Used baits

[ScottW]

After a day of fishing what do you do with your used plastic baits? Put them back in their respective bags, leave ‘em rigged up and put them in a tackle box/tray or toss ‘em? Just curious really as I tend to put mine in the top tray of my tackle box to dry before putting them back in their respective trays. If they’re not too buggered up I’ll reuse them.

[NavyToad]

I throw them on the floor and pick them up when I’m done fishing. Then I throw them away because I don’t re-use them.

[padlin]

Used go in the top shelf like you do.  At home I toss the beat up ones and just leave the rest in the top shelf for next trip.

 

I do leave the last used on the rods unless I decide to change something the night before the next trip. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

For whatever stupid hording reason, I put them in zip loc bags.   Half of them have their bottoms ripped off from small Spots.

 

My friends 12 year old son got a worm making kit, so I'm gonna see if I can donate all the old stuff to him so he can melt it down, and if nothing else practice with it.  

[PhishLI]

I only use screw lock hooks. I leave the screw locks installed, but pull the hooks through the body of the plastic, then rinse them and let them dry. Leave the hooks in and the salt in the plastic will rust the hook. If they're torn at all, I fix them with Mend-It.

[Jar11591]

When I get to the boat launch I usually throw all the ripped up ones in the trash. If they’re still useable they just go back in their package. 

[PourMyOwn]

90% of what I use I pour, so I'm pretty quick to take off even slightly damaged baits. At the end of the day I toss them in a container to be remelted. 

 

[T-Billy]

I also make most of what I use. Torn up baits go into a container to be re-melted. Rigged baits stay rigged on my rods. I don't use salt in my baits so rusting hooks is not an issue. The factory baits that I do use get pitched after they get torn up.

[Bankbeater]

If the bait isn't too beat up I will put it back in the package and use it again.  If it is too damaged to use as a bait, it will become a trailer.  If there is no hope left for it, then I will toss it in the trash when I get home. 

[txchaser]

 

 

[ScottW]

Thanks for all the replies! Never gave much thought to pouring my own but now I’m curious. ?

[AlabamaSpothunter]

On 9/25/2022 at 3:13 PM, sdw215 said:

Thanks for all the replies! Never gave much thought to pouring my own but now I’m curious. ?

Do it brother.....Spots will never stop killing my plastic, I'll have an endless supply for you to play mad scientist with ?

[WRB]

I am in the camp that always cut off the hooks and lures at the of my outing. Knots tied over 24 hours weaken.

Soft plastics that are easy to replace I put into a zip bag and in the trash. Soft plastics in good condition not easy to replace get repaired and back into a bag marked used for use another day. I save some finesse worms for jig weed guards.

If a special color gets down to the last one it gets saved in a zip lock bag marked with name and colors to have more custom made.

For me it’s easier and more cost effective to have worms made in lieu of trying to do it.

Tom

[Munkin]

Usually they get thrown aside in the boat and get melted down into other baits later. 

 

Allen 

[Cgolf]

Used baits that are in good condition get tossed in a plastic shoebox in the boat with holes drilled in the bottom to allow the water to drain out. I use slider heads so this works well. Being cheap, I don't want to waste a bait I experimented with for 15-30 minutes and got no bites on. I maybe lose 0-2 slider heads a year due to rust, and the cost there is much less if I trashed the plastics each trip. Even taking them off and putting them back on causes them not to stay as well which is another reason to leave them rigged up. Just my opinion, but I have done this for years now.

[CM-fisher]

On 9/25/2022 at 1:46 PM, PhishLI said:

Leave the hooks in and the salt in the plastic will rust the hook.

Does every soft plastic do this? Like if I have some chatterbaits with trailers still attached will they rust over time?

[MN Fisher]

19 minutes ago, MN_Bassin24 said:

Does every soft plastic do this? Like if I have some chatterbaits with trailers still attached will they rust over time?

If they have any measure of salt in them, they will.

[PhishLI]

1 minute ago, MN_Bassin24 said:

Does every soft plastic do this? 

No. It depends on how salted they are. Some plastics have very little. I have Berkley Champ Swimmers, RI Skinny and Little Dippers, and others rigged on hooks for months at a clip with zero rust. Same with Zman Diesel Minnows, but most Yamamoto, Strike King, and Zoom baits are loaded with salt which will rust hooks rather quickly if you leave them installed.

[CM-fisher]

7 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

If they have any measure of salt in them, they will.

 

7 hours ago, PhishLI said:

No. It depends on how salted they are. Some plastics have very little. I have Berkley Champ Swimmers, RI Skinny and Little Dippers, and others rigged on hooks for months at a clip with zero rust. Same with Zman Diesel Minnows, but most Yamamoto, Strike King, and Zoom baits are loaded with salt which will rust hooks rather quickly if you leave them installed.

I just went and took all trailers off my jigs and chatterbaits and luckily there wasn't any significant corrosion to the hooks but I can see a little on a couple of them. Glad I did that instead of leaving them on there all winter

[PhishLI]

2 hours ago, MN_Bassin24 said:

I just went and took all trailers off my jigs and chatterbaits and luckily there wasn't any significant corrosion to the hooks but I can see a little on a couple of them. Glad I did that instead of leaving them on there all winter

You should now rinse them off in warm water and leave them to dry completely before storing them. Residual salt will still rust the hooks.