Applying the hollow bait or dipping techniques to other baits?

[GB GONE]

As I ponder the hype of tube swims, I find myself wondering what other ways we can use the new techiques we are going through to make better fish catching baits.

Has anybody else thought of other things?

Example, I have made some recent 2 piece pop molds for a trick worm styled bait but purposely left a tiny area near the bottom uncovered as I covered the other areas with e-tex. Purpose....To allow some bubbles to enter the bait. Most stay down at the end of the bait...

Never made sense to fish a carolina rigged bait that would sink down to the bottom completely and quickly. Same goes with a texas rigged worm. Watch one, even without salt, eventually, they will fall to the lake bottom completely (if they have flake).

With a "tube" worm, they stay floated up off the bottom.

I know this isn't earth shaking news and we have used syringes to put air into baits or just poured baits with floating plastic but ther may be other avenues where "tubing" is good.

I have also found that a dip of hard plastic just at the nose of my drop shot baits help them stay on the hook better and I can catch more than 1 fish per bait many times.

Just wondering if this stuff is getting the wheels going or frustrating most. I keep thinking about them as I am out tournament fishing trying to trick the fish into biting something plastic!!!

Jim

[Joe S.]

I'm always wrecking my brain trying to think of that one feature, that will stand out, have thought of a few things especially creating that air pocket, but to make them for sale would be tough, you could create a mold to make the pocket but you would have to the melt the spot to close the hole, which would make the bait slighlty imperfect, I wouldn't mind but customers can be finicky if it is not perfect.

[earthworm77]

Jim a long time ago, like when I was a kid, maybe 16 years ago or so, my fishing pal got a package from Bass Pro shops that had some experimental baits that they never officially released. On was a 5" gitzit shaped tube bait without the tails cut. In fact it was the exact shape of a Senko. I fished the bait on a split shot rig because it floated up off the bottom. It was deadly. I guess they just didn't think it would take off for them.

Do you think it would be more effective to use a special mold to allow air in or maybe to use the tiny air bubble additive for floating worms?

It is funny...this game. There are times when I am so blocked up I can't think of any ideas and then there are times when I have so many, I have to put them on paper before I forget about them.

[tubinator]

I've been working on a modification to the regular cylindrical tube bait. Made a mold like we are using for the paddletails, but I formed some "crawdad" pinchers that will be bent back towards the nose of the bait. The pinchers will be hollow and hopefully standup floating in the water. The mold is shaped like an M with the center being the tube. Planning on dipping them on Saturday. I will post picts.

[BassnRandy]

Venom has a bait called a hotshot or hotrod. It is a tube that is kinda shaped like a fat senko with out the tails cut. It is awsome as it floats well. But it never took off for them.

[GB GONE]

I think the float additive is best as you can control that. The bubbles just go anywhere. If you had a rod inserted though and then sealed the whole, you could have a great pocket of air (or scent, glitter, etc..) in the end or middle of the bait...

Reminds me of the old soft plastic Pop'r s... They came and went and I loved them things!!! I still have a few s tehy were fish catching baits!!

Jim

[wardsmit]

The marketing "experts" decide where or what to sell and their criteria is only to maximize sales. Can hardly blame them because they are trying to increase bottom line. I have tried a lot of things over the years that have caught fish but would probably not sell well due to not being painted fancy or not perceived as a viable lure. I think that most open minded and creative fishermen are always thinking outside the normal parameters. I see that here in hundreds of posts daily. I know there are many items that are sold which may only catch a fish if the fish is so aggressive that it would bite on anything. They were designed to catch fishermen and not necessarily fish. There are however true well designed lures with great quality and do catch fish. The advantage that people in this forum have over others is most want to experiment and make items that are their own design and idea and will catch fish. Many have said that it is a great feeling to make something different and go catch fish with it. I was making fishing equipment before I started school that caught fish and still get satisfaction from modifications of most everything I use. Seldom do I use anything as it comes out of the box.

[nova]

Jim; there was a worm that came out about 15 years ago that had a "tube" from the tail to the egg sac. I can't remember the name of them but it was 6" long and was a finesse worm. The "tube" was about the diameter of a coat hanger wire. I think I got them from BPS. I'll look through my old stuff to see if I've still got some and post a pic.

www.novalures.com

[earthworm77]

Ward, there was an interesting article recently in FTR magazine that talked about Berkley/Pradco. They felt that the poeple who are actually designing and testing the baits should choose which ones go mainstream, not the guy in charge of the budget. It is definately a logical way to do things, unfortunately so many products are made based on how cheaply they can be produced.

[Mattlures]

Ok Jim i'll give an idea or two. If you went with a rod though the nose of your worm , after you pulled out the rod you could seal the nose by dipping in a harder plastisol. you would create you airpocket and have a hard head for longer lasting baits.

#2 you could create the airpocket by a slit in the belly that is bigger on the top of the slit creating a pocket when the plastic rolls down the sides of the slit peice. You could then seal it with Mend-it! soft plastic welder glue stuff and you would have a clean seam and your air pocket succesfuly sealed it.

[SmokeyJ]

Has anyone used the River2Sea Standin' Yabbie?

It uses a combination custom jig head and bubbles molded into the claws to get the standup action. I have never seen one in person, so I don't know if there are actual large air pockets in the claws, or if they pour/inject the claws seperately with the microbubbles (actually, now that I look closely, you can almost see mojo-sinker shaped air pockets in each claw). It would be interesting to get some and dissect them to try and figure out the method used for that.

[longhorn]

Matt, really like the idea of the rod through the bait.....might be able to actually do this with one-piece open molds (POP and RTV) also by modifying them a little...I don't think it would be necessary to seal the tail to keep the air in and you could stop the wire back from the head to keep it solid. I'm an old school pourer and avoid two-piece molds mostly. I prefer multi-cavity open molds which allow me to pour 15 baits in about a minute. ps. carved a swim bait...made a mold...went to the duck pond...failed miserably...back to the drawing board...the reason I bring this up is your rod idea may allow open mold pouring of a swimbait with an air cavity and the rod will be much easier to remove than a tall knife through a short slot. Thanks, Jim for starting this thread and to all for the ideas and discussion....this is what's best about TU.

[SmokeyJ]

I am still scratching my head about those bubbles in the claws of that craw bait I posted. I have ideas on how you could mimic that, but they are all very time consuming. I wonder if with an injection mold machine like they probably use if they have some sort of heat resistant balloon type thing that they stick in and inflate until it sets, and then deflate and pull out through the very small hole. Then you could seal it, although I am not even sure if that would be necessary. Probably is something much simpler; I have a tendency to over-complicate things.

[tubinator]

if it is a poured mold, maybe the are using a few of those glass rattles. Like pour the first color, put in the glass rattles, then pour the rest of the mold. The glass rattles may be bouyant enough. Don't know for sure.

[Richard Prager]

My buddy bought some rattles at BPS yesterday. The glass rattles sank and the plastic rattles float.

[Tubeman]

I am still scratching my head about those bubbles in the claws of that craw bait I posted. I have ideas on how you could mimic that, but they are all very time consuming. I wonder if with an injection mold machine like they probably use if they have some sort of heat resistant balloon type thing that they stick in and inflate until it sets, and then deflate and pull out through the very small hole. Then you could seal it, although I am not even sure if that would be necessary. Probably is something much simpler; I have a tendency to over-complicate things.

Also try micro ballons (spheres) used in auto body work. about 5 -8 dollars for a one gallon pail. Just mix them in your plastic before or after its heated. Only drawback is the plastic will have a whiteish hue and its takes more colour to over come that problem.

[SmokeyJ]

Yeah, I figured the micro-balloons would be easiest, but I would love to figure out how those guys get those air-pockets in the claws. The idea that you could pour and then place something in their was what I initially thought, but that would be awfully time consuming for a mass produced bait like that one. I actually thought about a clear christmas light-bulb, or something similar. then i thought maybe you could pour it with a mojo-weight (or something shaped like that in there), then make a small cut and finnagle it out, then seal the slit. All these are time consuming though, and you could probably just rig something up on a piece of wire that you could then pull out,. These pretty much all assume a one-piece mold. Anyways, just thoughts from someone who has no practical knowledge on the matter whatsoever

[Vodkaman]

It could be injected with a hypodermic needle, before the plastic solidifies. Should not be too dificult to set up. It will all be in the timing.

[Palmetto Balsa]

The original Photo looks so good but according to Tackle Tour most of the raised claw look is caused by the jig head. When they replaced the jig head "claws barely floating up" is how they described it. I copied a close up photo of the claw at the bottom.

All info below is from Tackle Tour.

Standing up to be noticed, The River2Sea Stand'n Yabbie

Weedlessness: If there's one disappointment with this lure it's the lack of a weedless guard. The exposed hook of the Stand'n Yabbie is so sharp, it easily catches on any obstruction that might present itself including tule stalks, branches and weeds. As an experiment, we pulled the jighead out of one of our baits and replaced it with a standard darterhead. The action with this new jighead was very erratic to where sometimes the lure would stand straight up and at other times, it would lie down horizontal with the claws barely floating up. The jigheads provided with the lure definitely contribute to its action.