Thread: small tubes

I've been toying with making small tubes recently and came up with this one.



It's 1.25" in length and slightly thicker than a conventional store bought tube. I like the compactness of the bait and hope to get it in the water this next week at least once. I'm thinking the profile of this critter will be a hot one for working the sunken wood and dock pilings we'll see the crappies heading for pretty darned soon.

"WOW" you minnesota guys are always ahead of the pack and have such great fishing to try out new baits .Looks great!!!!!

Extremely nice.

wow, look great! where did u get your mold? do u cut your tails or is it in the mold?

I made some mandrils out of stainless rod to dip to make the tubes. A 16 penny nail with the shank polished up a little and the point blunted will work too.

I dip the tail color, then trim off the head portion if I want it a different color. Then the rod gets dipped in the head color. I allow the head dip to "just" contact the tail color and then hold the rod at that point in the hot plastic for about ten seconds and things weld up really nice.

I trim the overall length of the tube, remove it from the rod and use a fly tyer's scissors with a very pointed blade to snip the tentacles.

Try a few. If you mess up just toss the bad cast in your bowl of plastic and re-heat it. These are fun and lengths, colors are as many as your imagination.

The molds are cheap anyway....$2.00/pound for 16's? Probably less. Can't beat the price there. By the way, I have a bowl of water right there while I dip these and dunk them right after the tail color. I dunk them again after the head color. Maybe sounds slow doing just 1 at a time but it moves right along this way.

Great looking bait. I do like the small size of the bait, nice work

going slow dont bother me as long as the bait comes out the way i want. r u using a microwave to heat yer plastic or some type of meltn pot or warmer? they look great, i gotta make some!

Originally Posted by huskerwill

r u using a microwave to heat yer plastic or some type of meltn pot or warmer? they look great, i gotta make some!

I nuke all of my plastic from start to finish. I keep plastic for the tubes in bowls and make a nest using a terry cloth towel to set the heated bowl in and once the towel gets heated will keep the plastic hot a long time.

I got to messing around again this morning using some longer mandrils and came up with some walleye-sized baits in two colors and with eyes.

Originally Posted by CTom

I nuke all of my plastic from start to finish. I keep plastic for the tubes in bowls and make a nest using a terry cloth towel to set the heated bowl in and once the towel gets heated will keep the plastic hot a long time.

I got to messing around again this morning using some longer mandrils and came up with some walleye-sized baits in two colors and with eyes.

u got it figured out! look great

I really got frothed up after making that hot orange/amber-cracker and figured I should try my all time favorite color of junebug over chartreuse. I do believe I have found a new source of walleye baits. Dang I like knowing someone who makes tackle lol.



The larger of the two shown here is right at 3"....perfect for the walleye bite when the water temps get down in the low 40's and upper 30"s. That small one will smoke post-cold-front walleyes when the water is 34-35 degrees and sizing down becomes imperative.

I have to hit the garage and make up some more rods for this. Doing two at a time doesn't quite cut it.