Piscivorous Pike Posted August 17, 2010 Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 I now have two years visiting and making friends at TU. BTW, I have plenty of room on my "Friends list"! Got here pursuing a hobby having some needs but it did not come without a price, real money out of pocket to make lures. I added up what it has cost me in tools, injectors, POP, DWP, and RTV, experiments and 4 gallons of plastisol! It takes a solid $1500 of money to have the fun I have had and make the friends I have that I converse with regularly now. I may very well have another $500 in the miscellaneous catagory that I have not kept close tabs on. But hobbies cost money. I needed a particular lure which was not available and when I found similiar lures like it the colors were wrong. I am certain for the money I spent other members could have sold me final products meeting my lure specifications. I designed a concept lure off of the one bait that brought me to TU. It has grown into 8 variations, I use 3 color schemes and now have added pectoral fins when I want to slow it down, doubling the variations I could make. Let's see that is 3 x 8 x 2 = 48 choices to make before I pitch it to the PIKE. I am talking about a fluke jerk bait I use called a FRANKEN MINNOW. It has a fish type body and long tail shank to the flukes. When retrieved it is best to twitch so the tail wiggles and wags in the verticle like a whale not side to side like a swim bait. The real key to its success is the presentation. It is presented like Dahlberg's Mr. Wiggly and the Banjo Minnow. Nose hooked only with the exception a second hook can be used in the larger models like the Hogy tandem rigging. The retrieve must impart irradic irregular movement, the pectoral fins made of skirts will give it finesse and cause it to slowly fall when paused. That lure caught 42 good pike in 3 days of a 5 day spread last November. I have experimented with another lure called the Javallon, the same as the Lake Fork Jerk Shad. It is a jointed soft bait that swims in a serpentine, S, pattern. I have on hand 42 molds now, all home made. I use POP, DWP and RTV. I like the POP best. I have used one piece, two piece molds but I like to use a hybrid one piece. It has a flat top making it a top pour single sided mold or a two piece mold with pouring at the nose. But I also build in vents in the tail and use a technique of hooking up a vacuum cleaner and use vacuum injection. Vacuum injection does not form flashing and is neater than pressure hand injectors. I have in this time also been involved with experiments making these lures. I have made two piece molds and used hand injection and I perfected for me Vodkaman's vacuum injection idea where as ambient atmospheric pressure drives the liquid plastic into the mold and in this way there is no flashing around the mold joints. I also used Husky's water accelerated RTV glue to make molds. I made RTV molds using a clam shell idea making a block mold that has three sides longitudinal and that one opens by pressing the sides and the top peak opens long ways for filling. I made from Smooth-on Martha Stewart candle mold style molds containing fluke baits. Longhorn taught me how to copy a one piece mold by overfilling the cavity with plastic to make master model to cast more molds from. Well, that is my two year report card. Thank you all on TU for helping, teaching and inspiring me. PP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Prager Posted August 18, 2010 Report Share Posted August 18, 2010 That was an awesome report, PP! I ALWAYS enjoy reading your posts. Thank you. Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodkaman Posted August 18, 2010 Report Share Posted August 18, 2010 As you are one of the more progressive members of http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/312-2-part-plaster-molds/page__p__1581__hl__vacuum__fromsearch__1#entry1581 I wish you every success with your baits and your future projects. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted August 18, 2010 Report Share Posted August 18, 2010 Congrats on your anniversary PP. I always enjoy reading your posts as they are well thought out and quite detailed. I just hope the plastics pouring "bug" doesn't wear off on me. I can barely afford the painting end of this highly addictive hobby of ours. lol Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nova Posted August 18, 2010 Report Share Posted August 18, 2010 (edited) Two years; you're still a pup;lol. Good report though. You've still got a long way to go yet and many more $; so brace yourself. www.novalures.com Edited August 18, 2010 by nova Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piscivorous Pike Posted August 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2010 (edited) Congrats on your anniversary PP. I always enjoy reading your posts as they are well thought out and quite detailed. I just hope the plastics pouring "bug" doesn't wear off on me. I can barely afford the painting end of this highly addictive hobby of ours. lol Ben Thank you all. But to address the “painting bug”, yep I tried that and it was so much work I sold off my supplies and airbrush. I did not want to be tempted and then “over invest” again. I posted my success on TU. I painted three sizes of a Sebile knock off I got from Vann. I did kokanee, thread fin shad and yellow perch pattern, the perch took 22 steps! I learned some things and now have a great respect to all those that paint those lures, wow! Here they are in this link: http://a.imageshack.us/img64/4410/mineq.jpg All I wanted was a Sebile but could not find one and nothing in the color patterns I wanted; that is why I decided to make them. From the money I spent I could have purchased complete sets, and now every other manufacturer is making a copy knock off Sebile Magic Swimmer. Edited August 18, 2010 by Piscivorous Pike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
