Where/how do you keep your "used" soft plastic baits?

[Eddie101]

Not the ones that's been trashed, but the ones that you can reuse. I put mine in gallon sized freezer bags, but better organization skills/idea could come in handy   I'm sure there has to be a better way? 

[MN Fisher]

If it's still usable - it goes right back into it's original bag. Then I don't have to worry about cross-contamination of pasticizers/scents/etc...like tossing a Elaztech bait in with a Berkley Powerbait - bad things happen.

[5/0]

If they are still usable, back in the package they came from. I will use Mend-It to try to repair baits that get torn. If repaired well enough, again back in original pack, if not in the trash.

[Kyle S]

This is what I do as well.

1 minute ago, 5/0 said:

If they are still usable, back in the package they came from. I will use Mend-It to try to repair baits that get torn. If repaired well enough, again back in original pack, if not in the trash.

 

 

[Jig Man]

I don’t  have very many used ones.  Where I fish they don’t last very long.  Right now I have 1 brush hog, 1 zero, and 1 trd that have been used.  They are still on rods waiting for the next trip.  How do you get a bunch of used plastic?

[5/0]

Another idea is to use beat up plastics for another purpose. An example would be a craw that has a torn up body from rigging. If the claws are in decent shape I will cut them down and use them as a chunk trailer on smaller jigs. You can do this will 6” finesse worms also, cut them down to a 4” size.

[WRB]

I ended up with over a hundred pounds of new soft plastics over the years but none used.

IMO you are saving too many used soft plastics at the end of the day.

Tom

[TnRiver46]

I take the used ones create my own colors by mixing in other bags. My favorite is putting one purple worm into a bag of pearl swimbaits . Or black/blue. This was a pearl/green swimbait that I put in a bag of Junebug worms 

 

[GaryH]

39 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

If it's still usable - it goes right back into it's original bag. Then I don't have to worry about cross-contamination of pasticizers/scents/etc...like tossing a Elaztech bait in with a Berkley Powerbait - bad things happen.

Ditto

[5/0]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

I ended up with over a hundred pounds of new soft plastics over the years but none used.

IMO you are saving too many used soft plastics at the end of the day.

Tom

I do hear you there Tom, buy new stuff all the time. Some of it I find and never realized I had it! But I can’t stop being somewhat frugal. I usually don’t buy multiple packs until it’s a somewhat proven bait. I’m headed in that direction though.

[lynxcat]

I have a small ziplock that I put them in if the original bag isn’t handy. Most of mine are Menace in a variety of colors so no plastics issues. 

[Bankbeater]

I keep them in their original bags. I end up using a lot of them as trailers.

[Fishes in trees]

I store used soft plastics scattered around the front deck of my boat, at least until I can remember to put them all in a zip lock bag.  A buddy of mine once asked me to keep used plastics for him so that he could re-melt them.  ( He was getting into molding soft plastics and used these for "practice" )

It's been a while since he's wandered by my fishing shed, so there are 5 or 6 gallon zip locks, each around a quarter full, waiting for him.   I'm not in any hurry and the used plastics aren't hurting anything sitting on the shelf.

[Eddie101]

18 hours ago, Jig Man said:

I don’t  have very many used ones.  Where I fish they don’t last very long.  Right now I have 1 brush hog, 1 zero, and 1 trd that have been used.  They are still on rods waiting for the next trip.  How do you get a bunch of used plastic?

Perhaps I'm too frugal (aka cheap) as I rarely throw my soft plastics away. Also, I have too many "flavor of the week" baits - and so little time - in my arsenal that I want to try so I'm constantly changing baits that are perfectly good hence having too many leftovers at the end of the day. 

 

[schplurg]

I have 2 smaller Ziplocs in my backpack.

 

One for used reusable plastics.

One for trashed plastics that can still be used as trailers.

 

Those go in the big Ziploc that has all my plastics bags.

 

I like to keep them separate from the new ones.

[PourMyOwn]

Mine go into a coffee can in my boat and at the end of the season I cut them up, add a ton of black colorant and then pour new baits.

[Eddie101]

These are damaged - minor  - by bluegill. Would you reuse/repair them or ditch'em? 

[MN Fisher]

14 minutes ago, Eddie101 said:

These are damaged - minor  - by bluegill. Would you reuse/repair them or ditch'em? 

Those look fine for tossing back in the bag for re-use to me.

[NoShoes]

8 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Those look fine for tossing back in the bag for re-use to me.

the craw has no claws lol, I chuck when they are missing the important appendages lol. 

[MN Fisher]

33 minutes ago, NoShoes said:

the craw has no claws lol, I chuck when they are missing the important appendages lol. 

Saw a vid recently - I think it was one of Glenn's - they were using Mr Twister singletails for smallmouth, got into a swarm, lost all the tails - used the tailess 'grubs' and kept on catching them.

 

Food for thought.

[ajschn06]

I just leave it on the jig

[Stasher1]

In the trash.

 

When I change lures, I place the used ones in my cupholder or tackle bag. As soon as I get near a trash can, I toss 'em.

[Silas]

As I fish in a boat with some expensive rods, reels, line; i can't see saving a used plastic bait, for later use. ( like putting a set of used tires on a Porsche 911!)

 

     In fact, I may change a perfectly good, but half day old plastic bait for a spanking new one

 

      Sort of like using a tired old shiner to catch bass;   I've got too much invested in time and money to go cheap on the most important end link-- the bait

 

     When I was a kid, fishing with Cane pole and a can of freshly dug worms, I often found, putting on a fresh worm after awhile, made a lot of difference in catching fish. 

 

         I want to present fish with my best offering. 

 

I, myself, RARELY eat leftovers!   

 

      I throw my used plastics all over the deck while fishing; I pick them all up and put them in the trash when I get home. 

 

     NOTHING PLASTIC goes back in the original bag.....to contaminate the new ones......could be oil in the water, toxic chemicals or whatever.  Then I'd ruin the rest of the new ones. 

[Cgolf]

During the season I have 2 Rubbermaid shoe plastic boxes with holes drilled in the bottom and I leave my slider and other jig head rigged plastics in there, sorted by color. Generally at the end of the season I unrig most of them, but I rarely have any rusting issues due to the material the hooks are made of, and have some baits that have been rigged for 2-3 years. It is just so easy to have a variety of baits rigged up on deck, helps me to be more efficient on the water. 

[Backroad Angler]

What I do is, I usually keep the soft baits rigged till I can't use them no more. Very rare I have any used ones left over, usually just keep them rigged on the rod. But sometimes I throw them in my vest, when I'm in need of a soft bait that I ran out of the new ones, I check my vest.