Fish N Chips

Thanks walleyeking! I think I may order the 3.5 or 4" to try. I went out and cast a few 5" stickbaits tonight in regular plastic, no salt or HD compound in them and cut them in half for ned baits. They have a very slow sink rate now and I think will work well enough to try out to see how I like the regular plastic for the technique. It won't float like the ZMan baits, but I would rather make them myself. I have slowed down in my bait production and just make enough to replenish what I use. It is nice to have a variety of molds to restock after a few days of fishing and still have the joy of using my own colors and baits.

Any one use the 4" or 3" carrot mold? I was thinking about getting one for a smaller stick bait, finesse drop shot and ned rig bait, but cant find a lot of unbiased reviews on the baits and am undecided if it would be a good addition to my collection. I have a 5" senko mold, but the profile on the smaller carrot looks a lot like a bait fish for nose hooked drop shot. I would mainly use it for bass and rock fish. How is the action compared with the senko style baits? I am also looking at just cutting down my 5" senkos , or maybe getting a more traditional 4" senko/stick bait mold. I am just not sure if the carrot bait is that much better/different from what I have to make it worth the mold cost. Thanks!

I love the keitech style baits. I have almost all the bass tackle ring swimbait molds now. I agree they are a bait that can swim fast or slow, and even drop shot or jig very well. Just the ocean or lake current while drop shotting or vertical jigging make them swim. I have caught more fish on this style of swimbait than any other, definitely my confidence bait! I played around with square tail and boot tail swimbaits in the past and did well with them, but struggled with getting great action under a variety of conditions. The big hammer style swims well under a retrieve style fishing, but did not drop shot or jig as well, although it caught fish. Just not as much action as the ring swimbaits style. Rock fish are not as particular, but I find the extra action really appeals to bass and pan fish.

Well I finally made it over to the coast to try the new swim baits. It has been a long and busy summer and I was ready for some fish. We headed out Thursday and Friday. The swim baits worked great. I caught so many blacks I finally took the smaller 3.5 and 2.5" swim baits off (shrimp fly style) just to get to the bottom. Then the blacks started eating the 7.5" swim baits! Most came on a clear glitter, smoke and white swim bait. Some very nice lings and vermilion came on them as well. The 7.5" swim bait paid off with some nice rock fish, multiple lings and a cab. They really hammered the bait. Most the lings came on a white glow bait, it out fished the green, brown and red colors. The cab came on a chartreuse bait which I lost right after the fish, so I could not judge how effective it was overall. A lot of the lings were puking up octopus, so maybe the white was mimicking scared octopus some? I know lings do seem to favor white. I stuck one octopus on the glow swim bait and was immediately slammed with a big fish. Several runs and an almost uncontrollable fight, the fish broke me off. The line was pretty frayed where it broke above the lure, it must have rubbed against a tooth or abraded against the fish. I did catch some nice 34" and 33" ling on the glow baits, along with some 26-28" fish the following day. It was a great trip and I was very pleased with the performance of the baits. They held up well to the teeth and mutiple fish, some of the smaller swim bait tails were nipped off eventually by blacks, but it took a while. I have enough fish to last me a while, well at least while I pour some new baits and leadheads to replace what I lost in the rocks. Day 1 Day 1 Day 1 Day 2

Northern California, it was a balmy 103 today with thunderstorms and rain. I looked up the other day and we were hotter than death valley. I have an AC in my shop but do not like to pour in an enclosed shop. I prefer to open it all up and use a vapor mask, but I do not know what is worse. The heat or the fumes! LOL

I do not have a twin injector and have been wanting to try some laminate baits with my injection molds. I do a lot of laminates with my hand pour molds, but the orientation of my injection swimbait molds does not allow an open hand pour, then closed mold inject. I was thinking of splitting baits and/or making plugs or a belly mold, but read up on ways to do core shots and decided to give the hand pour/injection method a try. I am very happy with the results. I placed my mold in my small bench vise at a 45 degree angle with the back of the bait facing down. I then heated two cups of plastic, one to hand pour and one to inject. I poured the darker back color into the mold and let it flow down the back of the mold. I just eye balled the amount. i then immediately injected the next color. I think it looks great, and like the slight swirl blending I got. Obviously I could let the back color set up more for sharper lines, or even use two separate colors on the back and then inject the belly/tail. I plan to try some different color combos and refine my technique. My next experiment is playing with encasing a foil strip. I think I can fold a piece of holographic foil or mylar over some sewing thread, which would then be sandwiched in between the mold halves, suspending the foil in the middle of the bait while I inject. Or just sandwiching the foil/mylar in the mold and cutting off the protruding ends. I just wish our 110 degree heat would subside so i could play in the shop some more.

I do not sell baits. I just make them for fun and personal use, with a few extras to supply my family with. My mold is an older one I picked up and only a single cavity injection, so I am not set up for any sort of max production. I know some of the guys here are much better set up if you are looking for a bushel of crawdads . I am out of town the next few weeks on vacation and have sporadic cell data so have not been checking the forum much and will likely be completely off grid for the next week and a half. If you can not find a seller, I can make some for you to try out when I get back.

I just got 2.5 gallons of it and it was 8 dollars flat rate shipping. I have been happy with it so far. Seems low odor and very little smoke. I did split mine up in smaller containers to make it easier to shake up. Seems pretty clear and makes a nice soft and stretchy bait. I have used it for sticks, craws and swimbaits so far.

I cast a few baits last night. I found my 3 oz injector is too small. With the four large cavities and the long runner I run out of plastic. It is close, but not quite enough. I left a bait in the bottom and the other 3 shoot fine. It makes a very nice bait with a great wobble in the water. It is a large bait though! I think it will have a place in my box, and I ordered a 5.25" Senko mold to fill my need for a smaller bait. It is not so much the length but the girth. I may make a plug for the runner with some lead or a 5/8 dowel to shoot just two or three baits until I get around to buying a larger injector. My new batch of plastic should be here tomorrow with the HD additive. I used salt last night for the trial. The salt wanted to settle toward one side of the bait a bit, but with it being injected horizontal it is across the whole bait keeping the fall consistant. I look forward to seeing how the HD additive shoots and performs, although the salt seems fine.

I ordered the Senko mold. The sample looked fine. Textures but not bad at all, especially with the ridges on the senko it blends in and looks good. It is most noticeable on the egg sack, it will work well holding scents. The price is great and the shape what I am looking for. It already shipped so hopefully will be hear soon! Thanks for the input.

I went ahead and got the mold. It looks nice and 40 dollars was not too bad of a price. I tossed a 5.25 senko in the cavity and it is quite a bit larger. I have a bit of buyers remorse and hope it is not too big but time on the water will tell. I still want to get an additional 5.25" or 4" stick mold. I think I may spring for that Do It Essential Senko mold to try, it is a good price. Or maybe a Dels hand pour but I do like injection for laminates. I saw lurecraft has the essential molds now and I do want some glow powder...and color...and glitter, lol.

Over on the Do-It forum a guy named DF showed how to shorten Senkos. He shoots a bait, cuts it down and replaces the tail portion in the mold and re-shoots the bait. They come out really good. Just search for Essential Senko. He has pictures toward the end of the thread, pretty clever. I would post a link but am not sure if it against the forum rules offhand. You might be able to get the 3" mold and do the same? Just a though, good luck.

How is this mold? I looked at the 5" and 6", but think the 6" would work well, I am looking for the fatter profile for that dead fish wiggle as it drops, and I have seen tricks online to cut down the baits and re-inject to make it work for a range of sizes. How does it compare in diameter to a senko and more importantly, how does it fish? I found a few older mentions here on the 5" molds from BT/BTS, but was hoping for more opinions on the larger bait. I know there is not much to a stick bait but am looking for something which would work well wacky rigged, weightless, texas, ect. With this mold are you sticking with the standard recipe of 4 oz plastic and 2 tablespoons HD additive (or 1/2 salt/ 1/2 HD)? Would the 3oz BT injector be enough to fill the side injection mold? How do laminates come out? I appreciate any reviews and on the water opinions. The local shop has one of these used and the price is right, and BTS gets good reviews. Thanks.

Thanks for the input. I am swaying more to really liking the molds. I will check out the samples when I get them but am planning to get one of the Senko molds to play with. Especially with the price of Senkos in the store now. I ordered some of the essential series plastic to try as well and some of the HD additive for sinking baits. The HD additive gets good reviews. I considered some of the harbor freight glass blasting media but did not want to scratch up my injector, although the silica powder may do the same thing? I did not see any reports of it like the blasting media though. I plan on getting a nice brush hog mold too but have not decided if I want the 4 1/2 inch or 5 1/2 inch. I usually use baby brush hogs and the essential mold comes in the larger size. Tough decisions...lol

What are everyone's thoughts on these molds? I like the price point but am not sure if I like the rough finish, although some baits look good and likely fish better with this textured surface. I admit there is something pleasing about the smooth and perfect finish of a CNC mold. I see some mixed reviews and a few for sale used already, even though they have not been out long. I saw some comparison photos on line and am undecided if I like the baits or not. Hard to argue with a mold for 30 dollars. I am tempted by the senko mold (I do not have a good stick bait mold), and the boss hog as I love brush hogs. I wonder if you could smooth out the surface with some epoxy or glue, ala POP molds? Then you get a cheap mold with a good casting? Any experiences good and/or bad with the molds? I would love to see some pictures of bait examples. I did order a sample pack of baits from Do-It so will post up my thoughts when I get them and compare with their CNC counterparts. Thanks.

Ultramolds has some nice hollow body swim bait molds. They have a 4.5 and 5.0 inch mold. http://ultramolds.com/product/hollow-swimbait/ Basstackle has the 632 and 635 swimbaits that looks close but is not a hollow belly. They used to have a nice bug eye shad mold in 4 inch. It was not hollow body but had a hook slot and swims nice and is great for rigging weedless. I have one and really like it. Maybe they can still make them on special order? It is the ones on the top of the picture.

I oiled the mold, it shot great. I did not need nearly as much pressure. Thanks for the tip!

Thanks, I will give those tips a try. I am shooting it fairly low temp but will try lower, I will also try the worm oil. It is shooting better but I am still getting a bad one ever once and a while. I tried a few different colors, and a few with a laminated color. I poured a color in both halves and shot a center color. I like the green and chartreuse. I am really liking this mold. I just need to slow down to try colors and see what works before I make too many.

I got my mold today. It is used but in great shape, just missing the bolts and wing nuts. I tried using my hand clamps on the mold but was getting some flashing, so took the bolts off my swim bait mold and it shot great, no flashing. I will get some more bolts and wing nuts although my swimbait shoots fine with just the clamps. I may have been using too much pressure, but with lighter pressure I was not getting the tips of the claws to fill in completely. I was playing with a bit of salt so that may have been my problem too. It is the 3.75 inch so is perfect as a stand alone or for tipping my jigs. The claws have great action. I shot some red and brown. I may try some color laminates with this later, maybe green and browns or black and blue. I like the red color, but usually use crawdads in green, brown, motor oil, and purple. I will have to try and see if the bass like it. My buddy used to swear by bubble gum colored worms and crawdads, I don't see that color used as much now. I appreciate the help. I can not wait to see how it works out for the fish!

Pacific Coast from Cresent City down the San Luis Obispo. I am excited to see how they work on Pac Halibuts too. I think these will work great.

Very neat looking. I wonder if you poured like a laminate without letting the lighter color set, to create the swirl bands? Pour the lighter color in first without filling the mold, then immediately pour in your darker contrast color in bands, letting the two colors mix/swirl at each location? Cooler temp would allow more separation of colors. You could even drag a wire or kabob stick through the hot plastic to create designs. I have done some swim baits without letting the first color set completely and gotten a swirl type effect. Just thinking out loud, look forward to seeing what you come up with.

I have the 631 mold, it is a nice bait. Bass Tackle also makes a 2.5", 5", 6" and 7.5" ring swimbait. You may have to get set up for laminate injection for the multicolor or use an airbrush and some plastic paint for the multicolors.

Here are a few. The picture makes the purple look dented, but it is an illusion. All the baits look great. I think I may try motor oil and a green next, then play with some shad colors. Hard to not go crazy with these molds, I need to see what colors work and go from there, LOL. I really like the red and the white. The red is 1/2 cup plastic, 10 drops bass tackle red, with blue and green glitter. I can not wait to try them, rock fishing season opens on the 15th!

I got my mold today. What a hunk of metal! I found it cast great following Franks tips. I shot the plastic cooler and de-molded as soon as I could, and dropped the baits in water. Even still they take a long time to cool, but look great. No denting and all the rings filled in. It is a sharp looking swimbait and should work great for lingcod and cabazon. Frank was not kidding on the plastic, it takes close to 1/4 cup to fill up the bait and sprue. My 3 oz injector is just enough with little left to spare. The baits will be a great way to use up old plastic, left overs and torn baits due to the size. I cast them with medium plastic so once they cure I will see how they swim. I will take some pictures and post them up once they cool. I did a red, purple and a white. I may try some black, brown and motor oil colors as well. Bottom fish do not seem to be very picky, but the action on this bait should make them bite.