glow plastics

[CTom]

I am up here in Minnesota and I have been shooting glow plastics for ice fishing. My recipe has been real simple, even after trying a couple different plastics. Bears and Caney plastic recipes out the same so here it is.

4 oz plastic, soft formula
12 drops of stabilizer
1/2 - 3/4 tsp glow pigment, depending on the glow color

The pigments I am using glow in color, meaning glow purple glows purple even if the pigment and plastic show up a white to the eye. The glow green makes the plastic look a thin, milky green but glows an un-real bright green while the glow red turns the plastic a watered down orangish-pink but shows up red hot red when charged. Hit them with some direct sunlight or give them a pop from a camera flash and things sure take a turn from some drab colors to eye. Man these are bright when charged. Crappies and panfish love the plastics done in these colors. Perch are all over the glow red.

I have used a glow pigment from a specialty place for a number of years to use with my jig paints and it has served me best in pure pigment form so it was only a natural to try in the plastic. The three colors I mentioned have been my mainstays in the glow stuff eventhough I have four or five other colors I could do, so I am going to stick with the 3 for now.

The glow red and glow purple pigments are flour-fine and consolidate with the plastic real nice and don't seem to settle terribly fast, but I do take a second to give the plastic a quick stir before filling the injector each shot. Being a little grainier and denser than the other colors, the green likes to find bottom fairly fast so a stir before each injector filling is imperative.

I haven't been able to see where this pigment has weakened the plastic any. I am using the soft formula and adding only enough stabilizer to keep the plastic from scortching because of the pigment load. They still are very soft, yet very stretchy and the tail's action is still something else.

I shot about 250 of each color late yesrday as a trial run and after plucking the baits from the core laid them out to cure up a bit on a tray. I did this while watching the boob tube. The wife was shutting stuff off before coming to bed and was gone for quite a while so I went to see what was holding her up and here she was looking at that tray of plastics, glowing away in the dark of the room. lol Like a child. lol I have to say, that was certainly an impressive site....an sea of multi-colored sperm look-alikes glowing in the dark. Mission accomplished is all I said. I'm going to try and get a pic of that tray tonight.

[Tank 1]

What size and type of tails are you making. I may be interested in a few, if we ever get some safe ice this year.

[snake River]

this is a excellent post we do not use stabilizers we do use glow I do not like using colors I prefer to use it straight white to get all the glow I can out of it the reason why I do not mix in colors is because it cuts down on the glow.

["G"]

Glow baits work good in some of the stained southern waters that I fish.

[CTom]

this is a excellent post we do not use stabilizers we do use glow I do not like using colors I prefer to use it straight white to get all the glow I can out of it the reason why I do not mix in colors is because it cuts down on the glow.

Don't mis-understand here. I am using straight, clear plastic, no color. The pigments I use glow in the colors mentioned and slightly stain the clear plastic. Any color added to the plastic inhibits the transfer of light that creates the glow. The glow purple pigment is almost pure white, dry in the package. I can hit it wth the camera flash and it glows purple. I don't add the purple or red or green to the pigment nor do I color over the pigment, the pigments are designed to glow in those colors.

I added the stabilizer because the pigments are heavy and might heat faster than the plastic. I didn't want to work around scortching issues.

[CTom]

Tank....

Almost missed this question.

The ice plastics are an inch long and the body section is a mere 1/4 inch in length, maybe an eighth of an inch in diameter. The 3/4 tail is super fine and cannot be held still. These small baits do the best job of adding color via plastic to small jigs without upsetting the balance of the bait. The head end is large enough for secure hooking but it is not heavy enough to throw things out of balance.

[snake River]

Tank....

Almost missed this question.

The ice plastics are an inch long and the body section is a mere 1/4 inch in length, maybe an eighth of an inch in diameter. The 3/4 tail is super fine and cannot be held still. These small baits do the best job of adding color via plastic to small jigs without upsetting the balance of the bait. The head end is large enough for secure hooking but it is not heavy enough to throw things out of balance.

is the picture similar to what you have would like to know if you guys icefishing if the glow makes that much difference in catching fish.

[Tank 1]

Tank....

Almost missed this question.

The ice plastics are an inch long and the body section is a mere 1/4 inch in length, maybe an eighth of an inch in diameter. The 3/4 tail is super fine and cannot be held still. These small baits do the best job of adding color via plastic to small jigs without upsetting the balance of the bait. The head end is large enough for secure hooking but it is not heavy enough to throw things out of balance.

Are they available for purchase?

is the picture similar to what you have would like to know if you guys icefishing if the glow makes that much difference in catching fish.

Snake, all of the ice jigs that are my go to's are glow. About the only thing I use that doesn't glow are my ice flies.

[crappieseeker]

where are you getting those type glow pigments and are they expensive?

[snake River]

where are you getting those type glow pigments and are they expensive?

they are about the same price on the glow is that what you pay for regular colors we are getting our glow pigment from lure-craft .