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It looks like you are making your own silicone molds? If that is true, I know what is happening. Any surface imperfection in the original is transferred to the mold, and the mold will then transfer it to the final bait. Even if it was a factory silicone mold, if the original is not perfect, the bait will not be perfect. When I make on original, I "polish" the original before I make the mold. How I "polish" the original depends on what I made it from, but the surface must be slick, clean, "polished". Note, polished does not mean with wax because it can cause some silicone to not properly set cure. The reason the top is slick, shiny, is because air does not have imperfections to transfer. I hope this helps some. Silicone can make slick shiny molds as well as aluminum, but because aluminum is machined it is polished to start with. Silicone requires a perfect original to start with.

I’ve got some and have used them on swim baits. They hold well when dipped over . Used more realistic ones too. It’s all subjective as to choice. The fish don’t get a good enough look.

I have some older Calhoun’s that yellows now on the first heat. It’s prolly 4-5 years old. When fresh, it would take multiple reheats without yellowing. When I make some more baits, I’m gonna add some heat stabilizer and see if it helps but for the most part the colorant covers it. I don’t make many clear baits or lightly colored stuff.

Try heating the cup alone for 1 minute and shake the hell out of it. Pop caused bubbles with heat. Heat in the microwave at a slower pace. Try 1 minute then 30 second burst. If you start to get worried add some stabilizer. Reheat cut it up small and then slowly heat with 30 to 20 second burst. Pop any bubbles with heat.

I think 7 years is close to the record for a necro-post. LOL

Yup, I have some 3-G plastis from a storage cabinet ( that will tell you how old it is.) and I have had to add a lot of heat stabilizer to it and mix the fire out of it.( hardpack)

Barlow's shows some alternative hooks for this mold. Look at the bottom of this page. https://barlowstackle.com/Do-It-Herring-Head-Jig-Molds-P3289/ Barlow's also lists several alternative hooks when you pull up the hook style. It has been posted before that if you call them, they can tell you the other hooks that will work.

I have heard that the heat stabilizer gets bad with age.

I think this is a pretty classic bone. River2Sea is much more yellow

Still here. I mostly spin cast now though. A lot has changed in 14 years.

Are you using a thermometer to bring your plastic to 350ish on the first heat?

Are you coating the mold with a release agent?

Can you post a pic?

Every year I rinse most of my soft baits with dish soap and then place them in a large bowl of water to rinse the soap off of them. I do this because they have some kind of oil in them. This spring of 2020 I noticed the soft baits that I made were very oily so I tried something different. I washed them and dried them and then rolled them in Kosher Salt. It keeps them dry and it cuts the smell down a little bit. I also used a little Anise scent. Make sure you put some Kosher salt in the plastic bag that you store the baits.

If for friends I wouldn't worry bout it. How many cavity is your mold?

If you're selling them online and there is a patent, you will know. That's the first place they look for infringement. If that happens, you will get a cease and desist letter from the patent holder's attorney. Then you have a choice, stop selling them or end up in court

I think you have to definitely define bone color. As a bass angler I typically think of colors in regards to historical and not some modern day take on things. So many things get twisted and defined for various reasons whether it is a color, hunting actions, etc... I think of the late 80's (?) when bone started to "pop" up because of the Rebel Pop R dominance (again) in the bass fishing scene. Modified Pop R's were dominating many of the tourneys on the TVA lakes. Bone was the color that guys started to emulate because paint and topcoats flaked off the plastic baits and exposed the raw material. The creamy off white plastic color hidden under the paint was the goal. I would buy dozens of baits and scrape/sand finish off those baits right out of the package while sitting in my dorm room and manage to get rid of them every few weeks at the boat ramps to make a buck or two. White is of course the base color. Yes you can mix the primary colors together (above) to get various shades of brown or you can mix a primary and its complimentary color or you can add "brown" With all the colors of paints available you can get very close to bone off the shelf and then just add to shift the hue. Historically most used white with a few drops of an opaque yellow then adjusted with translucent brown to get the color dialed in.

Well, this is going to be a probably different suggestion but I'll throw it out anyway. When I portrait paint and want to make a flesh tone you start with a fair amount of white, mix in some yellow, a little red and a touch of blue. With that you get a flesh tone depending on the amounts you used. varying the colors you can get almost any fesh (tannish) color you want from nearly white to ebony. I would think bone is in there someplace. One thing we don't do with portraits is mix some white with brown as you only get light to dark brown in the process, and that's all it is, a shade of brown. And black is a no-no. It just ends up muddying the color. black is used for black, not for darkening colors. Here's a link to an online color mixer. You can use it to mix any colors in any combination. Try 11 parts white, 3 yellow, 1 red, and 1 blue. You'll get a bone color. Vary the yellows, reds, and blues, and you'll see you can do any shade of bone you want. When mixing paints you can use the same combinations in an airbrush and get similar results. Well, that was different!

I'm using this for bone. All of my friends are happy with it. https://www.mckenziesp.com/WCO1151-P12941.aspx

Biggest problem is that bone is not a color that everyone agrees on. Your bone is not always my bone. You might do a search on the sight but in the end, it might be best to post a picture of the color you want.

I lost one Friday night that cost us getting in the money, but every fish came on my plastics that i make. Been that way for several years now & you're right there's nothing better than that.

There is a you-tube video by a lure painter named engineered angler, he takes a chrome body bait and sprays it with transparent yellow and makes the upper half of his homemade lure appear gold in color. He uses acrylic transparent's. Check his videos out, he has several where he over-paints chromes with trans paints. (sorry if I am not allowed to give his name on here, new to site)

Just wanted to drop a post about the craw tube I made. I fished my first tournament with that bait on 6/6. It was a smaller tournament, 34 boats total, with a 5 fish limit. It was an open so you could either fish as a team, or fish my yourself. I fished it by myself and while I'm not sure, I probably ended up somewhere in the upper half of the field. I had a 5 fish limit of 10.15 lbs. Every fish came on one of the craw tubes I made. I tried a few other soft plastic baits, (Jackal Cover Craw, and a grub/ringworm bait I made) but when you get a fish on your third pitch with one of your baits, you kind of stick with it. lol I fished my craw tubes probably 75% of the time I was fishing a soft plastic bait. The tourney payed 6 places, 13.04 took first. 11.99 took 6th. Of course we all lose fish, but I lost 2 that would have probably gotten me a check, and if the one was a bass, probably would have won it for me. The one I am sure was a bass was about a 2 1/2# fish, which would have been about a 1 pound up grade. The other fish I never saw. Whatever it was it was a good one. Pitched in by a bush and the line starts swimming off. I set the hook and the fish pulled about 6' of line off against the drag, which I had as tight as I could get it without using pliers. lol. Anyhow.... had it on for another 3 or 4 seconds and it pulled off. I'd like to think it was a bass, but I've caught some big flathead catfish when flipping and pitching at this lake, so it may have been a catfish. If the water temp wasn't in the mid 70's I would have thought it might be a big pike, but with how shallow the fish was and water temps, it was either a bass, or a catfish. Oh well. sorry for in indulgence, but it's pretty awesome catching a fish on a bait you made.

Thank you for all this info this is really helping me and I appreciate you taking time to answer my question, I do have another one do I need a vacuum chamber I saw some videos were they said some products need it and some don’t I plan on 5 quarts a day to start

Mark, thank you much for the reply. I appreciate it. Definitely not going to scrap it until I get the venting process figured out, and until trying your suggestion of enlarging the gate. I know I have to vent the trapped air somehow, but with your suggestion are you thinking that the long skinny runner is cooling and not letting the body suck in more hot plastic from the runner? Anyhow ..... I'll be starting a new thread in a day or two. I've got a few ideas for the new mold I'd like to bounce around with you guys. I really want to get this bait right and I'm sure that with the help of you guys and other helpful members of this site, I will be able to do just that. Thank you guys again for all your help. It is very much appreciated!

Candy colors.

Here is a link to a "plastic 101" post on the Custombaits site. https://custombaits.com/index.php?topic=2518.0 What brands work best? No easy answer here (as you will see in the article). If you don't have strict temperature control, you probably want a brand with lots of heat stabilizer in it...but there are negatives to that too (not the least is hard packing!). Baits that get sticky or cloudy? You didn't get the plastic (regardless of brand) up to 350 so that it completely "changed state". Don't forget to stir it so all the plastic is 350 F. Don't forget to "remix" your plastic between session...or all sorts of problems occur! Don't shake it (and add bubbles!). I rotate it slowly for a minute or so. Any time I walk by my work area I try to remember to rotate the bottle (or box). You can always add stabilizer to you plastic as you reheat. I avoid that by only heating a cup at a time, but if I'm trying to do a light color I squirt in some stabilizer after the 2nd heat. After 3 reheats (no matter what brand I'm using) I put the remainder in the left over bucket. Every once in awhile I cut up all the scrap plastic, add some fresh plastic, and make black or dark green baits with some fresh glitter. I use Essential plastic and MF. Both have been good to me. All of them have their advantages and trade offs! It's all about developing a good repeatable process that works for you.

Thanks

Thank you !

Also remember that you cannot use a trademarked name. You might be able to make a stick bait that looks like a Senko (tm) but you cannot use that name or even refer to it. You do not own the rights to that word.

That is a nice mold. Before I scrap it I would try enlarging the gateway from the runner to the cavity. Even if it looks ugly, it won't affect how the bait looks. I would begin with enlarging the runner/sprue connection to the same size as the runner, and then taper it down to just before it meets the bait cavity.

You need vents. The air displaced by the plastic has no where to go.

I’d try injecting slowly and keeping pressure on for 10 seconds or so after it fills.

@21xdc So I looked and unfortunately I cannot get KBS in Germany, at least that I could find anyway. Can’t even get it shipped to the Army Post Office on the base that I work at because there are restrictions on shipping it through the APO. Time to start looking for a German alternative...