Pictures of Baits

[Softbaitmaker]

Well I think I finally figured out how to post pictures of my bais I make so here they are. You can click on a picture and it will blow it up for a better look. I am looking at adding a few more bait styles in the near future!

 

[silvertalon]

Nice effort. Must be really rewarding to catch them on 'em!

 

[Softbaitmaker]

I love catching fish on a bait I created. The best thing about it is I can use better material that gives the baits more action than baits bought in stores that were made by injection companies and I am not limited on colors because I can creat all my own color combinations...... emoDance

 

[silvertalon]

Can you make a mold from a pre-existing bait?

 

[Softbaitmaker]

I don't make my own bait molds but I do have a mold company that does do custom molds for me. If I can send them a couple baits they can make the molds from the original baits. Many times people send me a few baits to see if I can get molds made of them and it turns out that the mold company already makes the mold and it is in their catalog. I just sent them some baits last week to see if they can make them because they are not in their catalog. If you have a certain bait your interested in having made and can send me a picture of it in a PM or to my email I will see if it is already in their catalog for you. It is a lot less costly if it is already in the catalog.

 

[silvertalon]

Thanks for all the info!

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

Nice lures Doug!

It's always a good thing to exercise our imaginations at least once a day! (especially at my age - closing in on 70 where that's the only exercise I get! LOL)
Also is the feeling of accomplishment catching fish on lures few if not anyone has caught fish that we made with our own two hands. </p>

Could you pm me your mold company site address or name?(Though if I'm not mistaken, they look like lures made with molds from Lurecraft.com).

I found one recently that has designs I've seen nowhere and ordered two of five molds (can't afford more at this time).</p>

 

[Softbaitmaker]

Thanks SPOON and yea I get all my bait making products from Kim and Sean up at Lurecraft. Been using Lurecraft since back when David owned it before they bought him out. I just got a 5 gal pail of 536 Plastisol and a quart of worm oil Saturday from them via UPS. Got down to 1 gallon and have 3 bait orders I am working on for folks. As far as age goes, I will be 70 in January if I live that long.
I have looked at several other mold companies so as Do-it, Barlows and Jann's Netcraft at their aluminum molds and unless I can't find something close in lurecraft catalog I stick with them pretty much. I do have some Aluminum molds for my stick baits (senko type) and I did have some of the 3 inch like you have in your picture but never got any one wanting them in over 5 years of owning them so I sold them to a guy in Georgia that wanted them.
I do agree with you that being able to pour and make baits does help keep my mind a little crisper and I can tell when I have not been in the bait room for a while and then get an order or two and it takes a little while to get back in the rhythum of pouring again but I enjoy making them.
So who have you found that your getting a few molds from? I'm guessing they are an aluminum mold company since you have only ordered a couple so far. Back about 5 or 6 years ago I was considering purchasing one of the hand injectors and some injector molds from Kim at Lurecraft but changed my mine at last minute because I like the challenge of hitting those cavities in the blue molds. Keeps my hands steady. I'm getting some new bait mold designs to pour and offer soon. I will add a few new pictures as I perfect making them............... emoToast

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

https://www.enforcerbaitmolds.com/

Only aluminum molds : injection or non injection. Nice forum also. No doubt LC has a range of designs and sizes of each. I've caught many fish with the lures produced from silicone molds and can't beat the price. Granted, aluminum mold lures are pretty and professional looking, but fish could care less if the design and presentation is right. I've been fiddling with a hand pour, aluminum mold, paddle tail worm from LC and have found it very useful making and modifying the original design. Here are a few:

Original at the top; modifications below that:

Note the thickened body derived from dipping that part in hot plastic and cooling in dish of water.

Here's another modification of the tail:
Original:

Slit tail modification:

The slit tail action design I happened to remember that was used in two lures: a creature bait similar to one sold by LC - Beaver mold; and a Mann Auger Tail worm. Tried it this morning in my pond and caught a 1.75 lb bass and 12" yellow perch ! Water temp I'm sure is near 40 degrees.

But in order for the slit tail to work, a few things are mandatory: soft plastic, the single cut slit (razor blade) must be close to one long edge and the tail must be poured thin.

 

[Softbaitmaker]

That slit tail you are using is very similar to the Zoom Vibratail Worm also. I think I have a Zoom knock off set of those worm molds somewhere but don't get very many requests for them. I will go look at that site you posted and see what they ahve to offer. Do you do any laminating of baits? It took me for ever to learn how to do it but now I don't have any issues with making them. I am getting ready to add a picture of a worm I had custom made by LC about 10 years ago and it has become one of the most popular money winning baits I make. I call it the BT worm as he was the guy that came up with the idea. I had a skinny body Ring worm that caught a lot of fish and the tail action was killer. He wanted me to have that tail put on a Fat Ring Worm and the picture below is what came from LC. The red Shad worm is original worm and Alabama Craw color worm is the BT worm. Fat body, same tail. That craw is also an Alabama Craw I just completed pouring for a customer.

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

That's the worm tail ! - you got a better memory than me.
I was also thinking of mold #854 from LC which is part Sweet Beaver body with similar designed tails. Andrea threatened a lawsuit when the offered the Sweet Beaver design. Now it's considered a generic design and everyone is copying/ selling it. Personally I don't see why it became so popular and never use the original - though I have caught bass on it.

Have you tried posting images from IMGR?

 

[Softbaitmaker]

I am using IMGR to post the pictures I have on here. If anyone clicks on one of the pictures it will take them to IMGR and show them the blown up version. As for the Sweet Beaver originals that LC was making Andrea would have lost the lawsuit in court because they were not exact copies. My Oldest brother was a legal assistant in a large lawfirm here in Nashville and I met with him and a Copy Right attorney for lunch and I had a few original Beavers and a few I poured from the molds I got from LC before they got threatened and stopped making them. He said because the entire bottom on the hand pours were smooth and flat and was more than the 10% change that is required to prevent copyrights. I ran into the same thing with the Rage Craws that LC released in their catalogs and Strike King threatend them with a lawsuit. Again I met with the lawyer and again he said that there was more than a 10% difference and Strike king would lose the suit but Kim and Sean decided not to fight the issue and pull the molds. I don't blame them for not wanting to go through all that legal process.
When I got the Beaver Molds I got them before the threat so I had them is all three sizes. I also had the Craw molds before the threat came. When Ish Monroe won that Classic on the Beavers i knew they would fly off the shelves and I was right. Reaction Innovations at the time were not making their own baits but depending on an independent Injection Company to make their baits and the company had other companies also and when you work with independent contractors you have to purchase so many hours of mold time and when Reaction needed to get more baits made the contractor was booked up for about 5 months and the shelves sat empty of Beavers and I was making them as fast and I could for folks. Wound up actually buning up the molds in about 8 months and folks were still wanting mine even after Reaction was back on the shelves cause mine floated better. I still make the small generic Beaver and there is a picture of them I posted here. They are black ones. When I found out that Strkie King was considering sueing LC I moved quick and ordered 20 extra molds so now if I burn a set up I will have another set to work out of........... emoDance

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

Learn something new every day! Thanks Doug. Glad Andrea lost, though I can understand his outrage at companies or individuals making money off his original design even though more than 10% different. It's one of the reasons I don't sell the lures I've designed for fear of seeing them offered in Bass Pro Shops or Cabela's. Don't take me wrong, as long as it's legal I don't blame anyone from copying a design to sell, that's the name of the game any individual or company that designed the lure must accept. I just wish some of the profits went to them by law, even if only a small percentage.

Strange that music copyright law is much stricter and anyone performing a song written by someone else, must get permission and pay for it. Micheal Jackson and Beach Boy songs are still protected to my knowledge.

 

[Softbaitmaker]

The fishing bait business has had copyright wars for years. Riverside and Gene Larew went at is for almost 10 years over the Salt Issue as to who had added salt into their bait formula and put it on the market first. I don't think it ever got settled in court. I just think it kind of just went away when every other bait company began doing it. Reason I wanted to check into it was not as much for LC as it was for me making and selling the actual baits and having an older brother in a law firm full of lawyers didn't hurt matters. I had to laugh at the second lunch with the Rage Craw which I call the Cajun Craw. I told (George) attorney about my concern and after he looked at both products he said if they contact you tell them to sue you. If they call you a second time Beg them to sue you. If they do we will file a counter suit and you will be a stock holder in Strike King when we are done with them. Strike King never called or sent mail and now I see Lews has bought them out. Now as far as anyone that does a flat side hand pour is actually not copying their bait in all reality.
Andrea should have known better how to operate a business than he did cause there is and always will be some Pro Angler that will find some odd looking bait in a bait store and buy some of them and go out on TV, fish a big tournament like Ish Monroe did with the Beaver and every bass angler in the country will suck the bait stores empty of them on Monday. If you don't have your own injecting plant you can expect to have it happen to you at any time.
Same thing happened to Ronnie Davis, inventer of the Chatterbait. He was a 2 man operation that built them in his basement. I met Ronnie at a fishing show here in Nashville back many years ago. One day a Pro named Casey Ashley wins a big tournament on them and it's televised and it's off to the races on Monday morning for the anglers to buy them any where they could find them. Problem was they were not in stores and the only place you could actually get them was at Fishing or Out Door Shows Ronnie or his dad went to and set up a booth and just so happened that Casey Ashley was also from SC and he had got a few at a show someplace and it only took Z-Man about a month to have a Utility Patent on the bait because his company made the blades Ronnie and his dad used on the bait. So after years or them buying this guys blades they finally make it and Z-Man takes all the credit and most of the money. Oh well I guess thats life and how it works.......... emoBang

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

I remember the Larew lawsuit no going anywhere concerning the addition of salt, but I thought it involved Gary Y's use of it in his Senkos which GY eventually paid to be able mix it in his plastics. I guess no design is safe as long as one angler takes a lure to someone to copy or a lure crafter gets a mold made to sell it in numbers. Like you said, all it takes is a big name angler to use it in a tournament and then everyone wants it.

 

[R-boatless]

Dang, 200 years of experience in this conversation. lol

 

[Softbaitmaker]

It may have been Gary Yamamoto that got involved but I think it was Riverside that started it and gary joined in later but I could be wrong. Won't be the first time about bait company fueds over tha years............. emoGeezer

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

R-boatless - 11/21/2017 6:39 PM

Dang, 200 years of experience in this conversation. lol

Hey! we're not that old ...maybe 140 years of experience. emoGeezer

 

[R-boatless]

SPOONMINNOW - 11/22/2017 7:47 AM

R-boatless - 11/21/2017 6:39 PM

Dang, 200 years of experience in this conversation. lol

Hey! we're not that old ...maybe 140 years of experience. emoGeezer

LOL. You said that you are 70. I promise that I didn't add any years to you, in that 200.

emoPoke

 

[SPOONMINNOW]

Going on 70 but feel like 90.