Over many years, I've accumulated many bags of soft plastic lures now stored and forgotten. Since I pour my own lures, those old lures became even more worthless until I started melting the ends of some and attaching them to others. Since I started doing this, the new shapes and actions from those shapes have become a hobby in itself knowing that no one sells them. many of which catch hundreds of fish.
I used to make lures for bass fishing but after many years of catching far less fish than fishing for everything, I started fishing light finesse lures. I guess I'm addicted to the soft strike regardless of the species and usually manage over 40 fish per outing which include panfish, bass and the occasional catfish. Big bass used to be the target especially when I fished tournaments, whereas now, seeing the bend of the rod from large crappie or sunfish is just as much fun.
After I attach parts of different lures together, I need to watch what they do in the water to know the action produced. Once fish are caught consistently, I know I got a keeper! On any day any of them can catch fish some better than others depending on the day.
These are the shapes that have done well:
mini sticks
cone tail grub
French Fry stick segment for the body attached to a number of tail shapes
thin tail
knob tail - looks like a light bulb
whiskers - thin tails joined to a thick segment and wacky rigged
claw
spike tail
Some of the above parts are from injection mold lures.
To attach them together, I hold each end over a candle and join the slightly melted ends together. To make sure the parts don't detach, I use a battery-powered soldering iron to smooth the seam. Done properly, they never come apart no matter how many fish are caught.
Here are a few:
This combo consists of a Mo Magic body (injected plastic lure) and a Crappie Magnet tail:
It caught many fish yesterday - 4 species - including some decent crappie.
Another resulted from the joining of a tapered tail (injection mold) and connecting it to a grub body. Even little bass jumped all over it!:
This last example consists of a (molded) thin tail added to a grub body:
'hybrid' soft plastics make use of useless lures
'hybrid' soft plastics make use of useless lures
Last edited by senksoam on Wed Sep 21, 2022 11:08 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Re: 'hybrid' soft plastics make use of useless lures
French Fry body:
Another taper tail / worm segment body:
There are over a few hundred hybrid soft plastics I've discovered while watching TV in my basement workshop when I can't go fishing. At least those old lures now have some use.
Last edited by senksoam on Wed Sep 21, 2022 11:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: 'hybrid' soft plastics make use of useless lures
The other thing you can do is dip the body of a soft plastic lure in hot plastic to thicken it.
French Fry segment attached to a Mo Magic mold lure's thin tail. No match-the-hatch for me!
I find what's most fascinating are the large number of shape/action combinations that fish attack. Colors also. Who would think a clear plastic lure would catch as many fish as one with color?!!
This one may have perch colors but I like it for no other reason except fish bite it. Of course, color brightness may enhance a lure's shape and action adding to the mystic of why fish attack unnatural objects such as lures in the first place.French Fry segment attached to a Mo Magic mold lure's thin tail. No match-the-hatch for me!
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Re: 'hybrid' soft plastics make use of useless lures
Thanks for the post.
Plastics and panfish are great.
Plastics and panfish are great.