Help making your own soft plastics and jigs.

[Brandon Sigurdson]

Hi everyone and happy new years :) 

Recently i had my car broken into and my main fishing pole and all of my tackle was stolen. It really really bummed me out and I still don't have any gear but for some reason it really made me start thinking about fishing again. Ive gotten so busy lately with my job and recently moving out on my own. I really want to stay focused on fishing again. 

I am really interested in starting to pour my own soft plastics for crappie and bluegill baits. Also I wanted to start making my own jigs as well. I have never done this before but have a huge interest in it and would love to get started. 

I was hoping I could get some useful tips on starting to make both. Whats the cheapest best way to start? Good things to buy? Etc. 

Any info would be great! thanks guys

[LedHed]

 For plastics you can shoot with injector & mold or do hand pours - cheaper and you can make your own molds. Check out jigcraft.com for tutorials & materials for jig tying & pouring jigs.

[dick tabbert]

http://www.jigcraft.com/

Here is a starting point. Don't know about the pouring your soft plastic though. There is much to it, I use twister tails but not any twister tails I like them very soft so when you move them just a little bit the tail works for you. As far as pouring your own jigs the main thing to pouring good jigs is keep your mold hot. I'm sure you will get some answers but the worst thing will be the initial cost maybe after that you will decide if it's going to be worth it or not. I buy my jigs off of E-bay but I'm in it for a hobby so I don't need that much stuff. As far as tying I use a lot of the main stuff I use for fly tying. Hope this helps you somewhat Brandon. Feel free to get hold of me anytime I'll always try to help out a fellow fisherman.

[Eric Pierce]

Hello Brandon,     I'm new here, and just now ran across your thread here. I am a member of an other site that fishes for crappie hence the name. on there, there are a bunch of fellows that pour there own plastics. I learned thru them of the Do-it mold company. Yes the same one that has the molds for the lead head jigs. They bought out Caney Creek Molds that did aluminum molds for soft plastic's. you can go to either site and see the molds they have. There are a lot of You tube videos out that can advise you how to pour both. Both require excellent ventilation. The start up is the expensive part. Then you need your plastisal, stabilizer, color, etc. the methods are easy, just seem complicated. The nice part of pouring soft plastic's is the color combinations you can make that are not in the stores any where, as well as the satisfaction that comes from the knowing that you just caught a fish on something that you made. If you want to know a bit more, please PM me and I will help all I can. Been looking into this myself for a while and am going to get my feet wet doing it this Spring. Good luck, Eric

[Brandon Sigurdson]

Sorry for the late response Eric. Wow you have been very informative already. I really do appreciate all that gets posted on this site. I have put my interest on making my own for a while just due to the fact that i just recently purchased all new gear to make up for my stolen gear a few months ago. I just dont have the funds to get into it right now but this is the time i should be researching it the most. 

Thanks again,

Brandon

[Geoff]

You can pick up quality unpainted jigs pretty cheap and paint them with the inexpensive nail polish costing 1-2 $ per bottle.With a beginners fly tying kit you can create some great lures and will discover your hunting buddies are a great source for free material and roadkill,mom's wife's knitting supplies etc.Molds torches bulk hooks are a big investment make sure you need it first.

[Brandon Sigurdson]

Oh wow I would have never thought about those things. Thank you so much for the useful information! 

Brandon