I have about $50 bucks worth of assorted plastics that have gotten mis shaped. I.E. senkos that are square versus round :-[  Is there anything I can do, are they salvagable? I really want to kick myself in the rear on this one.

Don 't sweat it and fish with them, where I live factory seconds soft plastics arrive by the truckloads, they are ground, melted and turned into rubber soles for shoes, many are crooked, bent or don 't have the right color, if you got a friend that works in the industry you can purchase them by the pound so you end up paying pennies for each bait, a Kinami Flash slightly crooked ---> 1 cent and fish don 't seem to mind.

I actually like 2nd's and kinks etc.  They give the bait a unique action sometimes.  I always figured Kinami's were Yamamoto 2nds or slight imperfections.  

Thanks for the replies, that is what I was hoping to hear.

They give the bait a unique action sometimes.

Exactly ! I even kink perfectly shaped baits on purpose when rigging them, like when I t-rig weightless worms for topwater fishing ( like Trickworms ), instead on inserting the hook where you are supposed to hook it to have a perfectly straight worm I extend the point of insertion towards the tail a little bit, the result is a kinked worm which darts a lot diferently from a perfectly straight one, that small imperfection in the rigging gives it another presentation which in many cases is enough to make a fish bite when it 's ignoring a perfectly straight worm.

Where are you guys purchasing these out of shape plastics?  Is there a soft plastics outlet somewhere I don't know about?  I'd love to save some money.  

I'd hate to purposely leave my plastics out in the sun for a day.

Where are you guys purchasing these out of shape plastics?

I could tell you but then I 'd have to kill you.

Kidding aside, I would certainly share where I get my factory seconds but it 's going to be difficult for you to grab a plane and cross the border to Mexico in order to get to the city where I live. Got a bunch of friends and clients that are in the shoe manufacturing industry ( the main industry of the city ), some of them own or work in the rubber sole industry and they get those factory seconds by containers, a new container arrives they give me a call and I go factory second hunting with another friend ( & fishing partner ) to select, actually my friend makes a living out of selling factory seconds to complement his extremely thin pension. You see baits from all around the world, most of my Ecogear baits were purchased this way. I take him to pick up the stuff, select it and I purchase the baits from him. Only problem is that the baits are stored in barrels all mixed up, but I consider the work of going through an entire barrel to pick up a handful of baits part of the fun.

How much can you save ? for example, Ecogear Rock Claw 3" pack of 6 baits = 5.95 bones retail in Japan + the shipping; Ecogear Rock Claw factory second ( minor or insignificant flaw ) at the current rate exchange = 17 US cents per bait, so a 6 bait pack = 1.02 dollars .... now that 's what I call a real bargain.

Actually Brent is not the saving, it 's a way of having fun, the fever, the expectation of not knowing what you are going to find, like a kid going on his first visit to Toys R Us.

Also I do it as a way of helping my friend, he just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time when that truck loaded with cement thought he looked like a good target and almost killed him, s*t happens and he was left disabled for life, all the fishing club members help buying plastics from him, sometimes ( or I should say most of the times ) we don 't even need the baits but we know he needs the money to support his wife and 3 kids. Think of it as charity purchases for the needed.

I read somewhere that saoking the plastics in hot water, and then stretching them out to cool off would restore their original shape. Don't know if this works. I've never tried it. Maybe some of our home-made bait makers could weigh in on this.

I do know that one of the best afternoon's catching I've ever had was on a super fluke that had a bent down tail. The bait came out of the bag with the tail bent in a curve that was pointing straight down when rigged on the hook. It would straighten out when twitched, then curl back up. I caught a whole bunch of fish on that fluke before it became too ripped up to stay on the hook, and the last fish slung it off. I wasted several more trying to modify them to do that again. Never got it. There's an idea for an enterprising home pourer.

I agree with Brent. Don't thow them out, without a hook and line attached.

Cheers,

GK

I have boiled the tails on a few swimbaits and that will straighten them out, but you have to find a way to hang them so they don't get bent up in storage. Maybe with worms and such you can just lay them out flat.

the same thing goes for flat sided senko type baits,,

the fish do not care if they are 100 % round or have a flat side.

8-)