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I use 1 1/2 - 2 inch stainless steel.092 eye screws either cast into resin lures or epoxied into wooden lures I have not had any failures doing this. Fish between 10-20lbs are commonly caught on my lures. The largest was 60lbs+ chinook. eye screws of the correct size installed properly can handle some big fish If you believe that a fish may break the lure body it self then yes I would definitely go through wire

Through wire is way too much overkill......use stainless steel wire and twist your own screw eyes and set with epoxy. No fish is going to pull the hook hangers or line tie out.

So I’m finally going to make my giant hybrid paddle tail musky lure. My one problem based on my rough calculations is I don’t believe I have enough rtv silicone. It is going to be an open pour mold. It is flat on “top” (which is obviously face down here). So I’ll kinda seal it down to the base. Make a mold box, but as you can see because the boot part of the tail is so tall, most of the bulk of the mold will be wasted down the length of the tail just to get the depth. So my question is can I pour the silicone and simply put something in that area (like a block of wood?) to fill in some of the volume. obviously this isn’t the best option, and my apologies if this has been asked a thousand times. But mold making material is like hens teeth where I live, and I kinda don’t want to make a smaller tail lol. What do you guys think?

One thing I've already learned is do not skimp out on molds. I started out with cheaper ones, and then after buying one angling AI mold, I just can't go back. I think the cheaper molds are a wise choice to use as a gateway to make sure pouring is something for you, but i'm currently wishing I had saved the money I spent on a few of the cheaper molds and invested in higher quality molds.

Bait plastic is like a sponge so they will absorb water over time. Just take them out of the water & let them dry, the color will return.

I just started making plastic lures from a kit my wife got me, it came with plastic molds. I had just finished making about 12 lures, I read someone had said to put your lures in cold water to cure. the next day I checked and my black lures had changed to green or gray! any ideals why? thanks for any help.i was using lure craft material.

But do you guys have enough TP to survive is the real issue

Probably was before Tammy's time........and my time, too, for that matter. LOL. I bought a box of molds and colors from an old guy who had a bunch of black grape. I'm guessing he was pouring in the late 70's or so. It was definitely Lure Craft, that I DO remember.

My thoughts exactly!

Nice! That stupid virus can't stop bait building!

MF produced brown Grape & if I'm not mistaken Bears got the colors from MF. Lureworks has chameleon but it's not as deep of purple as the original brown grape.

talked to Tammy at Lurecraft,says she doesn't remember them carrying having that color,but,they are going to look into making it.After checking into it Bears use to carry brown grape.but, cant find any thing on them.

Yep.... Or thin your epoxy down with acetone...

Use KBS. Its muck thinner than epoxy and won't clog them up. After you dip and hang, take a tooth pick and give a little swipe around the gill opening.

Just understand what he wants to do. He want to expel as much plastic back into a presto pot and leave it in there till it is needed again. Never clean it out. And with two injectors. For me having it on my injectors is necessary because I do the same thing he wants to do. When you fill the injectors and shoot molds the plastic cools and becomes thick and sometimes jelloy. This causes you to need more pressure to expel the remaining plastic. Which in turn gets remelted with the plastic left in the two presto pots. If I did not need the tips to lock then I have the option to not lock them. But in my case I need to lock them. If you don’t have anything to lock them in then there is no option. He is sounding like he wants more production from his system he uses now and he can with some simple modifications.

For those interested the 1 1/2 and 2 inch props I ordered both work with the .092 eye screws but they do need some mild filling to spin nice and smooth in my opinion still worth while and if the fish like the designs I will buy more

I just question the need to lock the tip to cylinder. I have pushed the end off one time into the pyrex cup when emptying the injector. Not a problem to get out of hot plastic and learned how little pressure it takes to empty injector. Haven't had it happen again. I used long needle nose pliers to retrieve tip from plastic. Good luck. I filed a small slot in the end of the cylinder for a screw driver to fit so that I could force the tip off of cylinder.

Ok I have seen you tubers use chunks of their old molds in their new molds. However this is my first, so no extras. What exactly is acetic acid cure silicone? Pardon my ignorance. Google didn’t exactly give me any brands that looked like that.

Ok that sounds about right then. There is a slight angle to the small presto pots but if you think it will work then I hope it does. There are two sizes of presto pots and the larger one has a much steeper angle. Found out that the hard way.

I just have one presto pot at this point, but it looks like they will fit over and to the bottom. I had to raise the cross bar nearly to the top.but it looks like a go. The one presto pot the boy found in a flea market has pretty straight side walls I am assuming the form factor has not changes much

Well then post some pics to show what not to do and help.

There are solutions to this problem. 1 - don't throw earlier prototype molds away. Cut them up, shred, and add to the mix. 2 - Buy acetic acid cure silicone. Mix with water. Cure and shred. Add to mix. Dave

I am not talking lures here, but bait fishing. I have caught many fish in excess of 9Lb right through to 12.36Lb. Because of the deep body shape of the bawal fish, it offers great resistance to the strike action. Also, because of the nature of the man made ponds, I have to apply a lot of pressure to stop the fish passing through the aeration pipes that pass down the middle of the pond. My conclusion from my experiences from line breaks, and always using the latest in knot technology, is that the fish is capable of exerting a pull of 4x its weight. In my early days of fishing, it was all about using as light a line as possible. I almost landed a 10Lb carp on 2Lb line, almost, but that was what was necessary to get the fish to bite in the over-fished waters. In the ponds that I fish now, I have to use 30Lb line, with the drag set low, and a rod with way too much action, and still I get snapped. Fish can apply a force of 4x their weight is a good rule of thumb. Good technique, drag control and a quality rod action can minimize this effect. I have caught these fish on my lures, see my videos, with no damage to my screw eyes. I have done static 24 hour tests way in excess of these numbers, and a few dynamic tests with weight drops. Providing your body materials are up to the job, home made screw eyes are fine. If you insist on using aircraft standard 5Lb balsa then yes, through wire is necessary, but dense balsa, 0.3SG plus woods, screw eyes are fine. Figure out what you expect from your lure and perform tests. It is not difficult to do and will give you confidence. Dave

All good I see advantages to both but had to pick on you a little is all

This is turning into a good old Canadian debate. We just need to apologize before stating our points. Haha. Sorry I think thru wire is better. But I have also had a fish break right through a thinner wire thru wire. So I see your point. Sorry.

@eastman03 in all honesty I would not trust any of those bass baits on a huge musky. 10lb bass any crappy lure will hold it they burn out fast lol. Even the through wire can fail because it is too light of a gauge. Even through wire not built properly can fail experienced it myself. But I did not expect an ultralight trout plug to hold up to a chinook either But yes through wire of the right gauge for the species is the strongest Just poking at you because you asked for it lol There is one benefit to eye screws over through wire. If a tie point or hook hanger gets mangled too many times it gets weakened from bending it back and in time it breaks bait it wrecked. Eye screw breaks it’s seal you can back it out and epoxy it again or replace the whole eye screw You do make a valid point on possible water penetration on wood baits if an eye screw starts to spin I have experienced eye screws and through wires fail but both times the gauge of wire or eye screw was not sufficient for the size of fish

Yes mine does. Are the Doit two color ones wide enough to get them both to the bottom of the prestos?

I fish Santee cooper where the big girls live.......8-9lbers are common in spring... have no issues..your drag should take care of the the amount of resistance a fish may have. Throw mine on 10lb-12lb fluoro have zero issues. At the end of the day it's balsa wood, it's weak......but so are Rapala lures

OK had a bit odd thought. Why not just drill and tap a small screw m2 or m3 granted annoying if I want to take the nozzle off. But I am hoping that when you shoot from a presto pot you can keep the injector hot enough to stay liquid, sort of like how lead does not stick to the dipper once it's hot. So I guess I have a new question to tie me over until I have plastic again,. For those of you the use a presto pot do your injectors stay hot enough to purge the unused plastic between shots or are you dissembling to pull out the plugs.

I've got an old bass-o-reno style bait I made with my grandpa many years ago. It's probably 2 inches long and was made using screw eyes. They eyes weren't epoxied in, and may not even have been super-glued in. I haven't fished with it a ton, as my grandpa is gone now so it's got more sentimental value than anything else, but there was one day my buddies were really smashing small northern pike on poppers. I didn't have any in my box, but figured out if I looped the wire around the front hook, the lure fished just like a popper (not how I would handle the situation now, but that's beside the point). I caught 23 pike that day, most between 1 and 3 pounds. No issues with the screw eyes at all.

Well then let me put it this way I have injectors with thin walls and they work fine. Including a Twinjector prototype with thin walls and it holds just fine.

My mind went to motor oil too, but that's a brown/green effect. No purple in it.

Stainless screw eyes will hold...if you decide to carve a softer wood like balsa or even basswood however I'd feel more confortable with thru wire

Doesn't Changeable Motor Oil do that?Looks brown, but then depending how you move it has either a green or purple iridescence to it.

This is what I do with no issues. Then again a 5 lb'er is the most I'd expect from my lake. 2-3 is more typical.

gentlemen,I appreciate all the help

What do you mean you should be able to buy a system with all the money you are saving making your own Baits. That’s my story anyways.

Thru wire for lifeeeee!!!! I would never build anything else. haha. Seriously though we have talked about pros and cons over a few different pages. Here is a good one to read.. Or this one... Both methods have their time and place! And both can be done well. It's up to you to decide how you want to construct your lure and what components work best. I have absolutely had fish pull out a screw eye! For your particular application, it would seem that epoxied in eyes would work just fine! Much easier especially when prototyping as well.

You can also mix some Lureworks jelly apple red with some midnight blue to get the original MF Brown Grape. Jelly apple red with Emerald green will get you blue craw. The jelly apple red is the base color in most color changing colors.

Maybe not enough weight in the belly ? Sounds like a productive trip and learning experience , keep after it

Thanks guys, It makes sense to make some sort of fixture to help ensure the parts are interchangeable, though it starts to approach the "is it worth while " line. It may just be time to upgrade to a higher capacity dual injector, we are making the attempt to go semi-pro but like all startups managing costs is part of the fun. Either way I know I don't want to be fishing a nozzle out of a presto pot of plastic :). If I was made of money a shooting start or Jacobs system would be on its way but SWMBO did not release that much funding.

Ok that will work. But try and take it one step farther and set up some sort of material stop so bot are at the same place. Then both can be used in either injector. After you are done polish the inside of the tube really well so it does not cut the oring. You will be a lot happier with the pins. Peace of mind. The pin goes in the tip. The wall is for the slot. Work good but if you drop it it could distort the slot. Not super likely though.

Back in the day, Lure Craft called it Brown Grape. Such a cool color, but it looks like it's discontinued. You might give them a call and see if they have any around.

After looking closely at the bait, I'm thinking that the lip is just slightly off and isn't completely straight. I'm going to mess with the line tie to make sure, but if that doesn't fix it I'm going to figure it's the lip. Thanks for the suggestions and help!

Problem with the Do It injectors is they use a real thin wall aluminum tube, they won't hold the tip/pin very well. BT's injectors use a very thick wall aluminum so they hold everything properly.

thanks man

I will check those out two I got the 2 inch pointed that are .092 compatible and some 1 1/2 pointed that I am gambling on. Lure parts online had them. Since I am testing some ideas I am good for a bit

I found some blades from China that will take .092 screws. From Countbass, they sell some on Ebay and some on Aliexpress. They have the specs of the props down near the bottom of the page. They accept Paypal. I ordered from them once and it took around 5 weeks for delivery to northeast USA. These blades are 1.65” and have somewhat pointed tips. https://www.ebay.com/itm/50Pack-Pointed-Propellers-Stainless-Steel-Propeller-Style-Spinner-Blades/162225960153?hash=item25c56bb4d9:g:1o8AAOSwTbJdP7n0 These are 1.34” and have pointed tips. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32761696077.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.17.76a013939UJoKR These are 1.72” and have the round tips. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32840844465.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.31.76a01393hvpqnC These are 0.94” and have one round tip and one pointed tip. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32761798887.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.33.76a01393AyZo3t

www.del-mart.com

Good callout, I should have added that.