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I've been toying with making small tubes recently and came up with this one.
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/s...IMG_0838-1.jpg
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!
Nice!!!! I like tubes and more like your's - more meaty look to it. Nice job!!!!
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by huskerwill
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.
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/s...IMG_0840-1.jpg
I use a griddle after I have nuked my plastic to keep the plastic hot. It will hold the plastic for about 10 minutes before it needs to be reheated. Then only needs 15 or 20 seconds in the microwave to bring back to temp.CF
u got it figured out! look greatQuote:
Originally Posted by CTom
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.
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/s...e/Untitled.jpg
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.
fantastic idea
Did you use £.16 nails to make these with.
No, I used some stainless steel rod I have had for a while. Just laid around and collected dust and when I saw a pic of a madrel bent in an L-shape the lights went on as far as making the two color baits with the colors running laterally instead of butting, creating a head with one color and tentacles another color. I like to top/bottom looking baits a lot better than the other but man, using that 16 penny nail to get that affect would challenge Einstein.
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/s...IMG_0843-1.jpg
A friend asked me last night about doing something in a firecracker/chartreuse. Since I don't use red glitter much, I used a strong bluegill color except I omitted the copper glitter and violet hi lites. The firecracker/chartreuse is one of the real strong Mississippi River colors for late fall/early winter walleye fishing when the water temps push into the low 40's and upper thirties.
I am doing as many combinations as I can think of, 8 each in the large size, and will make up a box just for this type of bait. I plan to work these hard this coming winter.
That junebug/chartreuse would look nice in a crappie tube like your first one!!!!!!!!!!! Nice baits!!!!!!!!!
Hang tight Fatman.....the pic is coming right after this.
Here are 5 of the six tubes I am settling on for my early winter trials on the Mississippi River.
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/s...IMG_0846-1.jpg
I will be adding Ambercracker to the mix but haven't decided if I want the color solo or if I want to hang some chartreuse on it. I'm kind of leaning towards the latter. I'll be playing yet today. For those interested, the ambercracker can be seen as the belly color in the hot orange unit. Its a strong amber and laced with three colors of glitter and has some gold hi lites to bring out some depth in the color.
And here Fatman is something for you....
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/s...IMG_0844-1.jpg
I got to thinking about a couple other colors that do well around here in the Mississippi River so I added them to this bait arsenal.
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/s...IMG_0848-1.jpg
The black/green is a super combo at times when its bright out while the orange and black are good at times when its heavy overcast or cloudy. The orange/black is a dynamite low pressure color.
Awesome baits!
Sent from my BlackBerry 8530 using Tapatalk
Nice buddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those should work great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fatman....
I am really looking to target walleyes with these when the water chills out a bit but I have smallie anglers lathered up over these for right now. lol
I see you are from Northfield, Vermont. We have a Northfield, Minnesota only an hour from here in Rochester.
soon as I get time I will post a pic of what I use to do tubes. can do several at a time top to bottom
Here's another I came up with today. The bottom color is a blend of clear plastics, each with a different glitter and one with some violet hi lites. There are five different glitters in the bottom color.
The top color is a medium smoke, very little violet hi lite and a ton of medium garnet glitter. The pic doesn't do the top color justice at all. In your hand it looks like a real ripe bing cherry....only electric. Its an unreal color in the sun.
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/s...IMG_0851-1.jpg
Tomorrow I am going to lay this cherry color of smoke atop of a chrtreuse to see what it looks like. If it turns out ok I'll hang a pic here.
Yes sure to like to see that pic, maybe put it and the bing cherry one in same photo?
here is my tube device. it is made from an artificial flower stem with rods put on it.
I charged up the black cherry with a red hilte and then shot it over a chartreuse opaque. Here's the results.Quote:
Originally Posted by CTom
http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/s...IMG_0852-1.jpg
You can see the smoke color come out at the nose end of the smaller tube and the rest of the cherry color just shines. The smaller tube is right in line size-wise with a crappie tube.
Sure do look good.....
That is so sweet. Very nice job.Quote:
Originally Posted by CTom
Crappieseeker, how much to make up a tube device for me? Shoot me a pm.
ship, I have had that one for a long time. I think I got the parts at a hobby lobby. If you have any craft store around you then you should be able to find what you need to make it very cheap. Look for an old group of artificial flowers that are on sale or clearance and get them and then find some of the little rods and clip the stems and place the rods over them. It is fairly simple. You might can even get the arrangement at wal mart. I would fix you one up but I no longer live near a craft store. I am almost 2 hours away. If I run across anything here locally I will try and fix you one up.
OK. Thank you my friend. I will also try and make one. Are those metal rods? How did you attach them to the stems? What size are those tubes? They look like three inch ones. Take care.Quote:
Originally Posted by crappieseeker
i just slid the little metal rods over the stems. you can cut the baits or even the rods to whatever length you like.
you can take a board and drive 5 #16 finishing nails in it with a little distance between each nail and dip all in at the same time, you do not have to polish the nails as they are slick enough already, or if you want them a little bigger you can get a 1-8 rod and cut to length and drill 5 small holes in wood and drive the rods in and then dip all at one time, you can also take sissors and cut tail on a angle and make a SLAB SLAY'r
Oh Ctom ,they were great looking baits,I am not a fish but might would eat one LOL
Sorry guys, I said 1-8 but should have said 3-16 or 1-4 for a bigger tube. Later when I can put picture on here ,hope to also show you a easy way to make the tubes solid heads but I don't know if I could explain it good enough without a picture,but it is done with a piece of telecable and is simple to do
for years I've used nails for making tube skirts I've enclosed a picture of a spike but you can use any size nail that you want to you can drill holes in a 2 x 4 so you do 10 or so at a time to get a head, color put the tops of them in a second color.Attachment 100463
The in-line two-color tubes are a snap. Its the two color horizontal numbers that get tricky.