What to Do With Gently Used Soft Plastics?

[swhit140]

Mend-It first and after that I'll wash the old soft plastics with dish soap and let them dry. Then I'll separate all my colors and put them in storage bags. Once I have enough soft plastics accumulated over a couple seasons I'll re-melt them and I'll inject them into a couple molds that I have. It is just something I can do in the winter to keep my fishing itch somewhat sane. 

[Bazoo]

2 hours ago, Cgolf said:

Since I fish slider pro heads, I cut off a rigged bait and keep the rigged baits in a couple of shoebox sized totes with holes cut in the bottom for drainage. Over the years this has worked really well for me and I lose very few hooks due to rust, mostly cheap jigheads.

 

With the cost of some plastics now, they are worth more than the hook or jig and just the act of unrigging them could make them less reliable when rerigged. 

 

When fishing a Rage Menace or Arsenal Assault bug I expect to get 10-20 largies per bait. If fishing smallies, I generally get way less fish per bait. I know its debatable, but it seems that a roughed up bait can get a lot more bites than a fresh one.

Thanks for sharing what you do. Sometimes I'll cut the hook and leave the soft plastic rigged so I don't tear it up. Even with a Texas rigged worm, I just slide the eye back out of the nose, leaving the barb and point as is. I don't do it all the time.

[Bankc]

I do a variety of things.  Sometimes I'll cut the hook off and leave them rigged up and store them that way.  It can rust the hook, but I've found that so long as you don't use the cheap Eagle Claw hooks, they tend to last well enough.  You still might get some rust, so I keep them separated from my other hooks.  I'll also shorted my soft plastics to get more life out of them, as I wear out some spots, I'll just move further down the bait to get my hooks into fresh plastic.  

 

I don't worry about the colors bleeding together.  But I'll usually keep the white and lighter colored plastics separate from the reds and darker plastics.  And I'll keep the ones that are too far gone for remelting later.  You can make some fun, custom colors by remelting various colors together.  

[Cdn Angler]

If it's still useable, it goes back in the bag. Even if a bit dirty or discoloured, I doubt the fish mind. 

 

A lot of baits can be repurposed as trailers, drop shot baits etc, if you have the patience to comb through them and organize them. 

 

Or just put them in the trash. 

[TnRiver46]

Bite off a bit and you make new fresh hook holes

 

cut them into poor man’s ned rigs

 

if it’s a purple worm throw it into a bag of flukes or swimbaits and you’ve got a color nobody else has 

 

oh no I’ve said too much