Browned eye dip....

Here's a few I made today using a cup of clear plastic eye dip that had been re-heated or re-melted enough times that it was beginning to brown a bit. I added an equal amount of fresh plastic to it along with copper, black and metallic brown micro-glitters and used it for the top color over silver pearl in this bait.

http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/a...9e5ba9fbf9.jpg

Transparent baits have begun to get hot fishing the Mississippi River backwaters in this region so I have had to make up some fish food. This one should trip some triggers with the crappies.

Here are a couple other fairly transparent colors I made up just for these fussy crappies.

http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/a...41bbf57fb7.jpg

All of the baits shown here are 2 1/2" in length and are fished on 1/16 heads using the new Eagle Claw sickle hooks. Great combination of ingredients.

Those are some nice looking baits Ctom. They should get the job done.

Nice as always!!!!!!!!!!

Very Nice CTom. Great resourcing of materials. Does the second pic have UV or is that another purple tint? Do you think the eagleclaw sickles are running a little small for the size they are selling? I got some # 1's and they are smaller compared to Matzuo's I think. Great pours and I still need to get that mold.

Very nice work

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ifish

Does the second pic have UV or is that another purple tint? Do you think the eagleclaw sickles are running a little small for the size they are selling?

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All of my plastics get the UV treatment and the less colored and clearer the plastic is the more apparent it is that the uv is in there. Love the stuff now that I've been fishing it for a half a year. Even my black get uv enhancer put into it.

On the hook size....Matzuo was always a bit larger than the other brands in my estimation and the Eagle Claws look more normal than the Matzuo's now that I am casting them [EC's] again. I always thought that a Mustad # 6 or #4 jig hook looked wider in the gap than the same sizes in a Eagle Claw. When I started with the Matzuos I thought they were even larger in the gap than the Mustad counterparts. I suppose a guy could sit down with a caliper and find out for certain but I'm not that fussy really. Where I get miffed is where the matzuos will vary so much in the distance from the shank of the hook to the bottom of the line eye. Some of the Mats were so short the eye would get buried in the head. I haven't seen one instance of that in the 1000 assorted EC sickles I have cast thus far. I'm just happier than heck with the new sickles and plan to stay with them now. Too much drama with the Asian hooks.

"Great resourcing of materials"....

Way too many people toss plastic that still has a lot of life left in it. Blacks and dark greens have been colors to think about but by thinning down that browned stuff at a rate of about 50% with new plastic and some stabilizer a lot of nice natural colors can be whipped up using either some colorant, glitters or hi lite/pearl powders. Prior to thinning, the plastic I used here in the top color was an amber. It was crystal clear and not at all objectionable. Going right into it with glitter would have leant a nice amber brown for a crawfish patter. Had I been looking at it for a walleye color instead of one for crappies I would have left it as it was and hit it with glitter and some gold or orange or green hi lites.

ctom They look horrible like usual:Rofl.

we also been out in the shop today working on a mold that we cut in half don't recommend anybody doing this. but in my case it worked.

also read today about you guys welding plastics together pretty cool I'll have to give that a shot maybe you can post on that here a little bit.

I'm hitting the drink early in the morning and wanted to have a mess of those welded puppies along in several color combinations. Lets just say I have some real warm finger tips tonight.

A little tip on welding....I suggest a clear cover dip at least past the weld. This helps add some strength to the bait at that point. Hand-welds are never as solid as an injected weld.

looks good

Great looking baits the stabilizer has saved me and my mistakes.... I talked with a chemist several years ago with Cannie Creek before Do it bought them out, he really helped my understanding about temps and the browning problem! I wish I had more time to invest in plastics still tying and pouring heads plastics just changed my whole dynamics for fishing...I plan to have my tackle box full of my creations for next spring,,,some this fall . thanks to you guys I have another disease!

I have Plastola myself. I don't tie much any more!

Those are really great. I like to do the injection weld process. I heat the second color a little hotter than the first color and hold the plunger and the injector down for about 10 seconds using pressure to get the best weld.

Looks are deceiving here. The color shown in the picture looks very pale, almost not there in fact. This same plastic in a larger volume, like in the cooking cup, is actually pretty dark. I have this thinned with new plastic for the shot in the picture. Left as it is in the larger cup before thinning it would have shot a nice light amber. The amber might even be a nice color with some glitter to liven it up and gold or orange or even green hi lite would really fire it up. Now it has me thinking about shooting a shot as is but doctored with the aforementioned goodies. I'm thinking this will be today's little shop project. I fact, I think green hi lite will go into this because the green and amber compliment each other...flake? Who knows.

I guess the whole idea or intention here is that even when things get away from us and plastics do things we didn't intend to happen, like the browning in the clear dip, there can often some salvage to it. All the time I hear where this occurs and people just chuck the off-colored plastic because what is in the larger cup or mass doesn't look good enough to use. But by thinking about this a bit and maybe thinning that off color down and adding some of the other goodies to it a great color can come from it instead of a place in the trash can.

Here's the result. No color added whatever. Gold and green hi lite, purple and gold .015 glitter. Bellies are silver pearl.

http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/a...d3cb4488fe.jpg

awesome work ctom what do they look like in the water does the color change on reflection.

These will be hitting water next week, Bob. Too many things in the way of a wet line anymore for this week....unless Ma shows some benevolence.

Here's another bait done in the same colors as the last picture. This is a 3" split tail fluke bait. The eye selection here really helps set the colors off.

http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/a...76be2908a7.jpg