pat28

Hi everyone, I have been pouring my soft plastics for some time now, and as a parallel to this I have also been painting my spoons and homemade pike baits with an airbrush. I was wondering whether I could hit my giant soft plastics with the airbrush, too. Is there any issue with compatibility? Will I still be able to remelt? Your wisdom is needed! Sincerely, Pat28

Bojon's wisdom was light to me when I started pouring my musky tubes. I am a fan of woodturning, so turning concave plugs for my pvc pipes was not much of a problem. I spray canola oil into the pipe and revolve it at a 45 degree angle or so, then pour the surplus back into my pyrex cup. A few coats like this, and I get to the thickness I need. I usually go for 2 coats inside the pipe, let it cool down, take it out, and dip the front half of the tube in the pyrex cup. As many have mentioned, if you put that hot pipe under cold tap water, make absolutely sure no water touches the hot plastisol.

Thanks for the advice! This is greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone, With 12-ft, near record snowbanks here in Quebec, I need to make the spring come by starting the luremaking process for the coming season. I need to make myself one or two silicone molds for large soft plastic swimbaits and am looking at the impressive lineup of Smooth On products. I just cannot figure out which one would be appropriate. Mold Max seems to be okay, but it exists in about ten versions, and I am lost. I know many of you use this company's products. Would you have any advice for me as to which one I should buy? Thanks for your help! Pat

Thanks Appdriver! I kept looking at closeups of both and was wondering. I was afraid it might be a cheaper spinoff.

Hi everyone! I am looking for a wire bender/tackle maker to make large pike (or small musky)-sized spinnerbaits. I first looked into the Boggs, but read your wise input about it limiting bait size. Now, I am trying to find the Hagen's in Canada, but to no avail so far. However, I have come across luremaking.com's professional tackle maker. Has anyone here used it? Any thoughts? Or else, if you know of a canadian source for the hagens, it would be much appreciated! Thanks for your help! Pat

Custom fees will hurt if you have this stuff shipped to Canada. Do a search on the forum to find canadian suppliers. Patrick

All predator fish will sometimes grab small lures. They do work. However, if protecting the ressource is also a concern, then small lures cannot be used on a go-to basis as they get inhaled by the fish, and reduce release success significantly. Moreover, smaller lures mean smaller terminal tackle and hardware, and the mighty musky is known for testing equipment very seriously. I have seen three 6/0 trebbles open straight on a number of occasions. I normally use lures between six and twelve inches in length for muskies. You may adapt your lure to make it bigger. Pat

Check out makelure.com videos. Larry Dahlberg shows how to make worms without a mold, using beadchain. Cool. Pat

The makelure starter kit is fine if you plan to make a few bass sized baits. You will quickly run out of mold making silicone. I have done the same kind of research to end up with the following conclusions. Keep in mind that I am mostly into large muskie baits, as this affects the results. More mold making material is better. I went with Smooth On as it was cheaper than many other brands, and have not regretted it at all, except the 5 pounds I first ordrred had to be backed up by another 11 pounds ordered three days later. Coroplast is available at all hardware stores and is very cheap. Plaster of Paris works well with simple designs, at least for me. Anything with great detail may not be up to par with silicone molds, but the price difference is major. I thus have simple models in PoP, and more detailed ones in silicone. Get at least twice as much plastisol as you first thought was enough. I just went through five gals. In something like six pouring sessions. This simply proves the addiction that one develops so fast. Order several colors in advance. Shipping fees are sometimes ludicrous on small parcels, so it is better to save on shipping by getting more colors to begin with. A dedicated microwave is a must. You (or your wife) will confirm this upon the first inhalation of fumes. The same thing goes for pyrex cups. And get a few of those to avoid having to wait for the plastisol to cool off between pours of different colors, especially for multicolored baits. Pat

Also, a dedicated microwave, if you do not already have one. The fumes will prevent you from using the microwave for food. Or at least, that is what your wife will argue. :-) Pat

Save on future shipping fees. Buy another 5-10 colors. At 5$ ea. , you would not want to pay 10-20 dollars in shipping just for coloring in a month from now. Pat

For some reason, after working with rattles for years, I am now a huge fan of silent baits. I guess the fish in my neck of the woods are somewhat negatively conditioned to rattles now with the increased pressure. Pat

Try to opt for just two trebble hooks on a six incher. Just upsize the trebbles. Less fouled hooks, and easier release of fish. Pat

Alsworms, mixing color in cold alumisol is something I did not know. I will definitely give it. Thanks for the advice! Pat

Hi guys, in my limited experience at pouring, I find that alumidye regular colors are very potent, i.e.One drop goes a long way. However, the fluorescent colors are giving me a hard time. Cannot seem to obtain a solid fluo color, from either fluo yellow, red, green or orange. I have tried several drops, and also a few drops of white to add to the opacity of the plastic. All I get is a shy, slightly fluo color, but nothing very bright or solid in color. I have mixed the bottles thoroughly. I find that they are much more difficult to get out of the bottles than the regular colors. Are they dry? Has anyone experienced the same thing, or does anyone know what I am doing wrong? Sincerely, Patrick

In the musky industry, several lures are made out of wood. A minor variation in the density of one piece of wood, or else a small, hidden knot somewhere and it can make or break the lure's success. The terrible thing is that at 20-25 dollars each, you would want them all to work, but only a very small fraction of them have the je-ne-sais-quoi that makes them great. Pat

There is also a homemade jig for this in the tool section. Pat

My (limited) experience. Thought 4 pounds would be overkill for a 10 inch muskie bait. Had to reorder to complete the mold. Look up Smooth On products. easy to work with, relatively affordable. Pat

http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/index.php?/gallery/image/13159-first-pours-suckers-and-tube/

Great advice from all of you. I hope it stands the test of sealing my lead rigs inside the soft plastics I poured yesterday. Otherwise, no bonbo will go near my slowly crafted wooden lures! Thanks for saving a batch of my plugs! :-) Patrick

Thanks for the info kbonanny. I tried to seal the lead rig that will go into my soft plastic lures with the resin, and it seems to have worked. As wood lures are very long to make, I prefered to get some advice from experienced folks prior to destroying a batch of wood plugs. I will post here to let people know if the resin prevents the lead from reacting with the soft plastic. Sincerely, Patrick