Tiderunner

I'll try giving a call there tomorrow.

Whats the best way to contact Fat Guys Fishing? Sent them an email through their contact us page on their website but haven't heard from them yet in just about a week. My money is burning a hole in my pocket! Should I use Facebook? Phone call? Are they usually pretty good about getting back to people? Any ideas? Or do some of y'all have experience dealing with them?

I use it almost exclusively and while I don't sell my baits, I do give them away to friends. I always tell them ahead of time, DO NOT OPEN THE BAG IN THE HOUSE! Honestly, I do feel the Cricket scent has upped my catch rate. The only other flavor I use is nightcrawler. A distant second.

I don't have a pool, but i'll use my brother inlaws. I put the mask on and watch the bait as he drags it through the water. He can't complain either unless he never wants to be invited to go fishing with me again.

for most of my baits I use MF soft. Tried other brands, and I keep going back to MF. I use medium as well, and I think when I get back into production after the holidays, I will use medium, which I use for some things. I can always add softener. Making single and double tail grubs, I found using soft sinking, the tails don't have any action. I'm thinking the same will happen with swim baits. Can't test them now. Too cold, and I doubt if lifeguards at the local YMCA would be happy if I tested my baits at the pool. So guess I'll be testing tail action in the bathtub. And for any pervs that read this I meant swim bait tail action.

I have been playing with my AI mold, and I really like the way it shoots. I do a lot of laminates on my other baits either with commercial laminate plates, or plates I make out of aluminum flashing. These won't work though with the swimbaits. So a dual injector is next on my wish list. I've been doing this bait making thing for around 30 years and can't believe I haven't bought one yet. Last season was my first using swim baits, and I am sold on them. What plastic have you been using for your swim baits? Like I said I've been playing, but with remelts, and I feel the soft MF may be too soft.

Thanks for that info! I just picked up an Angling AI in 3.75 shiner. No rings. And I really like the FGF 3.75 which reminds me of the Keitech fat impact. I wish it was offered in a 4 cavity like their 3.5 or 4" I do have a 9oz injector, and saving now for a dual injector. I think the 6oz dual, and my 9oz single might be or should be enough to fill 8 cavities I may go ahead with the 4 inch, if I'm up early enough for the best sale price.

I missed that sale price. and the non sale price is about $50.00 less than FGF. Is the shipping from Ukraine dependable now? I am starting to lean towards the FGF mold, but it will have to wait until after the holidays. But 50 bucks is fifty bucks. If I don't have to wait too long for the bait mold one.

Anybody know of a manufacturer that makes a mold like the Do It ES Ripper? Closely resembles Keitech swim baits. It looks as though Do It has a CNC mold, but it has side injection which won't work if laminating. Fat Guys has what I'm looking for in an 8 cavity but the price breaks my budget. At their price I could just buy a bunch of Keitechs, but not much fun in that. Just got the Angling AI Rip Rap and now want a ringed type as well. 3.5", 3.75", or 3.8"preferred. Any help would be appreciated.

Please don't post anything like this again. I became addicted in less than a minute! All kidding aside, this could be a very useful tool. I would certainly replace the color wheel I keep on the workbench. Thanks for sharing.

I make a lot of grubs and I find it’s not so much the mold but the plastic that adds the tail action. I use mostly MF soft sinking and I have found I get very little tail action. I am moving my grub making up to medium with a bit of hardener. The tails made with soft just seem to straighten out and and just drag through the water. I’ve had my grub molds - 4” single tail and 5” double for a few years now and can’t remember who made them One I believe is Delmart -long gone. And maybe lure craft for the single tail.

No need to buy gallons I’d you’re just starting out. Quarts are available too. some suppliers also sell sample packs of three different types. Been a while since I bought one of those so the company name escapes me. Maybe another member can help? FWIW… after a number of years making baits and trying at least a gallon of most of the brands, I keep going back to MF plastics.

I got started with floating plastics some 30 years ago, when Berkley did away with their floating power worms. We used these to skip across fields of lily pads, and other surface weeds. Deadly method! First off you'll need to use floating plastic. Take your pick of brands. I do use the glass bubble stuff with extra care. Still haven't inhaled any after all these years. I'm more worried abut burning myself with molten plastic. If you don't use floating plastic you.ll need to use even more bubbles A Lot More! Of course because you've used the bubbles, you'll need to use softener to make your bait more flexible, and heat stabilizer because this thick plastic mix will scorch easily. And of course because your bubbles are white you'll need to use a lot more color.. The only colors I've made are chartreuse, pink, white and black. Certain colors work in different areas I fish. The to fish the lily pads you.ll need a light wire hook. I use Gamakatsu wide gap no bigger than 2/0 And for line you need to use braid as the worms are too light to throw with mono, and mono sinks. This is my way of fishing topwater. Your ways may be different. Before this season is over I will be experimenting with making the bulb end of Neko worms float, and floating claws on crayfish. Again to be fished Neko for smallmouth. The floating worms are rigged Tex-posed.

Define "subtle degradation" in your clear plastic. That could answer all your questions. My microwave is 5 years old. Cheapo bought at Target. No issues. With our household ones, when they started taking longer to heat they usually deuced the bed soon after.

All great ideas, I'll just have to keep the colors lighter than usual so the white shows through. I have more jars of glitter, more bottle of color because I see something different, and I have to try it. When I first started this some 30 years ago, I had 2 silicone molds, and made a flat tail worm in chartreuse, pink, white and black. Now I make about 50 different colors, 15 or more types of baits, and god knows how many combos of pigment. glitter combos. And I think I use maybe 3 or 4 colors and probably 4 different types of baits when I fish. I know darn well I'm not the only one doing this. When I saw the white glitter, my thought was to use it as a contrast to other color glitters. Today I have ti finish putting a trailer together, and tomorrow after work I can start the white glitter trial. And next weekend I can let the bass test them

Found white glitter for sale and I thought about all the cool ways I could use it. SO of course I had to buy some. It came in and I can't think of one damn color combo to make with it. How about some input from fellow members. This is worse than writers block. Even that Worst Fishing guy hasn't used white glitter!

Excellent description. It made me LOL for real! But why is everyone spelling "anise" wrong? Hard to top that one. My son and I will be at opposite ends of the boat and he complains about the smell. when I share baits with my friends I always remind them not to open the bag in the house.

I have been using LureCraft Cricket scent. It seems since using this my catches have been going way up. However...If you want to know what death smells like, this is the scent. It just out and out stinks! I add a few drops to a bag of baits, some salt and do not open that bag ever again unless I am fishing. And mind you, this is cut with worm oil. I use maybe an ounce of scent to about 3oz of oil.

Bought some gold luster mica powder from a big online auction site, from a seller I'd bought from before. Tried it and I got the exact gold that I wanted. Deep enough to make my cores, yet still have the gold luster look to it. This stuff was dark and rich enough so that I wouldn't need to use a lot. I have found even lighter gold mica powders, and I will probably get some of those for my grubs.

Used the pearl powder. No matter how much I used it came out transparent. Added white. Meh Added black a little better Added a lot of black Looks like puke. And oddly still transparent. Will try another brand.

Looking to make a stickbait or some type of worm in a deep rich gold. I've tried extra fine glitter. Pearl effects with white, back. No luck. FYI..with black colorant gold pearl looks like puke. Would mica powder do the trick? I see that most hobby shops, and artsy craftsy shops sell mice powders. Would I just add these to clear plastisol? Anyone use this stuff, or make a deep rich solid colored gold before?

While I use both the soft and medium, I'm not sure there is a way to test sink rate other than thrown them in your swimming poo; or bathtub. I do know I fish deep water for small mouth, and can use my 5" stickbaits which weigh more than senkos. 12g vs 10.2 grams. Lots of salt or glass, or both weightless to about 30'. Over that depth I typically will Carolina rig them. I make 7" ribbon tail worms, salt or no salt I need to either Texas or Carolina rig them. Does the MF sinking work. I've used a lot of brands, but keep going back to the MF sinking. You basically get what you pay for.

Like the others already mentioned, stick with Pyrex only for microwave heating. Other wise you will find out the definition of thermal shock, and quite possibly the meaning of 2nd degree burns as well. Safety first when playing with a 350* molten plastic. If just starting out, I would get 2- 2cup Pyrex measuring cups. The 2 cup size gives your plastisol room to expand. Better yet, go to that big shopping site with a south american name and get yourself silicone cups. Probably your safest bet! Have fun but be safe.

No need for straight stick worms. I did however use a lower temp for the shells, and less pressure to shoot. First run no vise. Worst flashing yet. Shot the cores anyway Totally filled at a higher temp. Ok so next run, Still lower temps shell, still minimal pressure, and I socked that sucker into the vise nice and tight! NO clamps, no finesse! Shot my cores hot, and a good amount of pressure. PERFECT CORE SHOT STICKBAITS! It's almost as though the top and bottom plates of the mold don't match up perfectly. I never have this flashing problem with any other molds. Plastic or Lead molds unless I'm pouring a buttload of whatevers and the molds, injectors Molten metal or plastic is way hot. The I get a tiny bit of warping in my molds, but not often. Don't understand why it happens so easily in this mold. And yes I put salt in my cores. I fish deep water smallmouth 40-60 ft, and I need the extra density to get my baits down. Weight for these baits has been a consistent 9.7 grams. A factory senko weighs just over 10 grams. My home poured senkos weigh about 11.5 grams. I use a combo of glass and salt. And yes a lot of softener. As I said, it almost seems as though the two plates don't match. I weigh around 230, and I am socking the snot out of this mold to keep the baits from flashing. I shouldn't have to use that much oomph to make them flat. It's almost as if they're warped. And I'm talking about flashing occurring with cold molds. Also, I'm not a big fan of the brass knobs. My thought for the knobs is make the mold 4 cavities, and add extra knobs in the middle. I have some molds from Jacobs Machine, and their screws are in the middle, and I use a vise with them too. Though that system seems to work pretty ok.

Recently received my Angling AI core shot stick bat mold. Having been buried in snow today, I decided it was time to try it out. It's got me baffled. I made a rainbow trout type color, light baby bass green shell, pink core. My shells are loaded with flashing almost the entire length of them. Can't figure that out. And the core shots aren't completing. Some are actually shooting out the side of the shells even though inspection doesn't reveal a tear. Although it may be too small to see. The tail part of the core is filling. but not the shell. How is that happening? I've run 15 baits so far, and was able to save two? I give up. What am I doing wrong? Especially with the flashing. It's making otherwise good looking baits look awful. Shooting shells at around 350, and making core color over that temp. Any higher a temp with the core and it will burn. Using heavy pressure on both, but extremely heavy on the core. I realize that could be a problem with the shell, but why are my cores not shooting? I'm making sure there is a hole at the tail end to displace air. Not enough lube on the core rods? Maybe I wasn't meant to own this mold? The fishing gods are getting even? If nothing else, it's the flashing that's bothering me most, because should I want to make stickbaits without using the rods, the baits will still look like crap. Luckily I own 3 of the Do It Yamomoto Senko molds for that Using the brass nuts that come with the mold, and then holding the mold gently in a vise so it doesn't go flying. I did add salt to the cores, but the plastic is almost watery so it's definitely hot enough. Maybe its too thick with the salt even though it appears watery? Should I lube the rids more so the core color passes through more easily? I knew there might be a learning curve but this is crazy! It can drive a man to drinking! Any help would be appreciated. Just so y'all know I've been pouring plastics for nearly 30 years so for me to reach out it's gotta be pretty bad.