So what do you do when the weather is against
you?
You make you very own custom made lures!
My favorite lure for cod and pollack is the big twin
tail.
If you have tried these, you know what I'm talking about. Those
tails drive the fish nuts! Even on the slack tide they spin round a
treat.
I've bought lots of different types of twin tail and found that the
best ones are quite firm and work far better in the water than the
cheaper softer ones. Only trouble is, because they are quite big
(About 6 inches) they are not that cheap. I got to wondering If I
could make some my self.
As it turns out, this is quite a popular thing to do in the States
and so I bought the equipment I needed to get me started off,
thinking at the time, this was the only place to buy what I needed.
As it turns out I was wrong and you can buy all you need from Oscar
at Lureparts. I will tell you more about this later.
So here is the equipment I use to get me
started:
As you can see I have my twin tail mold and a plaster
mold I decided to try and make myself. Also I have a bottle of
liquid plastic, coloring, glitter, glow powder, milk pan and
spoon.
Now I will start by mentioning that it is possible to make you own
plastic baits using a microwave. I tried it myself and did not get
on very well with it at all. you constantly need to put it in for a
few seconds then stir etc, etc. My lures turned out full of air
bubbles and scorched. You are far better doing it in a pan and see
whats happening.
First of all shake the bottle like crazy for a while then measure
what I need. For 2 twin tails I use about
50ml.
I also add hardener to get the right stiffness I want.
(about 1/4 of a tea spoon)
I then pour this in my pan and add coloring.(This also needs to be
shaken)
Today I'm just making bright orange but I also like to make glow
ones too. You simply add the glow powder and stir before heating
things up. You can make it as concentrated as you like. And man
they glow brilliantly!!!!
As you can see what I have here is a nice bright
orange.
I like the colour nice and bright and for that you need to add
about 30+ drops.
Having then stirred this, the colour will look like
this:
As you will see in a minute this colour changes.
It's time to get cooking!
I've tried all sorts of settings and personally find that I stay
with the one heat (No 4) on my hob. I've tried it on 3 but it never
seems to get hot enough to do the job. But if you fancy a go you'll
need to experiment with your hob depending on what type you
have.
Now as you heat up the plastic it will start to change
colour:
It is important that when you get to this colour to
start stirring slowly otherwise you will scorch it. I believe
Lureparts offer some magic stuff (heat stabilizer)that will prevent
this from happening.
However, If you stir like mad you will create air bubbles which is
the last thing you want in your mold. A slow stir seems to work
well for me.
As the plastic heats up it will not only change colour but will
also turn into jelly
Finally it will melt enough so that you can pour it easily.
At this stage the plastic will really start to give off
fumes!
It is very important that you keep the kitchen well
ventilated.
I find that if you do not use hardener it does not smell nearly as
much but either way it's a good idea to cover your mouth with a
dish cloth or something.
Anyway, it's time to pour.
It's best to pour as close to the mold as possible to try and
reduce air bubbles from getting in.
As you can see, glitter can be added immediately after
this is done. Generally glitter should be added in the mix to begin
with but I find, for what I do, it has a better effect this
way.
Because the glitter is only on one side of the tails it will flash
as it spins round. It's worth noting that you can't really get away
with using the kids glitter they use for this. The colour of the
glitter bleeds into you plastic. Again Lureparts is the place to go
for that.
You now need to wait a few minutes till the plastic has cooled off
before removing it. You can then pop it in a shallow basin of water
etc for a couple of minutes to finish the cooling off.
The beauty about all of this is that nothing gets wasted. It can
all be remelted again. As you can see if you leave your spoon in
the pan the remaining plastic will stick to it and come away really
easy:
Here are a few pictures of some of my prototypes.
You can use these the way they are, but I like to mess about with
bells and whistles so to speak.
Get yourself a sharpes fine tip permanent marker and doodle.
Also you can add some googly eyes and even a glow stick if you
fancy it.
So fancy a go yourself guys?
I'll tell you, there is no better feeling than catching a good fish
on a lure you made yourself.
A great way to console yourself when you're all set for a paddle
and the weather turns rotten.
If you would like to know how much all this costs, this is the
place I would highly recommend.
http://www.lureparts.nl
Have a look. Especially the softbait pouring section.
His prices are very reasonable and the delivery time is very
good.
Oscar has even kindly given all members on this forum this
offer:
"If members of the 'NORTH WALES KAYAK FISHING' place an order at my
site and mention the website of 'NWKF', I'll add 15% extra goods to
their order.
