Stick'em

Sounds like it cooked too long.

Is anybody using a coarse salt? That is next on my list. I don't know if the pickling salt is available without ording it. I'm probably going to try the sea salt in a coarse grade.

If I were a five pound smallmouth and that craw hopped by my lips, there's no question I'd eat it. The color is spot on.

Sea salt is another option. I'm using pickling salt and sea salt. Which is best is a toss up right now. The sea salt seemed to 'powder' better when I ground it up.

Try to keep the plastic just under the top of the cavity. This won't happen all the time, but you"ll get better and better.

Your right, it does have flare to the tails. I'm still not seeing a heavy green pumpkin anywhere though, more of mix of a brownie color and GP, with tiny fleck.

I had almost posted to this last night, but I'm still yet a learning rookie. I agree, nothing in nature is exactly correct all the time. I mean when you catch a load of bass, all probably have something distinguishable about them. It could be a miniscule difference like a worn fin. Or one five pounder shaped like a football, another five long and slender. I like suttle differences. A craw with a built in(on) 'fightin' claw. Nothing wrong here. Pour it.

So true, SHK. Tough to really get it narrowed down from a computer pic.

To me this color looks to have a cinnamon hue to it. I don't think it's a true green pumpkin. Maybe it has heavy small bronze flake changing the look of the green pumpkin to a "dirty" or brownish color. I would try a little green pumpkin and cinnamon with a bronze or copper fleck.

While were on the subject of dyes and pigments, I have a question about orange and chartreuse. I'm not getting a strong enough color out of them. They were regular colors and mixed pretty good. Is there a trick to adding yellow (for example), to the chartreuse? Or does it just take super amounts of these colorants to make a solid looking color?

Yea, Rowingadubay, ruining a perfectly good mold didn't sit well with me at all. I finally found a good use for the foam side of brushes.

I'm going to stick to using the real deal colorant for now. I just got a batch from Bear's. You have to stir it well to mix up the pigment that settles along the bottom. There was a big difference in each bottle after I carefully made sure all pigment was mixed well. It settles kinda quick, so if you go a few day to a week or more, without using said color, just shaking it probably isn't going to be enough. This may be a reason why the color is not holding true for some. I don't know about the oil base paint colorant from paint stores. I think the colorant used here is interchangeable with coloring latex or oil. Also it's probably not made to be heated/cooked.

Ah ha! The brushes for flux sound like a good maneuver, Eric001. The body ridges on my molds are just taking too much of the epoxy with a "hair" brush. I was having too much build around those ridges, forcing me to keep pulling/raking epoxy from the cavity. For me the foam brush soaks up most of that excess while leaving an even coat.

Well, as most of you know, I'm still in "rookie" status with my new hobby. I came across the issue of coating my molds w/epoxy. Made the mistake of buying a cheap pack of brushes from one of those dollar stores. Went to coating w/un-thinned 5 min. epoxy. Yea, disaster struck quickly... The brush started shedding bristles at an alarming rate , causing me to pick them out of the super-quick setting epoxy and waste valuble time. I don't know why, but I quickly crammed the brush in for another dip of epoxy (thinking I had time for one more mold) and promptley ruined the mold's ridges with a couple ultra-thick swipes of the curing glob. Thanks to help from this site I found some 30 min. epoxy and thinned it ever so slightly with 91% rubbing alchohol (thanks, guys). I stayed away from the brush though, and went with a 1 inch foam brush. I used more of a "dabbing" instead of "brushing". What the foam does is soak up some of the epoxy while laying it on, resulting in an evener coat of epoxy with no chance of those nasty runaway brush bristles.

You might try a powder color such as black lumina. It gives a sheen to the baits.Lurecraft has the lumina effect powder.