A little outside of conventional

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MrTom

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The soft plastic baits seen in the picture were done using a lure mold designed to be cast in lead. The tails came from a regular plastic bait. My injector has a cone nozzle and fit inside the gate opening perfectly so I didn't have to alter anything. I took about a minute with the Dremel tool and modified the tail end of the cavity in the center.

This works slick. Set a tail in the mold, close it and inject your body color in. Very little need for clean-up aside from a couple little plastic tits that pull right off. I did a clear seal coat of plastic to help protect the eyes and the pearl coat on the one bait.

I think I'm going to like this one as a walleye bait. Boy, am I glad I didn't interrupt this daydream.
 
Look good. Can you add weight to them?
Other than through the ice, I never seemed to have great luck jigging or casting. Lots of bottom bouncer time but my favorite was always stick baits at night. Never cared much about daytime walleye fishing.
 
Curious, how to rig those? Could you post a pic with a hook inserted? Thanks.
 
I would think you could rig them on a jig head. Maybe use a jig with a barbed collar to hold the plastic on. I also think you could rig it Texas style to make it weedless or just slide it up on a plain hook(non weedless.)
 
Do I understand that you are just putting tailsin the mold and clamping them flat?
 
Do I understand that you are just putting tailsin the mold and clamping them flat?

I make an entire bait that has the tail like you see on the bait shown. I cut that tail section off the other bait and lay it in the mold where the middle cavity has been ground out to accept it. The mold gets closed, then clamped and plastic is injected into the cavity thru the top injection port. The plastic is fairly liquid at around 350 degrees, but cools very fast and is firm to handle almost immediately. The mold used for this bait shown in the second picture and is clearly marked as a lead mold, but if things align plastic can be sneaked in instead. I saw the lead baits made in the mold in another site's posting and thought plastic would work in the mold too and had to try.
 
We don't have walleye down here, but night fishing is about all I do. Can't stand cooking in the sun.

I can catch 5 times more walleye at night than I ever could during the day, all trolling. The only exception to that rule, was when we had a 31' boat slipped on Lake Erie. Its not hard at all to catch walleye on either Lake Erie or Saginaw Bay during the day. I'd have liked to tried those baits Tom made on Erie or Saginaw Bay.
When we retired, I now have a lake full of walleye right down the road, so I bought a new 19' Lund Tyee. Fished so much I ended up giving it up and selling the Lund.
I'll bet those baits Tom is making would work here on Thunder Bay.
 
Yeah, I caught way more bass at night, than I ever could during the day.
 
Those baits Tom's making have my attention. I sold most of my gear after selling the boat, but I believe I may have some baits I saved that look similar to what he's making. If it'll ever quit icing and snowing, I'll have to check. I like the color Tom's making them.
 
I'll be using these up the Mississippi River near lock and dams #4 and 5A. Cold water is walleye plastics time here. Next month we'll start wandering down below the dams and will get into a lot of nice walleyes before the spring run-off messes things up. In the first picture of his thread, that purple/chartreuse is a killer color on the big river.
 
Those baits Tom's making have my attention. I sold most of my gear after selling the boat, but I believe I may have some baits I saved that look similar to what he's making. If it'll ever quit icing and snowing, I'll have to check. I like the color Tom's making them.

Winter is over here. It is 10:45pm, and 66 deg here. Grass is getting greener and pollen is starting to fly. I wish I could try some of that ice fishing (in a little shed) that I hear about. I never even see ice on the lake here.
 
I'll be using these up the Mississippi River near lock and dams #4 and 5A. Cold water is walleye plastics time here. Next month we'll start wandering down below the dams and will get into a lot of nice walleyes before the spring run-off messes things up. In the first picture of his thread, that purple/chartreuse is a killer color on the big river.
In MI, all inland lakes, streams and rivers closes on March 15th and remains closed until the last Saturday in April. The Big Lakes are open year round. Good luck! A report on how well they work, with photos, would be great. ;)
 
Lucky you Chick. -8 right now. -22 wind chill. This is good weather for checking to see how reliable your primers are at igniting the 209 powder.
 
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