Bait Stick vs Super Glue vs Corn Syrup dehydrated

[Leo Nguyen]

Not sure if you guys ever heard of the product called Bait Stick, but I know you guys have used super glue in the past to slap the live baits onto your hooks. But, I'm scratching my head at the same time on the pros and cons of the two, and it dawned on me that corn syrup, which can be further dehydrated to make a very sticky gel, similar to the ants/cockroaches/mice/flies traps. Here are the pros and cons:

Bait Stick

- Pros: live baits stay alive longer, especially small worms (not crawlers, since we need them cut into pieces), any insects, or even dead ones. Much better presentation when they struggle as the rig sinks.

- Cons: what the heck is the "non-toxic, natural, and environmental friendly ingredients"? Sap? Glue? Corn syrup? Molasses? It's so thick, it makes a mess on the hook. You need a nice gob of it to hold the baits in place, and hard to strategically place the hook on the live bait, especially for crickets that may be offered for surface presentation. It's also a bit costly.

Super Glue

- Pros: cheap, easy access, fast deployment, easy to put on bait and position the hooks just the way you wanted.

- Cons: hm..skin adhesive. Not fun. Still have a nice battle scar from 10 years ago because the super glue bonded my fingers together during a project. It penetrated 1mm below my skin in a large area, and remained there ever since. Takes a bit of time to cure before the glue is set enough to use in the water. Time consuming. Kills the live bait quicker due to the toxic nature of the glue, and the ability of the glue to penetrate porous skin..it has an acid in there guys.

Corn Syrup Dehydrated:

- Pros: cheap, easy access, similar to bait stick (slightly less adhesive but can increase its stickiness with a bit more time on the cooking to remove the water content).

- Cons: takes time cook the water content out of the syrup (1 part water, 1 part corn syrup, high heat to boil, keep stirring until water and syrup turn into gel..a bit longer to make the gel much more sticky). Similar mess as bait stick during application, and could be strategically used for the hooks' positions on live baits since it's less sticky than bait stick based on cooking time.

Have you guys ever try something like this?

[Timbaux65]

I saw something similar years ago, before Katrina, where some guy on tv was using it (advertisement) and it seemed to look pretty good. I personally have a problem keeping crickets on my hook. Those light brown crickets dont stay on long.

[Leo Nguyen]

The bait stick material should be more than sufficient in holding the insects on the hook without the fishes ripping them off. The insects will lose their body parts, but I highly doubt that they can yank the cricket off the hook with this sticky materials adhering to the tough outer shell of the cricket. From what I can vision the sticky substance potential, I would say, take the cricket, stick the sticky hook along one side of the cricket, with the hook end pointed down near the end of the cricket's thorax for higher chance of self hook-set. The cricket will be smashed to death during the bite, but could be used again since the body remains intact. Could probably be used a few times before a new one required replacing.

When I hook the crickets through the body (either be under the entire wing encasement or from one side to another), the fishes ripped the crickets right off the hooks. I guess I'll get a bottle of this stuff and give it a try, in comparison to my own sticky material design. I'll definitely stay away from the super glue..

[Walt Foreman]

Tim, is the rod you use for fishing crickets (and other live bait) fast-action, i.e. stiff?  That may be your problem.  I make my own custom bluegill rods on fly rod blanks and they'll cast a single red wriggler with a pencil float (the thinnest spring-pencil Thill makes) and no weight a long way.  When I use crickets the only weight I use is a single BB shot just to sink the cricket, and they stay on pretty well for me.  The way to hook a gray cricket is to slide the hook point under its collar, pull the shank through and then pivot the point and embed it in the cricket's posterior. 

 

I'll  post a couple photos of a rod I made last week.  Another thing that will help, if you have the right kind of rod, is to use a light rather than ultralight action reel because it will hold more line which equals longer casts.  I usually go one size up from the smallest model in a particular series of reels, typically a reel that lists its line capacity in terms of 6, 8, and 10-lb. tests rather than 2, 4, and 6.  I use 6-pound test on a Shimano Sahara 2500FD. 

[Timbaux65]

I tried the crickets with my Temple Fork 4W rod...i think its the crickets.. they are the kind you feed to lizards..not the fishing kind. they are light brown. Not good.

[Walt Foreman]

Well, if they're the variety that has the exceptionally long, skinny legs and the stripes or segments on their abdomen, yes, that would be the wrong kind (I don't know what kind would be fed to lizards, just guessing).  Is this akin to what you've been using?

 

http://www.pestproducts.com/images/Camel-Cricket.jpg 

 

Gray crickets such as what bait shops sell, is what you need; they have a more compact body, a bigger head, and a collar right behind the head:

 

http://www.wormman.com/misc_images/crickets.jpg

 

I learned how to hook them from a magazine article many years ago.  They stay really frisky until they've been underwater for a few minutes, which generally is going to reduce the enthusiasm of most air-breathing critters anyway.

[Tony Livingston]

I like to mig weld my bait on..... you would be surprised what a hot hook will do to increase a live cricket's action....

 

Sorry! slow day couldn't resist.....

[Leo Nguyen]

LMAO Truly must be a slow day for you. Not hitting the water even for a slow day of fun?

[Tony Livingston]

Hey a guy's gotta' work sometime....

Since I'm the boss as well as the only employee, I guess I could take the day off, now that you mention it.

Leo, your genius knows no bounds. Fire up the mig welder, I'm goin' fishin'.

[Leo Nguyen]

Genius? Nah..giving me too much credit. I'm knowledgeable in one field, and you're a master at another. Let's call it "professional wisdom" LOL  I'll fire up my butane torch and will do the same..

[Johnny wilkins]

You totally beat me to the punch Tony. I was going to either spot-weld or arch weld it and can we talk solder - which solder has the best reflective attraction for bluegills?

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I dunno Leo... the Bait Stick stuff looks pretty tempting. It seems like one of those rare things that's better than something home made.

It certainly is a unique idea!

[Leo Nguyen]

A EUREKA moment!

I ordered the Bait Stick tube product for comparison basis. In the meantime, I've experimented through various materials I have at home (being a mad scientist by profession and nature), and got some ingredients at the drugs and grocery stores. Then, a eureka moment popped up as I compared the consistency between the video displayed on YouTube for the product with my own recipes (will be posting video for ingredients and methods of creating this gummy, sticky goo later as I get the correct consistency down):

Molasses & glycerin based

Molasses, honey, and glycerin based

Molasses, brown sugar, white sugar, and glycerin

Honey, corn syrup, molasses, and glycerin based

Honey, brown sugar, glycerin

Honey, molasses, petroleum jelly

Notice the key ingredient that make the bulk is mentioned first. Same coloration, same stickiness (tactify properties), but not certain on the preservation time before it all goes bad.

What dawned on me was, beside from the stickiness that holds well under cool water, it's also act as a secondary attractant. Oh, mercy. If you look at all the ingredients in the all the unpatented and patented live baits, including plastics, sugar (primarily high viscous materials from processed sugars, syrup, and molasses), salts, and thickening agents (guar gum, xanthan gum, petroleum jelly, agar jelly) were used. Sugar to attract, salt to enhance displacement the attractant and lockjaw, and thickening agent to hold down the materials based on quantity.

Guess what, the cost of making the sticky goo is $0.75/oz. It's safe (not like Elmer or super glue), natural (minus the petroleum jelly part), a superb attractant for ALL SPECIES, a supercharged treat for fishes if they get away with the bait and the goo, and, you will nail more fishes in general as you soak the line for the upcoming spawning seasons. YEAH!