Bassinfool

That's why I only keep the colors I know I'll throw in my boat (aside from taking out colors to test them). If you look in my boat I have basically 4 or 5 colors. Watermelons, green pumpkins, blacks, blue sapphire and junebug. That's pretty much it with the exception of my swimbaits. Everything else I give to my buddies or sell consignment.

From my phone it looks like violet/grape and a very thin shade of it to boot with either .008 red or fuscia flake, maybe some violet hi lite. Either way, definitely a cool looking clear water color.

I have all of mine on a table and they're all jumbled together in one big stack haha. I have what each mold is written in sharpie, usually on more than one surface. If you've ever bought a mold from me you know this to be true hah!

You could certainly try, it's not going to hurt! My experience doing laminates with bleeding colors and black has shown that you get more of a color gradient effect where you don't get a lot of color change but more of a dark to light change.

All the time. Best chatterbait/swim jig trailer I've used.

I think something on the front page of his site detailing that mold work is running X number of weeks behind would go a long way towards curbing people's tempers and expectations of receiving their mold quickly.

I just use a beefy hook to get mine to sink faster if need be. I don't add salt or anything to mine. Normally I'm working them super quick just beneath the surface anyways.

There are several different grits ranging from the ultra fine to very coarse.

I have a good friend who restores old cars and use bead media and he gave me a ton of it for free. I'm not really sure what size it is but it's very small and fine with a smooth sand-like texture if that makes sense? I know some guys who have used the stuff from harbor freight without issue.

Shot hundreds if not 1000's with the media. Mold still looks brand new. No scratches that I can see.

Are the molds silicone or plaster?

Shot my new mold today. Shot great except when using the laminate plate I ordered for it the claws wouldn't fill in. I tried super hearing the plastic to thin it out as well as lubricating the plate itself but neither worked. I didn't have much time to tinker with it so I'll have to revisit that again to see if I can fix the problem or not.

Ordered last week of January, got my mold almost a week ago. That was a pretty long wait and I still haven't even had a chance to shoot it sadly.

Without any type of boot tail or swimming type tail I don't know if you'll ever get a bait that swims but instead have more of a gliding bait.

Had a guy send me some to check out before I buy the mold. I haven't been able to fish them yet but they look and feel really good in the hand and look even better on the back of one of my swim jigs. Last year I went through several packs a day of the menace grub working them on a wobble head on deep summer ledges and humps.

I'll drop a link below, but just looking from this picture it looks like a light green pumpkin or darker watermelon color on top of a pumpkin or root beer bottom, both with black flake. I would suggest making a 4 oz batch of plastic and replicating one color at a time and once you're satisfied with each them laminating the two. I have done a similar color with green pumpkin over an amber brown, root beer and chartreuse bottom that turned out really well so you may want to try Amber brown and root beer as well. Here's the link to the worm I looked at: http://www.landbigfish.com/popupshowcase.cfm?photo=108160

You may need to use a little hardener to get a stiffer plastic. It doesn't take much, but as rut mentioned above, softer plastic seems to cause the bait to tumble through the water column where a firmer plastic swims a little straighter allowing the boot style tail to kick and the body will have the slight undulating rolling action you're looking for. Also, try using a smaller hook in your swim bait. If you use too big of a hook you can also have some issues with the bait rolling over and acting funky in the water. On a 5" swim bait I normally use a 4/0 EWG weighted hook that has the screw lock keeper. Owner and Gamakatsu both offer great hooks in that style as do others, those are just my two preferred with the Owner hook even having an adjustable weight on the shank to alter how your bait swims in the water.

I bought my 4" swim bait mold simply because I needed a small swimbait mold and for a 3 cavity mold at a $30 price point you can't beat it. Now that I've modded it with the engine enamel the baits come out looking much better. Still not as clean as a CNC cut mold but it's a night and day difference between the sprayed and unsprayed molds.

I painted mine with 500 degree engine enamel (2 coats) and it gives the baits a much smoother look to them. Not that the rough look won't catch fish, it does, but the shinier look is just more appealing to the human eye.

I have the essential swim bait mold and modified it and it works great. Actually shoots better than some CNC molds I've had.

If they're get bent in the bag it doesn't matter how long you let them sit before bagging they'll still get bent. You can try getting a pot of hot water on the stove and hearing it up over medium high heat but short of boiling. Dip the bent baits in for a few seconds and pull them out. I've used this trick for bent trick worms and it works pretty well.

It's the same color morning dawn pink on either side of a blue vein. The blue vein gives the pink a purplish tint at times.

As has already been stressed, please be as safe as you possibly can when enjoying this hobby. As someone who has worked in an ER and now trauma and burn intensive care for 4 years the last thing you want is to be burned. You think you take your hands for granted now, try imagining 2nd or 3rd degree burns covering one of them. The grafting and recovery time alone is a several months long process with no guarantee that your hand will ever function at your pre burn level again. Please, please be safe guys! I'd love to meet some of my fellow hobbyists but not at my work!

You can hand pour into the mold halves whichever colors you want and then close and inject your other colors.

I've only gotten cores with single cavity molds. If it can be done with multiple cavities someone is holding that secret very very close to the vest.