Well lately my daughter has been crafting miniature food out of sculpey clay. I guess some of her creativity rubbed off on me. Using her reject pile of supplies I molded 3 jig bodies. One that looks like a whale, one like a wine bottle, and one like a baseball bat (all flat on one side horizontally so they can be hand poured). I then made molds out of sculpey too. I melted down two Berkley bass baits I got free awhile ago on medium heat in a small pan outdoors. Then I coated the molds with fish oil and sprinkled various glitter in each mold. All and all I am pretty happy with the results, especially since I spent no money, little time, and created some unique jig bodies in shapes I always wondered how they would work. The next step is to go fishing with them. The plastic is very soft which will give the baits a nice action but I can tell already that they won't be very durable.

That's pretty cool!

Tony,

You need to get with Spro on the LLFC because he has been pouring some for the past four months or so and has learned a trick or two.

Here is a link to some he has poured and you can see in the second picture that he has got it down pat. http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/9719708/plastic_/_feather_jig#Post9719708

BTW - looks like a nice start.

Thanks Ron and Kenny. Ron, those plastic jigs with the feathers from Spro are really cool.

I had a chance to hit the lake today and test the new homemade jigs. I started with the "whale". I caught several crappie although most were on the small side. The jig held together well although it's the bulkiest of the 3 types I made. The plastic hardened a bit from yesterday which helped.

Check out this bruiser.

Bigger than any ones I caught last night (hard to catch them at the house)!

Glad they worked for you.

The original batch of blackish silver glitter plastic baits worked pretty well, so it inspired me to continue with experimenting with melting down bass baits. I created a few more designs out of sculpey. I then creating a mold out of silicon caulk. Here are some of the latest baits. I'll see how they do compared to the store bought but I may have to break down and buy some plastic LOL. At least for now I've tinkered with glitter and mixing colors, etc to get various results. I've found that 4 5" stick baits = 18 2" shad baits.

After looking at the pick of the sandbass I see that they are spawning in Oak Point still mid May. Guess it's been a cold year.

My daughter says she has a box of craft feathers somewhere. I'll probably try to copy some of Spro's style jigs.

Nice Tony. I think the sandies are up shallow because the shad are spawning. Was out Saturday am and you could see the birds working the shad in a foot of water.

Thanks Ron. I think I've used up all my creative energy for now making those crude homemade baits, but it was fun while I was doing it never mind the fumes. Maybe if the baits outfish the store bought ones I'll make more, we'll see. Having glitter coating the outside of the bait is an advantage but I'm just not sure how much of one it will be.

That sandbass seems to be oozing milt in the picture (some got on the paddle too), although I didn't realize it at the time I caught it.