way over my head here!

for over a year I have been watching you guys and all of the blow your mind soft plastic's, the colors the designs etc. I have been fooling with plastic's on a limited bases. I hand pour all my heads and love hand tying my own jigs. im sure you have done what I have. do a contest mine (hand tie) against the big boys BG BB, SP CB. hand tied against soft plastic's with mixed results certain times of the year soft plastic's whip my hinny then other times I win. great personal satisfaction. I have been fooling with a few prototypes of hand made molds that I plan to start hand pouring on a limited basis. got most all the basic colorants glitters and raw plastic. most of my molds are simple but I plan to do a paddle tail 2-3/4 inch bait. once I get the molds the way I want them, start pouring one at a time till I see how it goes, then duplicate for multi pours..not for sale but looking for a shape that hits the magic. how have you hand poured paddle tails come out? Im using a med. plastic so its not so soft it will tear easily. then im doing a twin tail grub? any advise to help me eliminate major failures would be great. Now your sitting there going is this guy nuts...let him figure it out like I had to? Ahead of time forgive me for asking and forgive me my arrogance for asking...I know you guys are pro's I have something in the works and will share good and bad in the near future...thanks LB

To be honest, the best way to start is simply to start. Take baby steps and focus yourself. You've mentioned doing single cavity molds to begin and that is probably the best idea you could work with. Once you are familiar with how the plastic handles and you learn what some of the little nuances of plastic are you'll get to where you'll want to advance a bit. Work at a level you are comfortable with....the only one you need to impress is yourself and if you have some duds come along, chalk it up to experience. Learn from the mistakes and forge ahead.

What I like is the screwed up baits can still be used.
Pete

ctom Is right start out with small steps and progress as time goes by. for me I had no one to teach me anything about plastics it was trial and error for quite a while it took me a couple years to learn the basics and we are still learning but you will learn very fast my only if you have questions please get on here and ask. I did not see start out with a hand pours I directly started with injection molding which is the best way to go be careful it is very addictive.:biggrin

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Originally Posted by CTom

To be honest, the best way to start is simply to start. Take baby steps and focus yourself. You've mentioned doing single cavity molds to begin and that is probably the best idea you could work with. Once you are familiar with how the plastic handles and you learn what some of the little nuances of plastic are you'll get to where you'll want to advance a bit. Work at a level you are comfortable with....the only one you need to impress is yourself and if you have some duds come along, chalk it up to experience. Learn from the mistakes and forge ahead.

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We are always learning from our mistakes. To be creative you must not be afraid to fail sometimes. practice good safety techniques and just have fun. Your longest journey begins with just one simple step. Have faith and know you will be victorious. CTom is right when he said "The only one you need to impress is yourself "

I've created some seriously ugly baits over time that have been dynamite in the catching department. Something we all need to consider is that nature is a tough place to live and that nothing in nature is ever perfect. Fish may not have eyesight as complex as ours' but they do have a way of identifying foods that are injured or impaired in some way that makes their movements stand aside from healthier, and harder to catch to eat, specimens. Take a bag of those "mistakes" in the boat with you and fish them. Getting over this need to have a great looking bait on a hook is largely the angler's ego standing in the way.

Wrong colors or ugly colors, incomplete pours or injections, parts missing on baits....the list goes on but in reality those are the baits that can hold some serious catching potential simply because they seriously do not look like what we think is fish food. Fish can have a totally different perception of the topic.

Just wade into this and start. But keep in mind that what doesn't look like a great bait to you may look like prime rib to a bass or a crappie.

Thanks Ctom. This past spring we found the fish would slam a drop shot minnow! 3" one they hammered it so I started trying to refine a mold till I get it right ! I'll be using the ones now this fall will keep y'all posted how they do!