carolinamike

BaitMan, Talk to Bear at Bear's Baits, I think he has the exact color you're looking for.

Saint, I talked to Bear, I think if you use scuppernong with a little clear chartreuse you'll get the color of motor oil that you're looking for. If I'm not mistaken the chartreuse is chartreuse R. He probably also has a straight motor oil coloring but it will probably have the reddish purplish tint with the chartreuse highlight. Both of these will give you the two color effect, looks amber or purplish out of the water and more chartreuse in the water, there's also a color called burple that has this same effect and I love it.

MT & Alsworms, Thanks for the congrats guys, and congratulations to Poor Boy's and Ghost Baits also. Man that Goby's done great for Poor Boy's. It's been a tsunami for them and I hope the waves keep rolling. And Jim you make a great looking Goby also. Come July, I will be a full time plastic man for a year and a heck of a year it's been. At times, just getting by, by the skin of my teeth, but so far, this year's started out great. We are currently producing the Hag's Tornado worm for a company out of Texas. It's been a great experience producing someone else's bait besides our own. If you get a chance to check it out on the web, I think a lot of you guys will like this bait. Although I'm about sure it would be impossible to do as a hand pour, the injection is tricky enough, so I would even hate to think about hand pouring it, and making a POP mold would be almost impossible. A lot of you wished us well when we first started this thing a year ago and for that we thank you all so much. Keep us in your prayers as we keep you guys in ours. God Bless you all and thanks again for the congratulations. Your friend,

Bear, I'm glad you're back in business. What is it about us plastic guys and saws and fingers. I run my left ring finger through a table saw when I was 16. It's amazing, they reattached the finger and after it healed they did another surgery to straighten it up and reattach tendons and man, it's like it never happened. Hope your recovery goes fast. I think the worst part about mine was the physical therapy, stretching and moving something that hadn't moved in a year was not fun. That was 30 years ago and I have no trouble remembering that. Anyway, I wish you a speedy recovery and hope for a terrific season for your business. Your friend,

Guys, if you need help with a secret bait, I can say this much for sure about Bear, he won't spread your information around. Good luck with the business, Bear, hope it goes well!

Could it be carpal tunnel from pouring too much? Good luck, I hope everything comes out alright.

Thanks guys! This is exactly the kind of thing I'm shooting for. The trouble is that I've got to pull this off using the machine. Before, with 6 Lee pots and 2 2gallon pots, it was no trouble. I could do multi-colored laminates and was kind of unlimited on plastic colors. The bait is actually a worm and the ideas are great. The copper highlight sounds good, and I really hadn't thought about the junebug before. And the smoke color is a definite mimic of our cold water bluegill right now. That's the thing about this particular type of fish, several different species, several different color patterns and most patterns change from cold water to warm water. I feel posts like this is what helps all the creative juices flow on TU. Please keep the ideas coming. A central Texas bluegill would help.

Here's one for you guys! If you could only use two colors of plastic in a laminate and your choice of any color flake, what colors of plastic and flake would you use to imitate a bluegill or bream? Specifying what color plastic on top and what color plastic on bottom, and what color of flake you would use in each color. I personally am leaning towards a green pumpkin or watermelon shade platic on top, maybe with a little green and gold highlight and then a sweet potato orange on bottom, and not sure exactly what color flake. I sure would like to hear some ideas from you guys. But remember the rules, only two colors of plastic. Thanks for your input.

Thanks everyone, the plastic is sold. carolinamike

Guys, I've got around 1/2 drum of LC's 536 plastic. I'm asking $250.00, you must pick up. I'm in NC around 50 miles west of Charlotte. I do have an empty drum and we could transfer it a bucket at a time from the half full barrel on the ground to the empty barrel on the truck, unless there's a couple of big guys. I'm estimating the weight to be around 220 lbs. If interested PM me. carolinamike

mifon, Good luck finding this rubber. A couple of the jig guys in my area have been diligently searching for years. And being from NC, you're right, these jigs are very popular in this area, but most of the guys around here refer to them as spider jigs. The problem with this material is that it was never intended to be used for the fishing industry. It was actually developed for the elastic bands in underwear. But you know how it is, one of us rednecks made a jig caught a fish and the rest was history. If you do find it, be sure and check the quality. What's being found now is mostly old stuff that someone had put away at one of the shut down textile mills. So some of the stuff the guys are finding around here is dry rotted or aged too bad. Also it had a coating of talcom powder that made the bands separate when you cut it. I can't remember the number of bands that the big rubber used to come in, I believe it was either 9 or 12. A couple of fellas did find some around here but it was like 24 strands with no talcom powder. They ended up winding each strand individually on a roll putting the number of rolls on a dowel rod and then pulling the strands off together in order to get the proper number of strands for tying a jig. The plain fact is all of our textile business has gone overseas, that's probably where you're going to have to look for the rubber. Now that you know the history, maybe this will help you to locate some. The guys around here are real hush hush about this rubber but I will ask. But 9 out of 10 the answer is "we can't get it anymore". But the funny thing is, I can usually buy about a half dozen jigs, so apparently someone's finding it. You might have to reconfigure it to get it to work for you, but I'd say your best bet is to check with the textile industries. carolinamike

NY OZ, I just sent you a PM. Thanks,

Troul Hawk, Happy to hear your stuff arrived OK. Let me know how your baits turn out. We've done well selling the runners over the holidays and plastic prices seem to have leveled off for now. So what the heck, we'll just make this holiday sale price the regular price for now, or unless plastic gets crazy again. Thanks everyone for the business and the kind words. We hope and pray that everyone has a blessed 2009. With the economy right now, we all could use a good spring.

Jigman2, You can build an injector, and Delw's right, you'll need someone that's very good at welding aluminum. Some machine work and some drilling and tapping. I've promised a couple of guys on TU to share a lot of the details on one of these pots. The one I built is very safe. I've maxed it out on purpose a couple of times just to test it. I've left it for as long as 10 minutes and come back and everything is fine. The main thing you have tied up in it is a lot of time to do it right. We are covered up right now, but we'll try our best after Christmas to get some pictures up of the lid. That's the main part of the pot that needs the work. You guys just keep nagging so I don't forget. As far as the vacuum goes, my worry would be shrinkage of the bait. One good thing about an injector is you can hold continual pressure to help minimize shrinkage, but the idea is interesting. To quiet down the vacuum system, you could get a portable air tank, like you would use to pump up a flat tire and you could buy a vacuum pump, I'm sure Grainger carries them, just look in the HVAC section. You probably could get a pressure switch that would turn the pump on and off for you. Pull a vacuum on your air tank. You would have to regulate your vacuum pressure just like you would if you were injecting. Then you could open up a nozzle and pull the vacuum without a continuous running motor. Kind of work on the same principle as an air compressor, except in reverse. The small electric pumps are less quieter than a vacuum cleaner. It would just be a matter of calculating the cfm's you would need. If someone takes this project on, keep us informed, I'd like to hear more about this.

Hey Guys, Just to let you know, we are sold out of bubble gum and white. Thanks,

Thanks for helping me out bassnfool. Brave, he's right I can run a certain percentage back through the machine as regrinds but we're a small company and a little bit more lenient on our minimum orders than others so when I do a color change, from one color to another, I also have to catch any residual flake that's left in the system. Therefore, I would also have to catch the regrinds too. The reason we don't sell the runners as regrinds, after doing hand pours for years, I feel like it would incorporate too much air into the plastic. I feel that by not grinding them, you're ready to pour quicker. Some guys have been asking about the consistency of the plastic, it's right along the lines of LC's formula 502. I've always received some sort of response anytime I ask a question on TU so I thought why not cut you guys a deal. We'll keep it at this price until the first of the year. Any orders we had for runners that were not yet filled will receive the sale price. If some of you still have some questions, maybe you can ask the guys that are already using them for the pros and cons. Don't worry, I can take the criticism. Your friend,

One thing I have noticed on coloring is most of the guys on TU talk about using so many drops. This is fine but I've found you get far better results and whole lot more consistent product from pour to pour if you weigh your coloring. Gram scales are inexpensive and with a little practice you'll know exactly what weight of coloring to use everytime. For example, for 20 oz of plastic, I've found that around 1 1/2 gram of coloring always worked well for me. But I do use pure pigment and not the cut down stuff that other companies sell. So you will have to experiment a little bit to find out which works best for you. You can get small 50 ml beakers on popular auction sites and scientific supply sites. Weigh your beaker, add the weight of the coloring then set your scales to the total weight of the beaker and the amount of coloring you want. It's real easy to stay consistent that way. You don't have to worry about one drop being bigger than the other. The amount of coloring needed will always depend on the amount of plastic you are using.

Our family at Carolina Baits would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays. We have decided to run a sale on the runners. The response has been great and the baits that are being made from the runners look great from the pictures that have been posted. So far we have had no complaints. The sale price is $2.00 per lb non paid TU members and $1.50 per lb paid TU members. You're looking at between $12 & $16 per gallon (8lb per gallon) for colored plastic with flake and scent. We're glad we can offer this to you guys. Here is a list of colors currently available: pumpkinseed green pumpkin junebug black watermelon/red flake watermelon chartreuse non bleed white black/blue flake black/red flake pumpkinseed/red flake bananaseed orange pumpkin black emerald black grape green pumpkin/green shine penny pumpkin junebug red blue pumpkin scuppernong green pumpkin/blue flake bubble gum green pumpkin/green flake watermelon candy pearl pepper watermelon/purple flake redbug red/red flake scuppernong/red flake mocassin blue honey/red flake honey/purple flake watermelon/blue flake green pumpkin/orange flake grape smoke purple methiolate For those of you not familiar with what plastic runners are: In a large production mold there is a central canal in which the plastic flows and each individual bait branches off from it. After the baits are picked off the central piece of plastic that is left is commonly referred to as the runner. We accept Mastercard, Visa and Paypal. Shipping is calculated according to weight purchased. We will contact you with the full amount before charging your credit card or paypal account. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from the Carolina Baits family!

It is true that the IRS is not out there trying to nab people selling fishing items at the flea market. But your competitors are. There's a whole lot of difference between the hobby side of plastic and the business side of plastic. If someone feels like you're doing more business than him, and you do not have a federal tax ID #, then you're putting yourself out on a limb, and leaving yourself open for a very costly lesson. That 10% federal excise tax is a big deal to the IRS, when someone turns you in for not paying it. For example, lure making competition in my local area is high. When someone was nice enough to tell me that I needed my federal ID # and I called to find out about it, I had already been turned in. The lady told me she was really glad to hear from me because she had already received my name. Also she checked another luremaker's computer and noticed that he had ordered 1000 hooks for making jigs, but reported he only made 500 jigs, she asked to see the other 500 hooks. I'll give you two guesses what he could not produce and he did pay taxes for 500 more jigs, so be very careful with your federal excise tax. Good business records are a must to keep this end of your business easy. And be careful, the business end of plastic can be very cutthroat at times, but it doesn't take long for you to figure out who's trying to take you for a ride and who's trying to help.

The federal excise tax applies to all sales. You will need to check with your state regarding sales & use tax, but in NC if you make a sale to a customer in NC that is not to a sales tax exempt merchant for resale there is a 6.75% sales tax. Also, in NC there is a 1% use tax for materials used. That's why it is important to check with your own state for applicable taxes due. For the federal excise tax: Per the IRS Form 720: "The tax on sport fishing equipment is 10% (.10) of the sales price. The tax is paid by the manufacturer, producer, or importer. Taxable articles include reels, fly fishing lines (and other lines not over 130 pounds test), fishing spears, spear guns, spear tips, terminal tackle (which includes artificial lures see publication 510), fishing supplies and accessories, and any parts or accessories sold on or in connection with these articles." So as you can see, taxes for us can be up to nearly 18% of sales. The best thing to do is to contact an IRS rep if you have questions on the excise tax. If you're on the up and up, and keep up with all your sales records, you will find these are easy folks to deal with.

Drof99, I think Dave is referring to taxes, and if so, he's right, no one has mentioned those yet. Get all of your licenses, tax numbers and all things that your state requires. There is a federal excise tax of 10% on sales of fishing related products. If you sell before you do this you leave yourself open for a competitor to turn you in to the IRS. This happens more than you ever thought it would. Ebay is a great place for exposure but unless your bait is really unique, you'll have to depend on people taking their time scanning Ebay to find your baits. You need a way to make them stand out. After going from hand pours to full time injection, and with many years of sales experience in retail sales of plastics, by far we did the best business with the Mom & Pop tackle stores. These shops are usually located near and around your local lakes and reservoirs. We are fortunate in our area to have 8 or 10 lakes within a 100 mile or so radius. This was the backbone of our retail business. I think you've already been forewarned about giving baits away, also be careful of sponsoring fishermen. Make absolutely sure that they are promoting your product. Also a very good way to get your name out there is to sponsor a local specialized tournament, give them a few packs of baits for door prizes or prize packages. Casting Kids is great for this. We just recently donated baits to a Special Olympics tournament, you'll never lose money supporting things like this. It will always come back to you 3 times better than what you give. The good thing about Mom & Pop stores is you can take your time and not try to move too fast, we supplied stores for 8 years with hand pours and we finally reached a point that we had to expand. You're doing exactly what you need to do at first, and that is taking your time and researching. As you grow TU is a great place to find ways to expand your business and promote your business and up your production when needed, in a costly fashion. So many people on here give great advice on this subject. It's been 1 year of being a full time plastic man myself so I can speak of the addiction, no matter how many thousands of baits I turn out, I still have that fascination that I can produce something that people can go out and catch fish on. I think this is the key thing that we all love about this hobby and business. Good luck on your endeavor, anything I can help you with feel free to PM anytime. Happy Thanksgiving to all in TU land!

Hello out there in TU land, Hope everyone is doing well. I was wondering if anyone could give me a little information about In-Pact Poly bag company. I've never ordered from them before and tried to place an order a little while ago using their 800#. I could not get the call to go through. Can you only order during the week? I hope that some of you guys that have dealt with them can give me an idea about the purchasing process.