I’ve been casting jigs for almost 50 years. I still have the first mold I used, one made out of oak by a neighbor for me when I was a kid. He made his own jigs and I’d go over and hang in his garage when he was casting and help keep his hooks seperated and in order. One day when I was there he handed me a mold and said maybe I should have my aown and give it a try. Funny….what started out as a mold for a jig of about 1/16 ounce now looks like about a 1/4. Its seen some use.
A couple years ago I got this itch to do something else in addition to casting jigs and decided I should make a mold to make a plastic body that I had trouvble finding anywhere without having to buy 10 at a time along with two rigged baits on hooks that were junk and head colors I’d never use. I had an old aluminum jig black that I drilled out between cavities to come up with my savior plastic and melted down some worms in the colors I wanted. Somewhere I got it in my head that syringes found in Fleet Farm’s livestock section would suffice and used those to pump the hot plastic into this mold and by golly it worked…..untill the syringes decuded tha a couple pumps was too much strain on them and one popped, covering not only me but haklf of the kitchen with 400 degree plastic. End of a dream. Until lately.
I got the bug again after sticking my nose into a couple of websites that sell the PROPER equipment to do this stuff. The more I read, the more it captivated me. Little by little I bought this and that, this mold and another…and another. I ended up with a closet full of molds and injectors and plastic and colorants and all kinds of glimmer and additives. Last weekend was m debut into a whole new world of fun.
The plastics shown here include a MAXI-mite, relative to another mite, a 1.5″ segmented body stinger, a 1.75″ minnow and a 1.75 inch shad stinger. I have a couple other molds that I haven’t tried yet. Yet. Basically these were done to check out the mixing of colors and adding stuff to make the plastic do different things or appear differently. By Jove, these things work.
While putzy, the two shads at the bottom of the pic with theyes are amazing easy to make. Just putzy. The one on the right is done with a glow purple belly and an orange throat patch. The one on the left has a belly of that pinkish color also shown and it too has the orange throat patch. That transparent pinkish color is Chameleon and as soon as it hits the water it changes color and I’ve had outstanding luck using this color in a similar bait of 1″ that I ordered almost a year ago, thru the ice and on the open water. The eyes make these guys seem almost able to flip out of your hand when you lok at them closely.
No third degree burns this time around and even Ma didn’t find any vagrant plstic stuck to cupboards four months after the “accident”. She was even impressed with the plastics once they could be handled. I think I’ve found a new winter pastime.
Those minnows on the bottom row are some of the finest looking plastics I think I have ever seen. You Sir, are a craftsman when it comes to plastics!
