jomatty

ok, let me preface this with the fact that i am a dork. naming a "company" that is only for personal use is kinda silly. that said, when i was printing up some labels for my hand pours i thought i might like to make them look nicer and give them a name. was hoping you guys could give me some feedback (go ahead and make fun of me too, my wife has already done it enough over this ) so anyhow im thinking something like Baitmonkey enterprises or Baitmonkey innovations (too much like reaction innovations?) or jsut baitmonkey tackle. what do you guys think? it dosent really matter since im not interested in selling any baits except maybe to a few friends,a nd then not to make money. my son who is 3 likes to play like we have a plastics and jig making business and i confess to enjoying it myself (the child in me i suppose) thx, matt

thanks you earthworm for taking your time to answer all of my questions.

hey guys, just a few random things ive been wondering about. 1. salt-is there any difference between the salt sold for worm making and running regular salt through a spice grinder until its a fine powder. 2. lurecraft molds-i ordered a stick mold from them that they say is not a two piece but makes round baits and you pour it through a hole in the bottom. i was curious and bought one since it was only $10 and i wanted a 6 inch mold to go with my 4 and 5 aluminum ones. anyone tried these. 3. glitter- will regular craft store glitter work ok. i tried some my son had around for arts and crafts and it seemed to work fine. 4. colors-there is nothing you can buy at craft stores or anywhere that you can use to color worms is there. i thought i had ordered everything i needed but forgot one color. i suppose ill just wait till next order but i was just curious. 5. janns netcraft molds-they say you need an injector to use them. they apear to be two piece molds that are made of hard plastic and kept together with c-clamps. seem like a cheap alternative to aluminum molds for some of the things that i wont make that often. anyone know abou these injector molds, if you really need one and how hard they are to use. they basically look like a big syringe and cost about 10 bucks 6. anyone have any tips on pouring one sided molds. i think i just need pracice and steadier hands to have less flashing and such. if anyone knows the answer to any of these questions your help is greatly appreciated. tyvm to anyone who can chime in with an answer or two anyhow thanks for all you guys help. without it id be lost and im very happy with how things are coming along.

so thats prob those little jellies my son collects on the shore of smith mountain. i didnt know what they were but they sure looked like jelly fish. also i saw the same show that valascus saw about bull sharks going upstream to give birth due to less competition for food and not being eaten. dosent make it true but thats what sharkk week says. and im pretty sure that bull sharks are number 1 in human shark attacks. matt

my number one producer is a wacky senko. number two is a spot remover or shaky head. i like fishing jigs around docks but i have had more success with the first two. the best info ive gotten on fishing docks was from...oh yeah you (5bass), so that prob wont be of much help to you . for others benefit one of the best tips you gave me was concentrating on where you were getting bit and if it is consistently on the bottom switching to a spot remover rather than a senko. docks are one of my favorite places to fish although this year at smith mountain wasnt especially kind to me at the docks. good thread, matt

unfortunately tournament fishermen do not set a very good example when it comes to fish handling. im not really a softie or an extremist but i do try to do as little harm to a fish as i can. tournament guys on tv seem to regularly roughly bounce the fish into the boat and then leave it to flop all over the place before chunking it in the livewell. being in the public eye i wish they would make an effort to handle the fish properly. i realize that you cant always prevent a fish from hitting the carpet and that mistakes will happen, but there is no reason for each and every 2 lb bass to flop around on the carpet and such. matt

does anyone have any advice on how to pour swimbaits? are baits like matts lures poured in one piece or as two halves? if 2 how do you put them together? any info on pouring swimbaits is appreciated, matt

lesson was driven home to me just this morning. i was at the pond before sun up with my son. i had just had a talk with him and my wife saying we were gonna go shopping and get some clear protective glasses for when we are fishing and it is too dark for sunglasses. i told him he had to wear some goggles he had at home that were not that clear. well he couldnt see out of these so i let him take them off. we actually had a talk about this being the last time we were going to do this. then i hook into a bass and as im trying to maintain pressure on it he comes to the surface and shakes his head. the 1/4 oz bullet weight (pegged to the 4/0 hook) shoots like a rocket and drills my son right in the center of the forehead. thank goodness im not posting a picture of an imbedded hook. he cried for awhile (he is not yet 4) but was basically unhurt. just goes to show how easily something can happen. i think the bass gods were saying "ok we let you off easy since you didnt know any better. now you know, so quit be stupid. here is a little whack on the head to send you on the way". ok, got it, lesson learned, matt

i certainly did not mean to imply that anyone in particular did not know what a smallie looked like. just that ive read post about smallies coming out of swampy ponds in the deep south that seemed unlikely to be properly identified. i guess that they can do ok in ponds if they are deep enough and the water dosent get too warm. matt

i just started with handpouring and a book would have been helpful. fortunately their are lots of helpful folks on this and the TU forum. those are prob. your best sources. also if you are makinga plaster of paris mold then it should only take like 20 min to dry if it was mixed properly.

ding ding ding. exactly right. i feel like a dummy for not figuring out that the shake i was giving it was not sufficient. matt

i had a funny thing happen when i was fishing off the dock at my moms lake house at smith mountain 5bass's post reminded me of. i was fishing a spot remover with a finesse worm and got into a pretty nice fish. im using a spinning outfit and had a brain freeze and try to swing the bass out of the water (really dont know what i was thinking). It breaks off and i do the gerald swindle dive (anyone who saw that bassmasters episode will know what im talking about) but naturally come up empty..well almost empty, the bass was shaking his head like crazy as i was swinging him out of the water and as i hit the deck on my belly i see the lure fly into the air as the fish is hitting the water. my hands are already in the water and when i instinctively grab i come up with the tail of the finesse worm and my jighead (which was good because i was running low and dont know anywhere up there to get more). so i not only managed to break the fish off but also to allow him to throw the hook. rarely do i get to lose a fish in two different ways on one cast. at least i got my jighead back but i think that may have been the way the fish chose to laugh in my face

just to give another opinion on this i rarely will vary my cadence during a retrieve with spooks or sammy style baits. They are one of my favorite topwaters and i fish them both fast and slow with a steady walking motion. i actually found that i repetitively count in my head . in my experience varying the retrieve and long pauses will make it hard to retain a good walking motion. most often the best retrieve for me seems to be a slow walking motion that tries to go back and forth alot but forward not that much. the most fun days are when they want a fairly fast walk. watch KVD or any of the guys that fish a sammy on the tour and you wont see many actual pauses or changing twitches during the retrieve just different cadences. this is what has also produced for me. matt

i see posts that say people are catching them in small ponds and i always wonder if it is really smallmouth they are catching. i live in va and fish a lot of small ponds and rivers and have never caught a smallmouth in a pond. matt

my favorites are zoom finesse and trick worms, the 3x worms (some dont like but i love the way they always stand straight up), and the skinny senko.

i used to catch them the same way that speed did. we would find a small creek flowing into the main river and kick up rocks and whatnot to catch craws and helgramites. i never hear about people using helgramites anymore but they were king when i was a kid. if you catch some of them while crawfishing i would give them a try. i always fished them with a splitshot but that was in large part because i was a kid and if i did it nowadays i would def. go weightless and never use a bobber like you suggested you might do. fish them on the bottom. matt

knowing your the record holder would be a great feeling but for many of us the financial perks would be so important that you would have to care. on another note does anyone know where the articles by mac that were mentioned are? he is an interesting guy, and a poker playe, which i also do for a living so i am interested in what he has to say.

this plastic is from janns netcraft. ill check the bottom of the jug, thanks for the suggegstion. matt

thanks for suggestion but im almost certain that is not it. most of the baits that im making people use softner in. im pretty sure it is something i am doing or not doing. matt

at least in the case of darker water=darker colors i always think it has to do primarily with contrast. it helps them stand out more. at least that imho. personally i generally do not use many bright colors. if the water is especially clear and the sun is out i use a lot of natural colors. i have a lot of natural and dark colors in my repetoire but only a few bright colors. i do occasionally add some dip dye or a chartreuse tip to a dark bait in murky conditions.

this is something i never really thought about. i wear pol. sunglasses whenever feasible but at night or on rainy muggy days i often find it too much trouble. not anymore. more important than my safety i am very mad at myself for not thinking about this for my son. he is only 3 years old and if anyone of you fish with very young kids you know that no matter how well they listen they just cant help themselves from swinging things around sometimes and those spincast reels will malfunction at any time (just ask raul). he will be wearing his safety glasses that he already has next time we go fishing. thx chris for starting this thread

i recently had a term. buzzbait and about 10 ft of braid snap off into the pond i fish. about a week later and im down there fishing and while dragging a jig i keep catching the braid but was not able to get the buzzbait back. i kept trying but no dice.

i thought i had this hand pour thing licked but lately i have been having a lot of problems. many of my baits have been coming out really squishy soft. i have tried to vary the amount of salt and tried different pouring heats and am just consistently getting really soft baits that are too soft for t-rigs. im mostly pouring senkos and have not been using softeners. any info is appreciated, matt

anytime im faced with muddy water im going to try out a spinnerbait with either colorado, indianna or oklahoma blades. ive found that the okl. blades are a good match for the "thump" of bluegill which is often the forage in small ponds. other muddy water baits for me include larger plastic worms, although not necesarrily the 10 incher that were suggested earlier. ponds can be difficult to fish jigs in but they are another bait i like in these kind of situations, and in this case i would often use a yamamoto single grub trailer.

i say go stick a big large mouth, although i am biased because thats what i want to see a big picture of. if given a reasonable choice with fair chance of doing well ill always go with the bass. if the question was between large and small mouth then the decision would be closer for me. matt