you find the right buyers! Simon

Hi fellow Euro pourers, MF ships to me in Switzerland and they don't have a minimun order they just give me two choices of shipping, by snail mail, at about 10$ for 4 pints of plastic and a selection of colours gliters etc or about 40$ for DHL. I am usually too impatient to use snail mail though! There is also plastic available from lureparts.nl, but I tried it and prefere MF, but still they have a few colours and heat stabalisers etc for emergencies:lol: There is also a new French site that stocks plastic and I can't remember the exact name something like bricoleure.com. Rico should know, he is from France and told me about the site. Cheers, Simon

Jake, I don't do this, or even own an air brush for that matter! but my understanding is the soft baits with nice stripes, spots and gills etc have had them airbrushed on using a very fine powder paint. Now someone may chime in and correct me here but it seems to be a fairly well garded secret as to exactly which powder paints and techniches work, which, and having seen some amazing results, it is totaly understandable! I did try with reasonable success to add some details on a swimbait with a fine black indelable marker (sharpie) but this is ok for personal use not really a professional procedure! Simon

I tried it doesn't really work, with a bit of practice maybe you could get some intersting blotchy designs of a dark non bleed dye to work on a very light colour, but it won't work for gills, spots stripes etc... thats what I tried to do!! Cheers, Simon

If you look closely the tail of the Buldog goes up not out wards, I tried to make a buldog type mold in POP but had to do like Lure Craft and cut off the tail and make a seperate mold for it, which was fused togeterh after pouring. I am kind of working on making (well I started but have left the project a little dormant!) a one piece pop mold, when (or if!) I get around to it and am successful, I will post a pic! Lure craft does have a couple of other BIG lure molds, a smimbait and a big curly tail I think. Simon

Bhorlings hit the nail on the head there, its definatly damn UGLY, but would still be interesting to see the action it must have, hey whats ugly to us may look like gold to the fish! Simon

Swamp, I have never had a problem with moisture in my scrap/stored plastic and I tend to have a quite a bit left pover from time to time. I just store them by color in ziplock freezer bags in my work area, which, however, is indoors though not in a garage or basement which may make the difference! What if you try vacume packing your leftovers, then moisture shouldn't be a problem even if you store them in a puddle!? Merry chritmas all, I am of Christmas fishing to the Canary Islands for a week! Simon

I paid 85$ to get 2.5 gallons, plus stabaliser, a few glitters & colours etc from MF to Switzerland via Fed ex, but I don't pay import tax, don't think Swiss customs knew what it was so didn't charge! Advantage of Fed ex, it only take sa few days, disadvantage yes its expensive, but I make my lures for myself not to sell so don't really coun't the pennies as much as if it was a business! I did have the option to ship by post via sea, for only 25$, but 8 weeks until delivery!!, I would have forgotten what I ordered by then!

Thank you Long Horn! Clever idea! why couldn't I think of that after pondering for days on a better way to make a multi cavity mold! Cheers, Simon

The first molds I ever bought were from MF, and they still pour some of my favorite baits! I have had great sucess with the 2.5 inch smimbait mold and their wild willy, both for pike, perch and zander as well as some tasty snook on the smiwbait when was on vacation in Costa Rica! But I must say the same as alsworms they do wear slightly after a while and especialy with the smimbait molds they work better with a light spray of oil before each pour, other wise the baits come out dull and if you can get them out of the mold without breaking them! Cheers, Simon

Tubinator, I forgot the most important thing in my last post, which was to tell you that is one heck of fantastic looking bait!! Would you consider selling me one of your molds/dipping sticks for them!? PM me if a posibility. Cheers, Simon

I have to agree with swampbaits, the only time I got any dents is when pouring into a hot 2 piece swimbait mold, the first few pours were fine but after the mold had absorbed the heat from the first few pours, the dents started to appear. Simon

Your tail seems to have more of a sloping angle than the swimbaits I use that have good action at slow speeds. Maybe if you bend the blade on your dippind stick to more of a 90° angle that might help give it more action. With the tail as you have it now, I would imagin the the water will "roll off" it more easily than if it were at 90°!? My two cents! Simon

Hi all, Ok natural baits don't smell as strong as artificially scented ones, however predetors are naturaly instinctive fish and tend react before the think! As we all know fish are great thinkers :-). In other words if a fish smells an incredibly strong and "tasty" odour will it actually consider that its not natural and may present a danger before attacking it? Of course if its a small body of overfished water (unforunately like most places I fish in Switzerland!) then possibly, but in general I don't think it would. So I think I am a more scent the better fisherman! Scents have only very recently, and I am talking this year!, come on the the European market, I have been using MF Anise (and I can only agree with alsworms, who knows what the fish think it smells like!) for 3 or 4 years with huge sucess! I mean I have stood next to fishermen using similar lures and whilst we have been pulling out redfin perch after redfin perch, with anise scented twisters they were catching nothing! I am so convinced of the benefits of scent, I even carry a small food colouring bottle of scent in my tackle bag to coat my lures after every other cast! Anise for me, has worked on Euro Perch, Pike and Zander as well as twice on wild brown trout (which I did not expect!) I would be interested to know if any one has identified the "best" or rather prefered scents for Pike/Muskie vs Bass vs Waleye/Zander? I would just like thank every one for everything I have learned on this Forum cos as the only lure pourer I know of in Switzerland, I have learnt everything I know about pouring and fishing soft lures from this forum. It rocks! Keep up the scent chat lads I am hungry for more info! Simon

I had a similar problem when heating on a hot plate with white/pearl coloured plastic, the first few batched were fine and they gradualy got yellower until my last pours looked more like a piss colour! I solved this by simply adding heat staberlizer! ok if you leave the pan on the hot plate for half an hour or so the plastic colours slightly but not as bad. Also using a few drops of heat staberlizer has the added bonus of making cleaning the pots so easy! plastic just peels out and doesn't stick in the pan. Simon

Hi, I make all my molds out of POP and must have missed somthing! what is Elmer's glue? it is most probable that I won't be able to get it in Europe but am goig to the US (DC, TX, NY and CA) on bussines next month so maybe able to pick some up, what type of store sells it? Cheers, Simon

Cheers Phil, I like it! I think I am going to have a look at the old school models for a bit of inspiration! Simon

Hotplate! But I have been looking for a cheap microwave so if I want to do three colour pous I have my main two on the hotplate and do a small amount of the third colour in the microwave, and pour that first. At least thats the idea..

Have to agree with TTDuckman, I tried too and just got a mess and a mould thats still half red! I read somewhere on this forum about a technique that gave a similar effect as to what you want. If you make a small amount of (opaque) blue cooked plastic and just before you pour the (transparent) watermelon, pour a little of the blue into your watermelon near the spout and swirl (not mix) gently with a thin metal rod and pour. Never tried though!!! let me know if it works. Simon

I like the colour combo on the Grub mbreuning! Sorry Ray can't see your worms well enough to comment.. Here are some of my 15cm swimbaits from a home made mould in moter oil and chartreuse.. Simon

Hi Jayson, I haven't made molds out of clay but have used plaster of paris for 10 or so molds with huge sucess. I used PP because of my method of making molds comprises of sticking bits of existing SP's togetehr to make a new form of bait then copying this with the PP. My only sugestion is as well as a heavy coat of glaze I would recomend some kind of varnish or epoxy finish, who knows the glaze might be enough! Good luck and I look forward to seeing some of your new creative baits! Simon

Hi Leaf-matter, I haven't made such a bait before but do pour my own soft baits and have played around with adding plastic tails to store bought crank baits. I use a product called "Pro soft bait Glue" holds really well, but when it comes to replacing the tail it gets a bit messy. If the fin you want to add to the back of your lure doesn't protrude too much and therefore doesn't risk getting torn this could be a good solution, IE. cut a thin groove down the back of the lure the same width as the fin, add glue to groove, sick in the fin and Voila! I would love to see a photo of the finished product or proto type, my email is lemanlures@hotmail.com. Is it intended as a fresh water or sea type bait? Simon