longhorn

Vincent, On your plastic question my guess is that the plastic wasn't mixed well enough...the hardener component of the plastic sinks so the later batches would have more hardener even if mixed well. Calhoun separates rather quickly so mix well before pouring. Also I meant you no harm...just giving my opinion since you asked us what we thought. I'm glad to see you interested in fishing. I used to live in San Antonio...I'll bet some on this site are wondering what the heck a stock tank is

I'm with Matt...it is a great fish to catch and especially on a lure you made but not a 10 to 12. I don't mean to hurt feelings here but facts is facts. Matt is only telling the truth and he should not receive any negative comments for that. I thought the same thing when I saw the photo but didn't say anything. Great job on the catch and the bait making.

When fishing the swim bait I designed I found that the weighted hook would tear through the side of the bait when hooking a fish...many times on the first fish. I found that cutting a hook slot with scissors helped greatly so I wanted to have some molds with hook slots built in. Here is one way to add a slot to an existing POP mold and then make production molds. 1. Decide where you want the slot by measuring where the hook would go through or you could make it most of the length of the bait and make it hollow after dipping. 2. Make a cardboard template and fit to the mold. The top of the slot should be straight while the bottom fits the bait contour. 3. Cut the blade out of metal, I used soft aluminum. Note the little point on the bottom. This will hold the blade in place for glueing. 4. Drill a small hole to position the blade...make it have a tight fit so it will stand by itself. Put the blade in position making sure it is in the middle of the bait and glue in place with Elmer's Glue All. After drying it's ready to pour. Now you can make your overpours for making a production mold. The blades will be held in place by the POP. I've used this process before with good success.

Yes, the bigger problem is the un-opened product going bad.

I purchased some mend it plastic repair solvent at $11.99 per oz ($1534.72 per gallon). I had read on another site about guys having problems with evaporation. They said they used it once and it worked great but when they went back to use it again half the contents had evaporated. After I read this I marked my bottle at the fluid level. I have not used mine nor opened it and it's already started to go away. Just FYI.

Elmer's Glue All has been used to seal all my molds for over 30 years...inexpensive and easy to use...just paint it on and you're good to go.

Not Fork or Palestine although way up Flat Creek would be great right now....and 310 you don't look too cute yourself

here it is: M-F Manufacturing Co., Inc. - 817- 281-9488 / Fax 817-281-9498

Good Job! Those baits look awesome. I don't have that kind of patience.

Don't know if this is proper but I caught this chunk today on my hand-poured swim bait in sexy shad color. Wind was 15-25 gusting to 30. Good feeling catching fish on home-made.

If you are looking for plastic lure molds....worm molds gets quite a few items also try plastic worm mold, lure mold and plastic lure mold.

Does anyone know the type of plastic used to make floating lures like the Sizmic Popping Toad. It is really firm and it doesn't look like it's full of bubbles but will sure float a 4/0 hook. Thanks.

Good looking baits...is that a one-piece mold?

I’ve not used a microwave or presto pot so can’t do any real comparison but here are some advantages of the heat lamp system (in my opinion). You heat and pour out of the same pan and no taking it in and out of the microwave…all you have to do is stir occasionally. I can’t imagine pouring out of a pyrex cup. You don’t have to wear gloves since the pans have wooden or phenolic handles (wood is better). You heat all your colors at once. I have only a two burner but for production or three or four colors you would just have more burners. I think the system heats evenly and doesn’t take much special care while heating. Since the top and bottom lamps have separate switches you can turn off the top lamp and let the plastic sit there for a long time without burning. This system heats your plastic during the pouring process so you’re only limited be the number of cavities you have. Here’s the process when pouring laminated baits: I take the belly pan and pour one cavity…put it back on the heat and pour the back of the bait out of the other pan. I can continue to pour two-color baits and the plastic doesn’t cool off. If you were pouring solid color baits you could have two pans of the same color heating and if you have enough mold cavities do some serious production. I can’t imagine this process when having to put the plastic in and out of a microwave. If you’ve filled all the cavities and have to wait for some to cool you simply turn off the top lamps and you plastic will remain at near pouring temp. without much chance of burning. With experience you get a feel for when to turn the lamps off and on. When you’re ready to start pouring again turn on the lamps and in a minute and a couple stirs and you’re ready to go again. I also use this for horizontal dipping of swim baits. Since my pouring pans are large I can put enough plastic in to dip a bunch of baits without any special container or insulation… and when the plastic cools just put it back on while you take the finished baits out of the water. I have my little home-made “table” on casters so I can easily move it around or even put it in the back of the truck and pour anywhere there’s electricity. I can’t say this is better than a microwave but I think it is….and y’all can’t say a microwave is better until you’ve tried this. I must add for production of large quatities of solid color baits that presto pot looks hard to beat when using aluminum molds that pour through the top hole.

Can't help but mentioning a third way of heating plastic which has some advantages: http://www.tackleunderground.com/forum/soft-plastics/8943-pouring-table.html

Lurecraft has a great selection of 4" worm molds. You should be able to find a design you like.

I don't have any LC swim bait molds...all mine are original designs or designs similar to popular swim baits and all are made from one piece open POP molds...I tried dipping was not successful. LC has some interesting looking molds but hard to tell from the photos...e.g. 5X780, 5X578, 5X586 and 5X378.

That will bet bit!..good job.

Just an observation...based on the shape of your masters you would need to make two-piece POP molds....none of them have a flat top. Just wanted to make sure you knew this since you are new. Good luck with your baits. This is a fun part of fishing.

I don't know who "they" is but the bait is 3 1/4" long and looks nothing like a basstrix to me. looks more like a silly bunny which is not a very good swimmer. Just my opinion based on fishing with both.

I ordered several bottles of the LC plastic paint thinking that I would be painting swim baits...I got several colors...the other day I opened a bottle of chartruese I had never used and it was coagulated...adding thinner didn't fix this condition...today I opened a blue that I had used once and it was in the same shape...it is not a very good product in my opinion...it may just be a container problem. I've sure wasted a lot of money on it. At $191.00 a gallon or $1054 a barrel there ought to be a better way....now the LC people are going to post and say it was my fault.

To be a real sensation some big tournaments would have to be won with it first to establish it's worth. So your first step would be to position yourself to make the contacts and make the baits available to some good Pros to make that happen. Just my opinion.

I've been making my own. Mustad 91768 5/0 hooks are $12 for 50....the stainless large coils are $8.50/100 and like Nova I've been using Gremlin rubber core sinkers without the rubber which in 1/16 are 12 cents. I've had excellent success with this hook and the point of the Mustad hook is long lasting. I did not like the $5/three pack either.

Someone asked for an example of how a hook is held in place while pouring. Here's my hi-tech approach. Notice that I notched my mold with a dremel tool in two places so the hook will center, then use the straw to keep it vertical by scotch taping the end of the straw to the mold. The hook shown is a 7/0 Gam worm hook...the bait is not balanced with it unless weight is added near the bottom. Second photo is how I rig another type of swimmer I make. It has a hook slot and with this rigging the bait can last 4 or 5 fish and usually the nose wears out...if you want to get real cheap you can rig it again on one of those stick-in hooks like the Mustad and use it for a few more fish.

I dip some baits only to seal the eye in like the Baby E type baits. Other baits are designed to have the entire body dipped but not the paddle tail...on these I simply hold them by the tail and horizontal dip, then put in cold water so the hot plastic won't deform. I'm only pouring for myself...some on here have probably built things where they can dip several at once. One clarification...all my swim baits are poured in open molds...not dipped hollow tubes like basstrix but the same would apply to them....I don't think you'd re-dip the tail with the last clear coat of plastic.