Swelling Plastic Worms

[carolinamike]

Yeah I personaly hate using salt, its highly corrosive and truthfuly its like running sandpaper through my pumps, but my customers are the ones who pay the bills. Even if I try to talk them out of using salt if they absolutley insist I have to do it or they will go somewhere else.

[Tiderunner]

Ive never had an issue with the fine powdered salt scoring my injectors. I do grind it down into dust before using it. I run ith through a coffee bean grinder. Please don't tell my wife! She thinks it died and got thrown out. The onlt thing that gets salt are certain senkos I make. Other wise I use glass sandblasting beads. The only salt I use on the majority of my baits is when I bag them. I squirt scented worm oil into the bag and sprinkle kosher salt into the bag. The only problem with that is, when baiting your hook with these, if you have a cut anywhere on your hands, the salty baits will let you know!

As far as the scoring of your injector tubes, I wouldn't worry about it. I've never seen it with salt, but I do use a lot of the glass beads, and they will certainly score your injectors. BUT...I've been suing the glass beads for over 5 years in some injectors, and they still work fine. And as far as the O rings go. I replace them once a year if the mood hits me. I'm sure I could go even longer with the O rings.

If you need weight in your baits, switch to glass sandblast beads. New stuff not the reclaimed. And just coat the baits with salt if you think the salt makes the fish bite better, or hold on longer. This method has been working for me for years, and no swelling of the baits.

Just for the record, I fish deep for small mouth, sometimes as deep as 60'. When making baits, I'll use a combo of alt and glass beads to help the sink rate. I toss my used baits the the floor of the boat, and usually don't clean the boat till I'm ready for the next outing. Still no swelling. And I have found old used baits in my gravel drivewy that have gone through rain, sleet, snow etc, and no swelling. Color fading yes, but no swelling.