Tests with Senkosam's Sugar Crystals

[NJFishRGuy]

I had also received a sample of Senkosam's sugar crystals (which are not sugar at all but plastic flakes), and took some time this morning to play with them. Since Shmang has already done a great job looking into how they work with some salt added (he used 75% "sugar" crystals and 25% salt), I decided to examine the characteristics of the sugar crystals alone.

I had a very limited amount of the material, so I made two five-inch sticks using 2 parts plastic and 1 part sugar crystals. I then made a couple of the same sticks using 2 parts plastic and 1 part salt, then finally made some sticks with my usual formula of 4 parts plastic, 2 parts salt and one part softener.

The sugar stirred and stayed suspended much better than the salt. It was also much easier to add, unlike the constant fight when you add salt.

The sugar also poured somewhat easier than the salt, more like pouring a bait with some glitter added but no salt.

The salt baits were opaque milk white (see photo) while the sugar baits were the natural plastic color (I used Calhoun's) but appeared to have some texture inside; I assume these are the sugar crystals.

The sugar baits FELT softer than the others, but when I picked them up by the middle I was surprised to find that the salt bait with softener hung farther down (see photo to compensate for my lack of descriptive powers) and that the sugar bait hung about the same as the salt only bait.

I then tried dropping the baits into a bucket of water to see how they fell. The water temperature was about 50 degrees F. The salt bait without softener fell at about 2.1 seconds per foot, but the action was subdued. The salt bait with softener fell about 2.2 seconds per foot with good action. (I timed each bait I had made, averaged their times, and corrected for the actual depth of the bucket.)

Then I dropped the sugar bait, and was quite surprised when the first one floated! I thought I had mixed the sugar well but maybe not well enough, as the second bait fell, albeit slowly, at 6.0 seconds per foot with decent action. I would conclude that Shmang's idea of adding some salt is a necessity to get a reliable fall. I would very much like to see what the baits look like without coloring with the 75% sugar/25% salt mixture. Shmang, if you could post some photos it would be appreciated.

A final disclaimer... I had a very small amount of the sugar, and the less total material you work with the harder it is to get the mixture exactly right. I know the sugar mixture was close, but I was working with a very small amount of plastic and a small error may have had a major effect on the bait sinking vs. floating.

Hope this info helps... maybe the next tester will try adding a little salt and a little softener and posting his results.

[Senkosam]

Thanks Charlie.

You're right - the percentage of clear flake to plastisol makes a difference in drop rate, with less effect on softness. I should have sent you over an oz. for proper testing. At least you were able to increase the sticks drop rate, and with a wide gap hook the lure will fall twice as fast.

Frank

[CHUCKV309]

Where can a person get there hands on a supply of this "surgar"? :

[log]

Good report. Personally, i like the idea of being able to add a little weight without making the bait sink real fast.

[NJFishRGuy]

It occured to me while driving back from the Suffern Show that I should have added a hook to the sticks before timing them. When I logged on to post this information, I see that Frank has mentioned the same thing! It seems that great minds think alike...

I added a Gamakatsu 2/0 EWG hook and dropped the two "sugar" sticks. The one that floated without a hook now fell at a 6.6 seconds/foot rate. The other, heavier stick fell at 3.4 seconds/foot. As a comparison, I also added a hook to the salt and softener stick, and found that it fell at 2.0 seconds/foot.

Again, I must have not evenly mixed the sugar or the two sticks would have similar fall rates.