Bassun

Oh no worries... as I read more on the site and began to learn tid bits I quickly understood there were a lot of little things i wasnt even thinking about.... But thanks for taking the time to follow up! I appreciate it!

I like to have as many options as possible, especially when fishing for cash. While I 100% agree with BobP that a smaller number of choices will help you become better at using those particular items, if I see a good option but left that bag at home it would really put a damper on things. I completely subscribe to the idea of taking only one type of lure out for learning, but if you are working that's a different ballgame. I personally use two bags. One large "gym bag" that holds 3700's labeled the same way you did. I also keep my spinners / buzzbaits in a square box AND i keep one more tupperware style with a hinged lid of about the same size with my expected plastic selection. Generally I keep it chock full of Flukes (my personal confidence and go to bait for everything from brush to docks. Depending on where and when, it could be full of swimbaits, or grubs, maybe tubes, etc. I also keep one empty box labeled "USED". Anytime I swap out lures I put the "used" lure in the used box. This way I can look back at what I had no or low success on and sometimes see a pattern that I may have overlooked. It also makes for a good case study after the tournament to look in there and think about why it didn't work or why you even tried it. As a bonus, it's much faster to just drop a used lure back in there then reorginize the next day. It's funny how often you see oddball lures in there that you have no idea why you even tried when things get going really badly. I also use some of the smaller (3500 I think) stored in one of the end pouches to keep hooks, sinkers, etc. and some other small / finess lures in all labed with a sharpie as well. The other bag, I call my worm bag and is what you were actually asking about. I tried flip binders, which look really nice, but are a pain to use in my opinion. I tried putting worms in plastic boxes for about a week and realized that was just about as bad of an idea as I could have had. So I ended up using a compartmentalized bag. It worked great. I had two main compartments inside and two smaller "end" compartments. I keep creature baits like Brush-Hawgs, Lizards, etc. in one end compartment all in thier original bags. I keep grubs in the other end compartment. For the two bigger compartments I kept finess / small worms in one side, and larger worms etc. in the other- again everything in its original bag. If I had a third main compartment, then I would put my swimbaits / flukes / etc in it, but it didn't so they lived with the finess worms. I ripped the bottom out of that bag and now have one with no middle dividers at all so I just put the createure baits and grubs in the opposite ends, the rest in the bag. It's not as effective (those dividers really help), but still works better than the flip files, or boxes, or anything else for me. I guess I could sew in dividers...but for now it works. Oh, I do, however, keep prerigged swimbaits in my main tackle bag in a 3700. It doesnt hold too many, but if you are running Alabama rigs its much easier to keep groups of five rigged and ready in a hard box so you can quickly change out the size or color in the fall. I store the frames and the baits all in the same box so if I decide to throw the rig, I just grab the set up I want, and load it up. No time wasted rigging the swimbaits. I would suggest using a sealed box for this vs a cheap box. I "try" to only use them on the A-Rigs but I catch myself too often grabbing a single swim bait out of there instead of rigging one up, lol. I don't know if that helps any at all, but that's what I do and have very little time wasted looking for stuff (especially with my old worm bag). I would suggest deciding how many compartments you would like to have, then find a bag that fits your needs. If money is no object, then you can considered camera bags as they often have multilple adjustable compartment dividers ... but you will likely pay out the nose. Good luck!

While I may not add any value to finding the resolution, I am very glad to see this issue being chronicled the way it is. I am still researching and learning all I can before I even make a first attempt at pouring, I know I will have the same rookie mistakes as many people have; but seeing how people diagnose problems, utilize unique methods to solve them, etc. should help me (and any other rookies) think about our methods and hopefully ammend them quickly and learn the art of the pour. I hate to oversimplify the process, but from afar it sounds very simple and as long as one is consistent once they figure out their technique, pouring worms should be a realitively easy process. From all accounts, it does seem that people should start with hand pours and master that technique first. That makes perfect sense as you can actually see what is happening...shrinkage, bubbles, cooling times, etc. Something that I've not noticed suggested often is logging the process. IE Noting what mixes give what colors, how different color flakes modify the color, differences in elasticity based on "softness" or saltyness. I know there are some posted recepies but I was expecting this to be a recurring theme... Track your success's and failures. Anywho - I just wanted to thank everyone for thier input and sharing tips to help flatten the learning curve. I'm sure it's appreciated more than you know...

I am interested in the prototyping method. To me personally, if I am not making my own designes I am less excited... Pouring worms may be fun, etc. and maybe I could create custom colors; but ulitmately my goal is to design, develop, and fish (maybe one day sale a few) of my own custom lures. You commented that it runs you about $100 from start to finish on a good high detail mold. I'm guessing you are hitting a high cost in the production molds as you are making large molds with a high number of cavities?