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Let’s Talk Saltwater Swimbaits

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8.3K views 54 replies 15 participants last post by  Liquiddeath  
#1 ·
I’m slowly starting to go down a rabbit hole and need somebody to talk some sense into my thick head!

I’m watching YouTube videos pouring soft plastic (mostly bass) baits where folks are adding translucent color shifting powders, multiple size glitters and laminating multiple layers/colors. I’m seriously hooked with the idea of making my own swimbaits rather than buying them for $1.50 to $2.50 per bait.

Has anyone slipped into this lure making trap, was it everything you thought it would be and what sort of suggestions do you have for me (make them or buy them)?
 
#2 ·
Do it! It's a fun side hobby. It gets pretty anoying always replacing jigs as the lings tear them up or nip off their tails. Now we just remelt them.
We use a 70-30 mix of Salt water super tough-Medium lure Plasitsol on ocean baits. 100% super tough makes a pretty hard bait and way more difficult to work with hot. It always seems to stay lumpy, unless you work it right at the edge of burning.
We have picked up a lot of molds over the years, but Epic Bait Molds has always had the best selection.
Careful; you can spend way more & on bait molds, jig molds, plastic, lead and hooks than you can justify, but it is a fun way to spend non fishing days.
Would be willing to loan you some stuff if you'd like. I have a great 12" curly tail grub mold that kills the lings
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the advice and suggestions!

I picked up a Lee Production 4-20 Pot from Grim last weekend and have a ton of lead jigs/weights I’d like to pour before I get into the plastic lures. In addition to the molds pictured below, I own a 2lb cod sinker and 8 oz bullet nose jig mold (not pictured) and access to the Do-It 2lb/3lb cannon ball mold.

I’d be happy to pay for the use of the your equipment either in finished product or loan you my lead pouring equipment if/when the time comes to fruition to get into molding plastics.

Thanks in advance for your input and generosity! Happy Holidays! 👍🏻

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#6 ·
A cautionary note. Roy "Bait O Eggs" helped me get into pouring my own tails. He showed me how to do it in his shop. He's that kind of guy. Unfortunately the fumes gave me a killer headache and I felt like crap the rest of the day. I must have a sensitivity to the molten plastic. In any case, use plenty of ventilation
 
#7 ·
I’m certainly aware that there are toxic chemicals and fumes associated with pouring lead and plastics. I haven’t seen anyone wearing PPE in any of the YouTube videos I have been watching which is very disconcerting. I have quite a few respirators that have the 3M P100 (pink) filters on them. I can’t imagine pouring lead or melting plastic inside a garage or indoors. I’ve always picked windy days to melt down (cleanup) lead to make ingots. I picked up a griddle at St. Vincent DePaul (it’s like Goodwill) to pre-heat my lead molds. I’m not sure if I will end up getting into pouring swimbaits or if I’ll just simply buy them. Mazama’s wants $3.50 for a 7” swimbait made by Candy Bar Slider which is $2.99 at Squid Co Tackle and Pit Bull Tackle has an 8” for $2.89 per/bait. I may order some 8” or 7” and do what this gentleman did. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 
#9 ·
I’m saddened to hear that your buddy took his own life. I pour lead 1-2’s per/year, always outdoors and typically on hot windy days. I don’t think I could afford to buy the necessary weights and jigs without casting the lead myself. I typically loose 2-4 pipe jigs per/trip and 2-4 cannon ball or coffin weights that are 2-3 lbs each on halibut trips.

Sadly, I don’t have unlimited recreational dollars which is why I restored my 1970 Skipjack 20 Open. I do what I can to save money, stay safe and have fun! 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

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#11 ·
I’m saddened to hear that your buddy took his own life. I pour lead 1-2’s per/year, always outdoors and typically on hot windy days. I don’t think I could afford to buy the necessary weights and jigs without casting the lead myself. I typically loose 2-4 pipe jigs per/trip and 2-4 cannon ball or coffin weights that are 2-3 lbs each on halibut trips.

Sadly, I don’t have unlimited recreational dollars which is why I restored my 1970 Skipjack 20 Open. I do what I can to save money, stay safe and have fun! 🤷🏻‍♂️

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I find I don’t pour much anymore. It seems like the only things I tend to lose are pipe jigs so I pour those once a year.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I can tell you that making your own jigs, pirks and plastics is a highly addictive activity. I've been doing it for going on at least 40 years. I'm sure there are some health risks, especially from lead, but plastisol or pouring plastics, while not great for breathing the fumes, especially if you scorch the plastic, is really pretty safe. Use a fan and keep doors or windows open. I've never worn a respirator in all those years and don't suffer from inordinate respiratory problems not consistent with being a 2 pack a day smoker until I quit at age 35 (I'm now 78). You can start very small, cheap microwave, cheap griddle, a couple of one cup pyrex measuring cups, and an open pour mold which meets your fishing requirements. You don't even have to buy plastisol to get started, just recycle all the torn up plastics you spent the big bucks on, they melt down just fine and if you're selective about colors, can get pretty good results. While injection molding of soft plastics gives a fully round product, unless you want to spend a lot of money on injectors and spendy molds, open pour is the way to go. There's a pretty good looking aluminum mold on eBay for $59 which is 4 3/4 inches long. Pretty soon you're going to want to buy some plastisol, but you don't need to start big there either. I like aluminum molds over RTV rubber ones (cheaper), because you can heat the mold to ~200 degrees on the griddle, and then pour different colors to make a laminate bait without cold cracks (one layer failing to adhere to the next). You can even use crayons as colorants. The fact that California hasn't banned plastisol (it's basically PVC like water pipes in a liquid form) for making your own soft plastics might say something about it's safety.
 
#13 ·
That’s it. Something in the 6” to 9” range that I can drop deep for lings and halibut. I found the NLBN (No Live Bait Needed) and Madame Lure Co. swim baits to be about what I’m looking to pour, but I’m not interested in paying $6 to $7 per/bait. The 8” NLBN paddle tail is $5 per/bait and it’s 2 oz of plastic. An eBay seller has the massive “Slugo” style mold that makes 9” to 12” baits that cost $3 to $5 per/bait on the Lunker City website.

It looks like I can get a less toxic mix (non-phthalate) blend of plastisol from a supplier called Dead On Plastics in Michigan. The 5 gallon bucket runs $109.99 and has 640 fluid ounces. If each bait weighs 2 ounces and I assume 5% waste I can make 300 baits per/bucket. Add the cost of the mold $109, some dye, a little glitter/powder and you’re at $1 per/bait not including your time. It’s hard calculate the health risks associated with the activity… Might not be worth it!

As with most things fishing related, it would definitely be a labor of love.
 
#16 ·
Well I have officially taken the plunge and purchased my first few open pour silicone swimbait molds. I found them used on Mercari and paid $28.80 (all-in) for several (5) 5 silicone open pour swimbait molds 8.5”, 6.5”, 4”, and two 3” molds that look to be shipping from Haddon Hgts, NJ.
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I assume they were baits that were made for striped bass and/or tuna and seem to be wide-bodies that could be used for fishing in our neck of the woods. I’m super excited to pour my first baits and share the success and failure stories with the community. I really appreciate the feedback and encouragement from everyone! 🙏🏻
 

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#18 ·
I’m hoping that I can have some fun, catch more fish and share my knowledge and experience with others in the community. I spotted a post from “pirk fan” awhile back where he gave away a bunch of swimbaits and twin tails to someone in the community. That’s really cool and I’d love to do the same thing whenever I get rock’n and roll’n with production.

P.S. Sheldon High School here in Eugene has a fishing club that Justin Herbert started and I hope to pour some baits for the kids in the club. I’ve got a lot of bass fishing gear that I accumulated while growing up on the California Delta that I rarely (if ever) use and I hope I can get it to the kids who can’t afford to purchase it themselves.
 
#21 · (Edited)
I've accepted I'll never save any money pouring my own swimbaits. Now that I've gotten that out of the way. Really enjoy making, fishing and passing them off to others. The availability, selection and prices here (Salem, Albany, Newport) are really poor, and biggest reason I started making my own. Even with that, I just enjoy tackle craft and would probably make my own anyway. I give away more than I use even though I supply the boat and skipper and his retired buddies go through several hundred a year it does help out a lot. No more complaining about tear out every other tuna, just grab another one! Several years ago, ifisher, "Bait O Eggs" did presentations on do it yourself swimbait making at the Saltwater Sportman's Show which was a great first hand example. He did a great job showing it can be done on a minimal budget. Of course that's totally out the window now I'm buying aluminum molds and dual injectors!

Some thoughts and resources; Pirk fan's post here on ifish have been very helpful. Silicone molds are a great place to start, lurecraft has a huge selection. Heat gun will help to prevent cold cracks on multi-color pours. Our saltwater jig heads are much larger than what is used freshwater fishing. I hot nail to open up a spot for those jigheads takes a lot of stress off the bait to reduce splitting. Bait Plastics has a reasonably priced five gallon pick your selection of one gallon jugs deal on plastisol. Hobby Lobby glitter works just fine for the price and selection. They even have a couple of powder pigments in the candle section. But, you do have to be pretty secure in your man-li-ness to walk up to the register with an arm load of glitter containers when it's on sale! I think Dead On Plastics has a starter kit.

YouTube is a great resource for how to, examples galore, from color pigments, glitter, different products and learn from other's mistakes. Two of my favorites are "World's Worst Fishing" and "SDG Custom Lurecraft".

Safety; You've already mentioned, fumes. I open doors and have fans moving lots of air. I'll probably do a dedicated exhaust fan this year. Be careful with re-melts. Microwaves and Pyrex do not like metal. A broken old rusty hook sneaking into your re-melts will shatter Pyrex and give a cool light show in the microwave! Use a instant read thermometer to check temps. Sneak up on temps in segments. Over cooked plastisol is obnoxious! Hot plastisol on bare skin sucks!

Even with those hazards. I enjoy the heck out of making my own plastics. Looks like your a couple hours South of me but your more than welcome to stop by and check out pouring some first hand. I'm up the North Santiam Canyon, Lyons, Oregon.
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#22 ·
I forgot, if you do want to buy from someone locally. Eat Me Tackle is local and has a good selection.

Sources for supplies;
silicone molds- LurePartsonline who bought out lurecraft i think, also have pigments, plastisol tons of stuff. BarlowsTackle, BaitPlastics, Lureworks, Deadonplastix, m-fmanufacturing.

Currently I'm using open pour aluminum molds on a hot plate for multi color swimbaits. You can control the temp of the plastisol and get great results in the finished product. Also, aluminum injection molds for swimbaits and big grubs for lings. Sources for molds are, basstackle, fatguysfishing, epicbaitmolds, do-itmolds are ones that I have tried. AnglingAI has some good looking molds but haven't tried them yet. But this is all spending way more than needs to be and you definitely will not reduce the cost of making your own.

Oh and there's color shift, halo shift, mica powders and additives for all sorts of cool effects from the car painting world they are using. I keep saying I'll leave those for the bass fisherman but they do catch the fishermen's attention!
 
#26 ·
I decided to purchase 1 gallon of Bait Plastics - 262 Medium / Hard Saltwater (This formula is our second most popular and is great for crappie, senkos, frogs, and all other soft baits) for $45.98. When considering the cost of the molds $28.80 and the miscellaneous mica powders I purchased second hand, I’ll be in production for less than $100 all-in.

Rather than go crazy and open up the wallet to a massive sampler kit of liquid color pigments and powders, I’ve decided to try the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach to bait making. I’m going to try using old color crayons for my lure pigment and see whether the cheap glitter at the craft store works before jumping into another hobby hog wild. The results are impressive in the video below, so I hope I can duplicate the results with my hand poured swimbaits.

 
#27 ·
I started making swimbaits about about a year ago. My crew and I would go through quite a few for both tuna and bottomfish so figured I would save us all some money and start making them myself.

I started with some hand pour molds then quickly fell into the rabbit hole. I’ve got injectors, vacuum chambers, new molds plus a whole space set up to make them now. Not sure if I will ever save any money but it is a lot of fun!

Mica powders are great and give some really nice color patterns. Can be a little more difficult to mix in without getting air bubbles though. If you have a Micheal’s near you, their “Recollections” brand glitter works great and doesn’t bleed. They have sales on it all the time too.

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Once you get going I recommend trying some BP 342 to see how you like it. It’s a bit harder to pour that 262 but the durability is nice for our saltwater fish. Ive had baits pretty torn to shreds after a pile of Lings but the tails will still be attached and fishable for a lot longer than off the shelf baits.

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#30 ·
@fishin

Yeah it took me a little while to find ones that work well for our fishery, not many out there and custom molds are $$$. Those ones are FatGuysFishing “Hunter” molds.

The larger is their 7” mold and the smaller is their 5” mold.
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The 7” has an 8oz bullet head. The 5” on the left has a 3oz bullet head. The other two are both 1.5 oz. The one on the far right has had a little bit cut off from the front for a smaller profile.
 
#32 ·
I got into pouring my own plastics a long while ago. I still haven't used all of them. i poured my own jig heads. Still haven't used them all. Both are fun to do. I have bags of squiddy octo*****, creature things lol.
Pictures!
That's fun stuff looks like. I have been thinking about it. Not sure if use enough to warrant. 🤔
 
#37 ·
Google search “Hogy Flounder”, his photo looks like one of those to me. Great lure, been debating getting a mold to make something similar.

Only issue I have with them is when fishing deep. The flat profile really seems to get pushed around if there’s much current. Works awesome when there’s low current or when shallow though.

Fishermans gold also makes one that is similar.
 
#39 · (Edited)
Finally found a little time to fire up the Lee’s Lead Hot Pot this afternoon. It only took 20 minutes on setting #3 to melt 3 cupcake ingots. The shad head jigs are in 1 oz, 1 1/2 oz and 2 oz. It used 6/0 Eagle Claw 650 Duratin for the larger heads in saltwater and Mustad Black Nickel Style #32746 Black Nickel to use in freshwater. Started with the 4 oz Do-It Flutter Jigs and will be pouring a mess of 3 oz and 2 oz flutter jigs for tuna season.

Going to clean them up a bit, powder coat dip/bake ‘em and work on heating the flutter jig mold a bit more and open up the flow valve to shoot the lead in faster the next time I pour a few. Lots of fun to come in the weeks ahead…. Can’t wait to start pouring some swim baits!
 
#40 ·
My first time cooking plastisol wasn’t too bad, but I’m not in love with the skinny swimbait molds that I purchased. They’ll probably fish fine, but I think I’ll be investing in a few more molds and perfecting my color recipes in the weeks ahead. The gold mica powder with gold and silver glitter looks the best. I dropped a 1/3 of a white crayon and wasn’t impressed. Added a little green mica powder and it didn’t do much, so I think I’ll just use mica powder and glitter for the color and flash.
 

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#42 ·
Looks good! You'll have a shelf full of glitters, pigments and powders in no time!

If you have a swimbait you really like, Hobby Lobby or Bait Plastics has the RTV silicone for making your own mold. Haven't tried the Alumalite product sold at Hobby Lobby but have used the Bait Plastics brand and worked well to make multiple molds.