Using Salt

[rgm]

I am fairly new to pouring baits and was wondering what you guys are using for salt and how. Let me know what alternatives there are as far as salt types, method to get it into plastic to suspend properly and where to buy it cheap!

 

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

 

RGM

[Jig Man]

Get Kosher salt at the grocery store.  Grind it into a powder with a coffee grinder or a blender.

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

I quit using the super fine salt, and went to restaurant salt (slightly finer than regular table salt) in the 25lb bags.  My colors seem to come out less washed out from the salt too.  I use less black in my salt shad color, and my watermelon looks more like watermelon.  Quarter Cup Per Cup with M-F soft sinking and has a nice weight and good action to it as well. 

[Smallie]

I only put salt in one bait - the senko - and I use Diamond Crystal non iodized. The salt adds weight to make the bait sink. I don't buy into the "salt makes the bait taste real and the fish holds on longer" theories. Pay attention to line twitches or ticks through the rod and you will catch the fish. If I feel like the bait needs something else to attract fish, I use smelly jelly.

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

I don't make Senkos and probably never will.  Not unless Gary calls me up one day and offers me a stupid amount of money to come work for him anyway.  I do make my own stickworm, but even that is not a direct knockoff.  It is the only bait I routinely make with heavy salt, but there are a number of baits I make a few of in salt so I can fish them au-naturale and they will still sink. 

 

I don't know about the "taste" issue.  I remember when I first started using Zoom worms with salt in them I was amazwed at how fish would just grab them and not let go.  I also found even with Senkos (when I still fished with them) that Megastrike seems to make a difference in how long they hold onto a bait.  So does garlic and shrimp oil. 

[bribass]

Hey Bob, I use restaurant grade as well but how do you avoid it sinking to fast for larger batches? 

 

I get some with less salt and some with more? 

 

doing small 2 cup batches stirring by hand is good but Im curious about when I use a presto pot with sitrrer. Even though it stirs, the bottom still gets caked in salt at the bottom 

Edited April 15, 2013 by bribass

[CNC Molds N Stuff]

I don't really do big batches.  2-3 cups at a time usually.  Occasionally 4.  4 cups of plastic makes a LOT of 4.25" Club-Os. 

 

I use 1/4 cup salt to 1 cup M-F soft sinking.  I think the slightly more dense soft sinking may help suspend the salt a little, and of course allows me to use 1/4 cup instead of the 1/3 cup I needed with floating plastic.  I still get a little concentration at the bottom of the cup, but not like I did with floating plastic. 

Edited April 16, 2013 by Bob La Londe

[martbaz]

im guessin no pro at bulk batches but u would need something more than just a stirrer to keep the salt from accumulating at the bottom... more of a tumbler type thing that would scratch the bottom of the presto and lift it up to the top and back and forth ....like a side mounted stirrer but the thing that could be an issue is if your ''tumbler'' would come out of the plastisol then it would probably get caked up and so on ....