OK Bob....

I'm shooting the product that Caney Creek had before it sold to Do-It. That's all I shoot for plastic other than a small amount of MF hard.

I hand pour the belly half of the mold about 2/3 full. Then I shoot the smoke using a lam plate. After pulling the plate I trim off the tails and sprue. Then I close and clamp the mold and shoot the top color that makes the tail the same color too. The way the mold is vented I could shoot the smoke but then I'd have to end up with the tail being smoke. I only use the smoke to help stop light from going thru the other colors and washing them out or having them blend in strong light. And I love the way the smoke makes a lateral line in the bait. On most live minnows, the lateral line stops at the start of the tail, so this way just makes sense. Its fussy work but I'm keeping these pretty close to home so time isn't an issue with me.

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Originally Posted by CTom

I'm shooting the product that Caney Creek had before it sold to Do-It. That's all I shoot for plastic other than a small amount of MF hard.

I hand pour the belly half of the mold about 2/3 full. Then I shoot the smoke using a lam plate. After pulling the plate I trim off the tails and sprue. Then I close and clamp the mold and shoot the top color that makes the tail the same color too. The way the mold is vented I could shoot the smoke but then I'd have to end up with the tail being smoke. I only use the smoke to help stop light from going thru the other colors and washing them out or having them blend in strong light. And I love the way the smoke makes a lateral line in the bait. On most live minnows, the lateral line stops at the start of the tail, so this way just makes sense. Its fussy work but I'm keeping these pretty close to home so time isn't an issue with me.

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okay it makes a little bit more sense to me now we do have a few laminate plates but only on certain molds I usually make my own plates I got away from them when I started using dual injector but for what you're doing you would have to use the plates you must be using a piece of galvanize metal for that particular mold we found it was the best because plastic does not stick to it even if it did you could use some warm oil lightly because you are clear coating it would lock everything in pretty good we used to have a order for a smoky blue Perl was semi transparent with eyes these things were so small the plastic baits and I only had one mold six cavity to make them I had to finally give up was deftly too time-consuming I spent a day on making a couple of hundred but we will have to give this a shot on some of our production molds.

How do You dip those baits in clear and not have nipples on them? I have dipped some before and would get some to turn out great and some would try to form nipples. I would wipe them as they tried to drip but that smears the plastic a little and does not look as good. The noses on those baits in the pics are nice and smooth.CF

I add stabilizer to the clear plastic dip and boot the heat to 360. As I dip the bait, I tap the end on the rim of the cup a time or two and then drop them bait in a cup of water. The plastic sets instantly. I'll get maybe 12-16 baits done before I notice the plastic wanting to string when I tap the baits, then I add stabilizer, give a quick stir and re-heat the clear to 360 and have at it again.

Man those are really nice looking bits. Are the eyes inset. Do they come off easily

The eyes are applied to the bait then a cover dip is put on to protect the eyes. On the baits shown, the cover dip goes to where the tail starts at the end of the body and helps to seal any weak spots in the color welds too. Weak spots don't happen much but the cover dip adds a ton of gloss to the finished baits as well. but

Those are very very nice

those are some great looking baits

I am thinking of getting into making my own like these but man how do you guys get the 2 to three color baits. i read plates,foil. but how. I looked at tackle underground that was mentioned on an other post but couldnt find how at that site. any info would be great. any dvd s or tutorials that I can buy also. thanks Dave

Man those are sweet! They are like a work of art. Do you sell them?