Reusing Soft Plastics

[MuffinMan]

What are some ideas of what to do with my torn up plastics besides trashing them? Any ideas?

[Quillback]

If they're not too torn up you can repair them with Mend-it. Beaver type baits you can cut off the end with the flappers and use as jig trailers.

[jignfule]

Glue em, ment-it works well

[Wisconsin Heat.]

jig trailers or you can cut em into shape and use them for drop shotting, someone here recommended cutting a beaver in half length wise and nose hooking it, i tried it and it works good

[Marty]

You can fuse parts together with heat; I use a candle. If a lure, like a Senko or Power Worm, is just torn at the nose, cut off 1/4" and re-rig. You can do that four times and still be fishing with a lure that's just 1" shorter. The fish don't seem to mind.

[RangerEnthusiast]

I fish speed worms quite a bit and often time loose tails from dinks just biting the end of the worm off. When the tail is gone I usually turn the tailless speed worms into Senkos.

[MaxumBass]

I have been saving all my tore up soft plastics in a gallon freezer bag. As soon as I feel I have enough I will order some Mend-It and do them all in one sitting. That way I will get my moneys worth before it dries up...

[Jigfishn10]

I just started fishing tubes again this year and in a pinch, I cut up my old tubes and make spinnerbait skirts out of them if I don't have that particular skirt color and I need a new spinnerbait skirt for the next day. Works great!

[Crestliner2008]

Interesting question. Here's a perspective worth considering. Back in the 70's, a great fisherman, by the name of Bill Binkleman, wrote a series of "Blue Books" on fishing. He was a jig fisherman, "par excellance".

Bill, along with Al & Ron Lindner, wrote these detailed books (along with the "Big Book of Fishing"), for the walleye and bass angler. (I still have the entire collection!)

Bill was a guy that payed attention to detail. (As a side note, he was the first US angler, to write about using a drop shot!) Extreme detail in some instances. His parade concerning torn baits went something like this:

....."Think about bait, real (or artificial, referring to plastics) as a hamburger. You order one while in a diner. Your buddy comes in and sits besides you. You get your burger and decide to share it with him. Do you think it would be more appetizing if you first took a bite out of it and then tore it in half? Or rather, if you took a sharp knife and cut it precisely in half, offering him a cleanly separated section?"

Surely something to think about in these heavily pressured times.

[BassThumb]

I use Mend-It on a lot of soft plastics to extend the life a little and get another fish or two out of a bait. Sometimes, I toss them in a bag and use them later as swim jig, spinnerbait, and chatterbait trailers. I realized recently that a torn up Berkley Havoc Grass Pig makes a dynamite chatterbait trailer.

[Bankbeater]

When the senko, or one of the knock offs get too beat up I cut it in half, and cut the back off the tail just enough so that it is flat and not pointed. I fish it on a light spinning reel and the bass eat them up. For brush hogs I cut them back a little and make jig trailers out of them.

[Five-Alive]

With the cost of soft plastics I hate to discard the ones that I consider reusable so we keep an old plano box on the boat and add any plastics that are ripped or used and removed from the hook, etc to this box. I use this box for fun fishing or pond fishing and use the new stuff for tournaments.

[Gone_Phishin]

They also make great toys for the family cat.

[The Guy]

They also make great toys for the family cat.

First time my cat saw a zoom super fluke he freaked out really bad and ran away, it was just sitting on a table I don't know why it scared him so much.

[Munkin]

I melt them down to pour new baits.

Allen

[CWB]

I have been saving all my tore up soft plastics in a gallon freezer bag. As soon as I feel I have enough I will order some Mend-It and do them all in one sitting. That way I will get my moneys worth before it dries up...

Same here. Depends alot on the bait and how bad its damaged also. If they cost around a buck each they will be repaired. Some will be cut down and used as trailers. Some hit the trash. Mend-It doesn't seem to dry up now that it comes in the glass bottles. Just don't leave it open too long.

[tennsopher]

The Mend-It in the glass bottle works for me.I have skinny dippers that I have repaired multiple times.You can get the best deal if you buy it on e-bay.

[Jigfishn10]

I was fishing an inline spinner I made today and got 4 nice LMB and 1 decent size pickerel. I just thought about this thread so I figured I'd show you a recycled tube I made into a skirt and tied onto the spinner:

It's a Yum F2ube, Virgo Red. The bottom of the tube is now the top and the top the bottom which I cut up and tied onto the spinner.

Worked great!

EDIT: Sorry about the bad cell phone pic.

[deaknh03]

I was fishing an inline spinner I made today and got 4 nice LMB and 1 decent size pickerel. I just thought about this thread so I figured I'd show you a recycled tube I made into a skirt and tied onto the spinner:

It's a Yum F2ube, Virgo Red. The bottom of the tube is now the top and the top the bottom which I cut up and tied onto the spinner.

Worked great!

EDIT: Sorry about the bad cell phone pic.

That things friggin sweet!

[iceintheveins]

Mend it works awesome! Worth every penny and will save you money by allowing you to re - use even really soft plastics, like senkos, rage shads, and roboworms.

[Colton Neal]

Pretty simple, just take a lighter and melt the plastic back together. Overtime you'll save money. (:

[LgMouthGambler]

I like to take the hind end(rear legs and tail section) of my Zoom Lizards and make them trailers for my spinner bait. For some reason the watermelon red lizard end with a green and chartreuse skirted spinner makes them LMB crazy.