Making Plastic Baits ?

[Topwaterspook]

I have questions about starting to pour plastic baits. Is this really worthwhile ? I see that there are kits for sale that provide all you need to get started. Is this one of those things that tends to blossom out of control once you start ?  I tend to go overboard  once I get into a new hobby. Thanks for your opinions and thoughts.

[Felix77]

You and me both ... My suggestion is to get something good quality if you are going to do this at all.  I just got my order of stuff to make soft plastics and I am going to spend the winter recycling old lures.

 

I didn't want to make new stuff per se but i'm sure I will get around to it ... LOL

 

By the way I bought all my stuff from lurecraft.

[Comfortably Numb]

Yes it is very addicting. You probably wont save any money. It is more of a hobby.

[Jig Man]

I have several molds and hundreds if not thousands of baits.  I have way more than I'll ever be able to use in a lifetime.  It is so addictive and costs a lot of money but it is my only hobby.

 

My first injected tube cost me $300.

[smalljaw67]

Very addicting and while I don't make soft plastics I do pour jig heads, spinnerbaits, bladed jigs, and I tie hair jigs with the jig heads I pour. I started with a little hot pot, a spinnerbait mold and some ready made skirts and blades and now I have 30 molds, a bottom pour pot, a pot just to melt lead and make ingots, thousands of blades, pound and pounds of skirt material and thousands of hooks. You will not save money because your free time will be consumed trying to invent the ultimate color of softness, you'll end up with more molds than you can count and you have every color of glitter made in every size available, you will go to sleep thinking about making baits and everytime you see a cool car color it will translate into how you can get that color into a wom, yes, you will get addicted and spend more money than what you would if you just bought your baits.

[ipt]

i got into it looking to only spend a little bit and produce a few baits that i'd fish.

 

now i have a ton of money invested and every kind of bait you could imagine.

 

my advice is not to get into it to save money, you will only save money in a long long run. plastic itself is fairly cheap, but then you have to factor in other things: glitter/paint/additives, molds, injectors (maybe), all the small tools like microwaves, pyrexcups, lee pots, etc. then of course hours of your time.

 

its a great hobby i'd recommend it but only for the hobby, not for the money saved.

[Topwaterspook]

Thanks, guys....................maybe I'll just pass on this idea.................You've confirmed my suspiscions. Thanks for saving me from myself. That's another great thing about this site, you get honest poinions.

[RODNEY]

Of course you'll save money, hundreds if not thousands of dollars, By the by, we are having a convention of flying pigs in a couple of days.LOL You may break even if guys you fish with, take a liking to your baits and buy them, key word, may.

Rodney

[IneedAnewScreenName-3264]

Yup, it is addictive and very time consuming so if you get into this make sure you have a lot of free time and plenty of extra cash to invest in supplies. I make and sell custom soft plastics and have way too much money invested just in molds....

[Lil'skeeter]

I have three jig molds and am seriously looking at 4 more.....and i have been contemplating on a hand injector and a few molds of baits that I use a lot. I have plenty of time to do it (unemployed)....but not the funds (unemployed)...lol.

 

Actually, I just sold some Wacky jig heads and chatterbaits I made and did some rod repairs for a few friends so I do have some funds to put towards it. Just really hesitant right now.

 

I've made a couple of hand pour molds but you have to be really steady to pour good baits or you'll have to do a lot of trimming. Check out you tube under making worm molds.

[fishbayte]

I am wanting to try this...have played with other things but this looks interesting....just need to find the liquid plastic!