plunc

Thats a good suggestion & thank you. Sadly, I kinda scratched them off my short-list some years back when they wanted to charge me 9$shipping on a single 100pack of #4 hooks! Maybe the years have brought them back to earth. I will check them out again going fwd. Thanks. Thats the route I went. Took a flyer on 1000 1/0's. Guess I'll either like them or I wont! Thanks

Hi, Need a couple thousand 1/0 (lightwire) hooks. For my personal fishing, I usually bite the bullet & buy owner 5318's. This time around, the use is not personal, & Im looking to save a few bucks but I still want to use something decent. I see Capt. Hooks has EC 3052L's available. Any opinions on this hook? Do these work on molds calling for 570-575? Ive seen EC 570BP's & I wasnt thrilled. Cant seem to find the "L"570BP's. Any other 1's to look at? Looking for a sharp, nickel-finished (black or red), suitable for lighter tackle fishing. Always been a big fan of the matzuo 117010&117060 hooks, but cant seem to find any in 1/0 or 2/0. Thanks for any input or direction.

Have been fairly happy with tapping powder on a heated blank using a small brush & a coat of devcon (or 2). If the devcon starts giving way, I just touch it up before next use, & it seems ok. Overall it seems to hold up a little better than the factory finish (acme) that originally came on them. That said, Im sure theres better ways, My coho & king creations:

Use zoom tiny flukes a bunch, looking for a mold to make a similar bait. Found the "silver minnow" molds listed on the web, and I will likely pick up the 3" version, but was hoping to find something a touch smaller, also(but bigger than the 2.25 silver minnow). Will be hand-injecting, laminates. Have looked at a few mold suppliers and havent found 1 I liked yet. Trying to emulate a tiny fluke as much as I can, just want a few colors they dont offer. Any ideas on a mold currently offered by anyone?

sorry for triple post

Sounds logical... What material would you use for a soft model for a P.O.P. mold?

No, I have yet to seal it, because, the mold I tried making earlier this evening, didnt work out. When i tried removing my model from the impression, too much of the POP stuck to the model and deformed the cavity. Any suggestions on what I could use to make the clay model less likely to bond to the POP? Thank god I was able to salvage the model, as I am embarrassed to say, I have several hours of dremeling and sanding to get the contours I want. The tail-end of the model is very thin and rather delicate, and I am afraid of snapping it off when pulling it from the hardened POP. Really dont want to start from scratch. I will note, I have sanded it smooth as can be, with a fine-grit sandpaper. My process for the mold was like this; -put 2 drops super glue on the ends of model, and placed it in a container(storm chug bug box), -mixed my POP/water, and poured into container, with the model adhered flat edge to bottom of container, -approximately 35 minutes later, went to pop the mold out of container, and had the following problems; a bit of POP had settled between top of model, and bottom of container, and the model had a fair amount of POP that stuck to it. When I finally separated model from mold, it took too much POP with it from the cavity impression. I since have cleaned the POP from the model, and sanded the flat edge(top of bait) to be more uniform to lessen the possibility of POP finding the uneven edge, and settling underneath it. My model has a little curl that occurred during baking, so I need to use some kind of adhesive to get it to lay flat in bottom of container. Was thinking maybe silicone(because i think it may be easy to remove from model after impression is made). Was also wondering if 2 part epoxy would be a good choice to apply to model in hopes of making it release from hardened POP cleaner, and also to seal mold with? Thanks for the input!

Hello, Preparing for my fledgling attempt at hand pouring some plastic baits. Took some oven bake clay, shaped it, baked it, and currently have my model sitting in plaster of paris, to create my mold. Assuming my mold actually works( ), I'm ready to start obtaining some plastic and colors/flake, etc. My question is this; Im looking to pour a 2 color laminate. Have done a lot of reading on this site, and elsewhere, and havent stumbled upon much info pertaining to this. The bait im looking to make is a 3" cross between a fluke style/ bobby garland baby shad. No funky appendages or legs, just a skinny whip-tail. Want to pour some basic shad, shiner, alewife patterns for main color, and add a dark accent along the top of the pour. Is this possible to accomplish via hand pouring? If so, what would be needed to accomplish this? Was thinking of a harder plastic on the bottom, and a softer 1 for the top, but, as I said before, I have never poured anything, so I have no idea about if and how. Will be heating plastic with microwave, and pouring out of a pyrex container. Any tips, pointers or info is greatly appreciated. The top minnow is what Im trying to emulate color-wise, the bottom is my clay model. thanks

hello, looking to choose a hook in sizes 2&4 to use for panfish/light walleye jigs. have been very pleased with the matzuos northland uses on their unpainted gumball heads. My attempts to obtain those hooks have been for naught. It appears no one is stocking that hook (matzuo 117060). Have used owners and gamakatsus in the past, and, while they work great, they are a tad pricey for my needs. So, I am looking for a light wire, red, aberdeen jig hook that is not necessarily a premium hook, but, not a garbage hook, either. I dont like the matzuo sickles, for the simple reason that I have a hard time rigging narrow plastics straight on them. Is there a better option than eagle claws or mustads, while being modestly priced? thanks