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?

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

SO what formula have you settled on?

[Leo Nguyen]

Gearing toward honey, molasses, glycerin, and corn starch..the samples are being cooled. Will know by morning..and will be stamped, sealed, and mass produced after a week of curing to see if samples get spoiled or hardened. This will be BBG special recipes for success. All dedicated to the awesome members here.

[Joe Angelucci]

Leo

You may wish to try a sample with glycerol in place of glycerin. You would still get the stabilization but you would gain a preservative and  sweetener . I know this may sound silly but honey, molasses, glycerin, and corn starch is the basis for taffy when it hardens.

 

 

[Leo Nguyen]

Joe, you truly are a scientist! LOL indeed that is the starting recipe for the taffy. That's what Bait Stick hinted as. Glycerol is a good preservation agent to introduce, but the salt will counteract the chemical structure causing hydropholic rather than hydrophobic state after boiling for infusion. Glycerin will absorb water over time, but its property get rebonded with honey and salt that it acts more hydrophobic than hydrophilic, keeping that stickiness intact under water longer. I may have to induce a 5% of petroleum jelly as preservative and crystalline lock to prevent spoilage. But if it doesnt get spoiled over 2 weeks, it may not be needed. Like I said, I love this place. So much wonderful minds contribute at such marvelous levels.

[Joe Angelucci]

Leo

Well maybe applied science. You gave me a bit to think about this evening on my commute home.  I was thinking what application would require  sticky, 100% natural, and the ability to work both wet and dry . Green house pest control was what I came up with as an answer. I think I found a commercial product that may work at a cost of 50 cents per oz. It's ORMI certified 100 safe and has a MSDS sheet

 

Let me know what you think

 

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/order.html?id=ZnSdKRwB:96.242.69.33

 

 

[Leo Nguyen]

Hey David, the only formula that comes close to the resin used by the Bait Stick is (start small):

1/8 cup molasses

1/8 cup white sugar

2 tbspn of glycerin

1tspn of water

Mix all three in the sauce pan under low fire and keep a constant stir to well mix them in a solution. Once you see a few bubbles, no more stirring. Let the solution shimmers and bubble to expel all water from solution. Solution become like sticky goo. Poor it into a container to cool down. Pliable material will be ready in 2 hours after cooling. Support critter's weight up to 1/4oz in water. AMAZED! HOWEVER! Since it's a sugar compound, it's water soluble. Without adding the petroleum jelly as a coagulating agent, it start to stretch apart within 3 minutes, dropping the bait. Adding the petroleum jelly, it still stretch apart in 5 minutes, but the goo portion that is not under the weight of the bait remains on the hook for hours.

Found the approach to the Bait Stick. It's actually pine resin/sap. Other resins can be purchased and do the same, which is ever cheaper. I found the U.S. source for sap in Oregon ($17 for 1lb, free shipping on eBay), and ordered it. Will use the pine resin instead, due to its insoluble in water property. To stop the hardening process at room temp, simply use 1 part resin to 1/3 part glycerin. On cold days, 1 part resin to 1 part glycerin. Will test things out once the pine resin gets here. Got plenty of additives to use for testing too. Basic household kitchen items won't cut it. I used all chemical reactions I know with cooking items combinations, but yield very little results, safe to handle and doesn't kill the fish if it gets away.

Let me know if you have a local shop that sell pine resin or any plant sap over there. We can do a bit of tweaking and get you active with sticky bait fishing in no time. Otherwise, another week until delivery arrives.

[dick tabbert]

Hey Leo if you need someone to try this stuff out keep me in mind. I know my granddaughter use to bait her own hooks, now she is growing up on me and don't want to touch the live bait anymore I can thank grandma for that.

[Leo Nguyen]

Dick, still revising the formula to match Bait Stick using conventional materials around the kitchen. Looks like only 1 recipe is mimicking the resin infused materials used by the Bait Stick product. I figured out what they used as ingredients, but mimicking the cellulose property of resins can be difficult, since I'm not a plant.

However, if you have a store around you that sell plant resins, such as pine/copal, combine the pine resin (after melted in a low fire) with same volume ratio of glycerin to prevent the materials from hardening too quickly (normally after 2 or 3 cold days, or nearly 3 weeks at room temp). Add 1oz to 2oz of regular pine sap, not resin, to increase stickiness and viscosity. I'm looking around for the various resins right now, and may have to order some online. Bait Stick charges $10 for 2oz. Pine/Copal resins is $4 for 4oz, $5 for glycerin.  Say $15 total for everything, you yield 8oz. That will last you all year.