SENKOSAM

I once had a '80 something Ford Ranger with a V-6 and it had little power going up hills, even in 3rd. To tow my 17' Ranger, I usually invited my neighbor with his big 8, to fish any distance over 60 miles from home. I won't ever buy a six for towing and for getting out of steep ramps. My '87 F-150, 4 speed, with a small eight, still hauls fine, but is starting to slow on the mountains. I'm looking for a good used truck that gets better than 13 mpg. I heard that the gear ratio in the back should also support towing over 1000 lbs. The Ford Ranger didn't have a power ratio. It's no wonder the heat gauge was up there in summer.

A follow-up to the bubble problem. If you are using Calhoun plastic, it was recently found that bad batches went out from the factory and that an additive is available from Delmart that should take care of the problem. I pour in a damp basement and never had bubbles until last summer. I got a free sample from M-F and had absolutely no bubbles! Moisture is not the problem! Reheating bad plastic will get the bubbles out, wasting electricity, which is the reason I switched to M-F. Until Del tests the newest batch in two weeks, I'll stay with M-F. (note: if clear plastic turns amber on 3 reheats, it's defective.)

It depends on many factors and many handpoured baits are not worth the cost. It comes down to what you can accept as adequate quality and what you want in a soft plastic. Soft sticks are easy to make, but few have the action of a Senko. Reason? Too little salt and softener. Even Stik-Os are poor copies and they are produced by the millions! Some handpours lake crisp detail, which may be important for the visual affect and have flashing (overpour) that hasn't been trimmed. Additives are a confidence thing and don't make a lure superior. Senkos have no scent and are the best sticks out there. Colors might not always be consistent (even in manufactured baits) and the color you reorder might not even come close to the bag that produced a monster stringer. Again, a confidence thing. This is not to say that a copied bait can't be just as good as an original. Sweet Beavers are simple to copy and copies work quite well; chunk trailers and craws, the same thing. Anyone who includes phrases such as "secret of the pros" or "secret ingredients", is blowing smoke up your tail pipe. It will always come down to consistancy, pour quality and plastic factors that make a bait as good as similar baits. Few are better in my experience - the fishermen makes them better. Heck, he could throw pasta on a hook and catch bass. ;D

I've done it and then found it's a hassle to get excess glitter out of the mold. It sticks with a vengeance! Besides, I ensure a nice glossy finish in plaster or silicone molds by using Original Fish Formula oil brushed lighly in the cavities. (Much cheaper than worm oil and a little goes a long way!!) (I coat the plaster molds with Valspar Glaze vs Mod Podge for a gloss coat and use the oil for a super gloss finish.) Sprinkling glitter on oil does not allow it to stick very well, in my experience. (I don't store worms in oil until I'm ready to use or sell them.)

You said it all! It adds a bit of depth and spice to fishing and helps keep away the cabin fever blues when I can't go (like now with no ice %&*# :'( ).

Tandem lures have worked for year and yours sounds like a good one. Please report your trial results - might be something to try. I did something similar a few years ago and caught many bass and pickerel on the rig: I made up and in-line spinner with a clip that would allow bait changes. To this I clipped on large T-rigged creature baits, 8"-10 Bass Assassin worms and lizards with big action tails, Zoom Speed worms and Trickworms. This combo gets blasted every spring when retrieved in the very shallow, emerging vegetation. I will sometimes wake the blade just to see the strike, but usually that small #5 silver Colorado does just fine, fluttering ahead of the massive baits. Your tri-blade idea is one I'll definitely try! Thanks for contribution!

My 2 cents: I've cast flat finish soft plastic jerk sticks and the bass and picks ate them with gusto. I can't imagine it makes a difference with hard baits except a gloss will reflect more flashes of light versus absorbing different wave lengths. If you have a pattern painted on, two coats of clear will magnify those patterns nicely and give them a 3-d f/x to a small degree. I like glossy lures, but only as a confidence factor. The old wive's tail of released fish scaring off the bite A couple of things that has disproven the theory, at least for panfish: 1. I've rubbed lures on caught fish to pick up scent from the slime coat and caught fish (even more so when the bite was slow). 2. Schoolies are in a frenzy and bite anything, regardless of the release of caught fish into the school If those released crappies join the school, they might become frenzied again to bite the next day. I recatch many prespawners again when they are in the shallows. Our ice has melted. :'(

Lurecraft.com has grape dye and nine glitter colors. I also sell glitter (23 colors in 4 sizes). LC is under new owners and I think the service will be better. Request a catolog from their site. (Unless they changed the formulation, stay away from LC motor oil and chartreuse.)

Delmart site has a cookbook of many favorite and often used color combos, but to answer your question: 1. June bug requires grape purple color for the plastic. - 5 drops per cup of plastic; add kelly or emerald green glitter and that's it. 2. Red shad is a laminate and requires two pours - pearl and red pearl - half one side /half the other side. It requires pearl powder and drops of red dye. If you're pouring a Senko (2-part mold), pour one side; close the mold up after the plastic cools; pour the other half. It can also be done in a one part Lurecraft mold and is much easier. Don't worry, the hot plastic half will fuse to the cooled plastic as long as the temp is 320 degrees. (A Candy thermometer is invaluable! Normally plastic will pour fine between 260 and 280 and is safer for glitter, as well as for reheating plastic. Note: you are at the proper temp if the milky plastisol turns gin clear, right from the jug or bottle. If new clear plastic begins to take on an amber tint, it's beginning to sear or is bad plastic. Lurecraft plastic has a lower heat tolerance and will sear and smoke at 300 degrees.) Zoom color 54 is watermelon dye with black and red flakes (.035 black and .015/.035 red flakes). With experience, you can spot all the colors that make up a color comb and can add the right amounts to plastic.

Nice thing about this hobby is that you can: 1. recycle plastic and make new lures 2. make copies of most lures with cheap plaster 3. you don't need to reorder supplies too often because everything goes a long way (glitter, dye, softener, plastic) 4. in the long run, you will save money and time, except for clearance bin plastics. Senkos over 70 cents when you consider ta, gas or shipping; your stick - $.15 or less plus your time. I love it and can't wait to try my new stuff!

Variety in colors and sizes are nice to have around, especially if you see a bait at the store that you want to duplicate. That is pretty much the key to duplicating color schemes, unless you're experimenting, but many baits require only one size. Rule of thumb: Larger baits do better with .035 (.040) Smaller baits do better with .015 (.027) and .008. Color is always arbitrary and the amount of translucence and actual hue, determines what will shine through. Ie. Gold and chartreuse glitter does better than silver in chartreuse plastic; red and black do well in watermelon versus emerald; fuscia does better in purple plastic than blue grape. There are 23 colors on my site and there is a place for every one of them. M-F Mfg. also sells a fine color variety of quality glitter in most sizes, as well as great plastic. Glitter will eventually shrink and fade with multiple plastic re-heats, so it pays to have extra on hand. I sell and use glitter and have never had it settle to the bottom. Salt yes, glitter no. A few colors will bleed a little (violet and fuscia), but in most colors except clear, it is neglible. There is one color - watermelon chameleon- where bleeding is preferred. The plastic is green when the light comes through, but reflects a pumpkin color with purple flake flash. Too much dye and the plastic will be so dark that glitter will be masked. When I use dark colors and want the glitter to be obvious on the surface, I'll slightly heat the lure by rolling it over a candle flame and then roll it in some scattered glitter on glass, ceramic plate or flat aluminum foil. The technique makes grub tails flash like the blazes! Great for black plastics and saves on having to use glitter in the plastic. I use to think that hex glitter was better than square, but the fish can't count sides, so I doubt it matters. Square is nice for a more textured color look and I like it also.

This is just the beginning! Nice colors and gloss. There is no way they won't work in spring. Next - jig trailers, Sweet Beavers and Senkos.

The more you use that you make, the cheaper it becomes per worm. Of course, some designs might not come out as pretty as injection mold plastics, but there are many designs that come out great from just a plaster or resin mold. If you figure in s/h, tax, gas, backorders etc, making you own saves time and money once you get past the first season of not buying or using other people's plastics. Instead of paying over $.60 for Senkos, you can make one for around a dime. (3 cents for plastic, less than a penny for salt, 6 cents for running a hot plate, 1 cent for glitter/dye and maybe a penny for softener.) With aluminum molds, sticks are almost perfect, but with plaster or silicone, work well even though one side is almost flat.

For those interested in lure modifying or lure crafting, check out the galleries. I've uploaded some recent creations and the blog pages below will show those that I did last year. One nice thing about soft plastics is that with a candle flame and a soldering iron, you can improve upon a manufacturer's design. For example, Bass Pro's Squirmin Shad has a boot tail that is at less of an angle to the main axis of the bait. Mr Twister Sassy Shad is more perpendicular and allows for more vibration at slow speeds and with slight rod twitches, and even that angle is inadequate. Also, the club tail is too thick and the body too wide for both baits, which are two main reasons Slider Grubs are so fantastic. Mr Twister also gave each size a boot tail that is too large for the body and this is remedied by exchanging the boot from the next smaller lure. *The Slider action-tail resembles the head of a nail or tack and is attached by a thing band of plastic. The Slider vibratail is far superior to Mr Twister's and pannies go nuts for the 1.5" size. I've taken a Lunker City Fin S Fish and attached a club tail to it and was delighted that the bait had the most natural minnow shimmie I've ever seen. My new snake design caught a bass in 2' of stick-ups Dec. 2 and will be phenomenal in spring. I hate to see plastics take up space for years, like any lure I've paid good money for, and would rather give them new life than chuck them as duds. Besides, I subscribe to the theory that a bass that has never seen a bait, is more apt to strike it. Here are blog pages that have kept me busy in winter when ice fishing was slow and the weather, brutal: http://www.zipperworm.blogspot.com/ http://morecabinfevercreations.blogspot.com/ http://senkosamsothercreations.blogspot.com/ http://2005effectivehybrids.blogspot.com/ http://senkosam.blogspot.com/ Beats sitiing around watching the boob tube!

You asked for it, so here goes ;D 1.Read the articles that Glenn has links to. Since I wrote them, I've discovered even more tip (which I should have Glenn edit into them.) 2. Plastic cost is dependent on shipping distance. M-F seems to be the most reasonable and have the best quality plastic that is consistent. Del has been having a bit of trouble with Calhoun and bad batches have gone out to customers. (I still like Calhoun's the best.) 3. To make your own designs, you have to have a model. The more detailed the model as far as super thin appendages and tails, the more difficult the mold and pour. Keep it as simple as possible. Only professional injection molds can easily pour the tiny detailed stuff! 4. Dye colors are many and it only takes drops, not teaspoons, to color a 1 cup of plastic. 5. Glitter is cheap (I sell it in 4 sizes and in 22 colors) and a little also goes a long way. There is no lure I make that doesn't contain glitter, especially black and sometimes dye isn't needed. 6. Aluminum molds are well worth the cost depending on the lure design. Two part mold produce texture and roundness on all sides; one part molds from Lurecraft.com do not. The finish is glossy for metal molds, flat for silicone molds (LC) I make many copies of baits using plaster from Home Depot (Can you imagine how many molds you can make from 20 lbs. at $7!! Don't waster your money at craft stores or Walmart for plaster!) I save plastic tv dinner trays and margerine cups for plaster mold trays. 7. Very talented handpourers lurecrafters in this forum will always be able to help answer all questions related to a hobby they've spent a lot of time at, which is evident by their on-line sales. 8. A $29 microwave from Walmart is the easiest way to heat plastic as long as it is done in 20 second increments with stirring in between. Electric burners are okay to keep large amounts heated, but you electric bill will shy rocket. 9. Salt can be added for weight/texture. but it works best if ground fine in a cheap coffee grinder. A friend recommended a super market brand, which is supposed to stay suspended in hot plastic. Remember, plastic floats without a hook and slowly falls with hook rigged. 10. Tubes can be made, but the skirt cutter is key. Lurecraft just came out with one, but I haven't heard of reports as to how easy to use and thinness of strands. Tubes take much more time to make, especially if they are double and triple dipped. (I dip Tender Tubes from Bass Pro in salted plastic and they work great.) 11. Once you and your friends catch fish on lures you've made, you will be hooked!! Get started and have fun!

All of the above and such variables such as softness/hardness, salt content, design shape, texture, action, weight/floatation, uniqueness, durability, convenience of not having to order/backorder, less unit cost per bait (Senko @ 65 cents - your own, 7 cents!), being able to copy many baits or come up with your own designs and mold them in plaster. I always get a big kick out of catching fish on lures I've made. Makes me feel far less dependent on the big companies and allows me to extend my hobby into a creative activity, stimulated by imagination. Beats watching the boob tube on a cold winter's night !!

Any questions about making your own molds or plastics in general, e-mail me. I tried to include all the steps in the articles, but there are always new things I discover by making more. Aluminum molds are the way to go for lures that you want completely texured and round on all sides, but making your own for copies of beavers, grubs, jig trailers etc. come out fine and at a fraction of the cost. My craw chunk trailers are displayed here: http://zipperworm.blogspot.com/ Note the small clear/pearl grub copies I made from a Power grub. molds I made last month (chunk trailer shown on blog page): Other than fishing, it's my second biggest hobby and what I'm able to spend more time doing, especially in winter.

See EW, that's your problem - too much of a dang purist! Heck, we should be talking about adults using pros as a role model, not their kids! A minority of pro wan a be's got the excitement, let their marriages lapse, went into a deep financial hole and took up golf after they paid the price of the fantasy. Even some pros now start to scream after catching their limit, for whatever reason. (Ah yes - for the cameras.) Shaw Grigsby almost wets his pants when he brings in a 13" fish on a sponsored lure. And some luremakeres use terms like "weapon/ arsenal" and "secret of the pro's" to describe their lures. You'd think we were going off to war every time we lauched our boats! If I can't be excited by the very fact that I'm lucky to be alive and able to be on the water to play the odds of catching fish (fishing is more in tune with gambling than combat), then I might as well take up bird watching! (Perish the thought! ) I will teach my four grandkids just that message and hope they will be just as bored with fishing shows as I am with televised golf!

I agree with 1., which was well put by Earthworm. I disagree with 2. Kids from various backgrounds may or may not be influenced by pro personalities and the controversy goes on as to what influence the media has on kids in their early years. Do violent cartoons make for violent kids? I loved Mighty Mouse, Popeye and the Three Stooges, but knew early on that TV entertainment is mostly fantasy and absurd - no different than pro wrestling. In fact, boxing was something I avidly watched when I was in my early teens, once Ali started his rants, but also realized that beating a man's face to pulp or killing him, is only legal and allowed in a ring. I also learned about the price paid for being in the limelight - there have been scandals throughout history involving famous people. Pro anglers were invented by Ray Scott, who glorified catching fish for a pot o gold. Fine. A child who emulates a bass pro has no life, especially a family life, and as EW said, hasn't been exposed to the selfless heros of our society, past or present. Kids today are smart enough to know that the gangsta rappers are part of pop culture and if they incorporate any values from the messages sent, only indicates that their peer group has sucked them in to believing in fantasy. Parental influence or lack of, has a lot to do with teaching kids ethical and moral values versus instant gratification or short cuts to obtaining independence, self respect, honesty and integrity. Not teachers, not athletes, not the police - parents. And even that is no guarentee that the individual will follow the path of a good citizen or person. ie OJ Simpson, politicians, CEO's, lawyers, etc. The media will always be about viewership and ads that sell. Allowing the audience to see Tyson bite off someone's ear, to see Ike act like he's on uppers, to see a 250 wrestler pound someone into the mat, to see a hockey player use the stick like a weapn or to see Popeye demolish Brutus after taking a magic food, is all about getting and holding the public eye, young or old. Censorship is becoming non-existent, and so it should be (even for Howard Stern), but instilled valuesfilter the noise from the substance of the media and our culture is what it is. As long as kids have comparisons to chose from (unlike the Hitler youth of the 30's and 40's), they won't be mesmerized into believing that fantasy or absurd behavior is real, but that every action has it's eventual consequence.

I'll try to find the link, but it was from a skin diver's site that demonstrated color at various depths in clear water. Imagine how those colors change to shades of gray in lower light or stainded water! But here's an excellent tutorial on color: http://www.tacklemaking.com/tacklemakers/default.php?content=knowledge/sb_color&title=Colors%20in%20Soft%20Plastic%20Fishing%20Lures These are the rule of thumbs that I go by. Color choice doesn't have to be complex, like Triton Mike demonstrated so well.

... kinda surprised BPS hasn't contacted or informed their customers of this. :-? I'm not.

Too many questions regarding sight fishing and fishing for spawners, have not been answered conclusively, especially for smallies. Fact is, if a spawning/guarding male fish is caught and kept in the livewell for any length of time, the nest is kaput!, so catch & delayed release (CDR) is not going to help spawning fish. If you keep a spawning fish out of water for 4 minutes or more to take pictures (or do the Icanelli break dance), the stressed fish will not return to the nest. The question that has been unanswered by historical surveys covering 20 year time spans is, does it do a fishery harm? One side says that it only take a dozen spawners and good yearly spawns to replenish a year class. Others say that some heavily fished waters, where delayed mortality is a factor, need all the help they can get. (I know of only a few waters in that category and they needed tlc mostly because poaching was the primary detriment.) CIR (catch & immediate release) prespawners have a good chance of spawning, even if they've been kept in a cool water livewell for 6 hours. Bass don't all spawn at the same time and many don't spawn at all, so catching a few doesn't seem to hurt. Michigan is looking closely at changing open season laws and NY may have a change in effect by 2007. Conn. allows early season CIR, though tournament boats from NY invade three of their biggest lakes. If you feel sight fishing is detrimental, don't sight fish. I don't, because I like to catch more aggressive fish and not those that I have to harrass off a bed. Bass are vulnerable enough due to better tackle and skill levels - why press them further?

I do like the natural color scheme idea though, only because in my bass sized brain I think that bass accept natural colors as part of their genetic imprinting. What's natural? pearl, white and silver; brown, green (punpkin) and black. Scales are nice, but as you said, fish can't count. If that doesn't impress you, "I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once!"

There are two purples used by different soft plastics companies. One is blue grape, from which June Bug is made; the other is a closer to a deep fuscia and is brighter and more translucent. A fuscia purple uses florescent dye to brighten it, blue grape doesn't. As seen in the chart below, grape falls between blue and violet. Most bright, soft plastic colors use florescent dyes and it's tough to tell whether that's so to catch the eye of the shopping angler or to stand out in stained water. Probably both. But keep in mind the following underwater color chart: The less available light (overcast sky, deep water, shade) the shallower colors turn into shades of gray. Even a florescent opaque chartreuse will only appear as bright white, 1 hour after sundown. I sometimes think that a fish thinks, "if this thing in front of my mouth is too dumb or arrogant to camoflage itself, it deserves to be a meal." > I'm surprised no one went nuts on matching the hatch as far as using certain natural color patterns! That argument went on for a couple of years until anglers started using wild and crazy to catch fish. In fact, if you find a bass that can tell the difference between a spring or fall colored crawfish, I suggest you pitch a tent and sell tickets under a sign that says. " smartest bass in the world! I believe color can be an attracter or a repellent, but is that more to do with being bright versus subdued? I don't know, but my soft plastic colors of watermelon with black and red flakes and rootbeer with black and kelly green flakes, are my goto combos for any water. Black, gray, bone, chartreuse or white spinnerbaits - what else does one need? Firetiger, shad, bass, pearl or Tenn. shad for cranks. Poppers - who cares? Knowing whento throw various colors, seems to me as important as what color to cast. Sometimes it doesn't matter.

It was a year of surprises! 1. I began to ice fish in Jan. after not doing so for 10 years. I followed the lead of someone I never fished with before and dialed in to some incredible numbers of panfish using spoons/meal worms and finally only 2.5" tubes for amazing late season crappie. 2. Fished with someone for the first time that I've known for 30 years and learned things from him I would have never even imagined on my own --- and he stinks as a warmwater basser! LOL You never know. Through watching him, I learned the amazing abilties of the simple 1.5' Slider grub (black and glow tail) on a 1/16 oz jig head. I gave him some of my handpored sticks and watched him jerk the crap out of them in open water over some weed beds. We pulled over 15 bass in one area using that simple technique. (A split shot was used 2' above the stick and the bait was allowed to die in 8' after stutter twitching.) 3. The swimming Image (by Heddon) and Frenzy jerkbaits performed excellently in spring and the Frenzy crank worked well in summer. 4. Spinnerbaits were not great fish catchers this year, but my last day out, caught a 19" pickerel. Guess I'll have to cast them more next year. 5. Banged bass on a thick flipping tube for the first time in 3 different waters. (t-rigged on a wide gap); ditto for a jig and plastic trailer. (last time I used a jig was in 1996 with pork) 6. Caught bass and many panfish in Dec. (unheard of for me in 45 degree water) 7. Fished more waters and with more partners and even made a video for Lunkerville TV. 8. Tried out many hybrid plastics I created last winter and caught all species, all year long. Time to mold many of them in plaster for next year. All in all, a pretty nice year.