Installing the Rattle in the Small Bait Fish Mold

[beauharlan]

Hello, Is there any guide on installing rattles when making bait in the small bait fish mold? Thanks for the guide everyone.

[ctom]

Welcome aboard.

Personally, I do not use rattles of any kind so I can't help you out. I think something that you'd have to overcome is finding a compact enough rattle without displacing too much plastic. Let's see what others might add.

[Lamar]

  Well first off it needs to be glass or metal or it will melt and second I've tried it many ways and it just never works right. The best way is to just slide it into the plastic once the bait is made. If you want it to hold better just put a little super glue on it.

[Lines]

You could modify the plastic bait with the E-Core method while pouring, making the proper sized cavity for the rattle, and as Lamar suggests, a dab of super glue or worm repair glue to keep it in place. Search Efishnc: E-Core method.

[bigjim5589]

I don't make plastics, but have added rattles to them, and always used the method Lamar suggested. Add them to the finished bait.

That usually creates a bump in the plastic if it's solid. You can heat up various tools and create pockets for the rattle, but that's time consuming if it's something you're attempting in a production situation.

If you can pour a pocket or slot into the bait, then as has been said, you can use super glues to keep the rattle in place.

I don't recall what the tool was called, but there has been one marketed, that was nothing but a sharpened thin wall tubing, and you inserted it into the plastic to make a place for the rattle. Then it could be sealed in place using heat or glue. Of course even that depends on the bait, as very small, thin baits that may not work well.

You can get thin wall tubing at some craft & hobby supplies. They're usually brass or copper, or could be aluminum. Heat it enough and sharpen an end and you have a core maker for rattles. Then you push the plastic you removed back in the hole and seal it with heat or glue, so same idea.

I've used rattles a lot making flies and jigs. I've found it's been best for making them louder, to not lash them to hooks, and also to have them coated with something like epoxy. Most anything soft seems to deaden the noise, but it's still going to rattle some. That's nothing to do with plastics, just and observation I've found from adding them to flies & jigs.

I have a tube jig mold that allows me to pour them into the jig, and that's a pain to do.

[basscatlildave]

Most water I fish is dirty and I like rattles. I just insert them in my already poured plastics.

[olsarge]

To my way of thinking (I know its dangerous) a rattle that is put in a crankbait makes a lot of noise because the crankbait is hollow on the inside creating a sort of echo chamber.  It would seem to me that if installed in a soft plastic bait, the sound would be muted because it is completely encased in plastic.

[Lines]

Dangerous maybe, but accurate olsarge!

[bigjim5589]

To my way of thinking (I know its dangerous) a rattle that is put in a crankbait makes a lot of noise because the crankbait is hollow on the inside creating a sort of echo chamber.  It would seem to me that if installed in a soft plastic bait, the sound would be muted because it is completely encased in plastic.

I agree with you olsarge, which is what I had found with adding them to my flies as I had mentioned. How loud they might be, depended on the type of rattle, ( metal, plastic or glass) and it's size, and how I attached them and treated them. They will still make some noise in a plastic, but it's not as loud as in air if you shake them. But also keep in mind, noise is amplified more in water, so even a muted noise might be plenty, especially in a soft plastic since they're not going to make a lot of noise anyway.  I've never found that rattles in most baits could be too loud, although I do think they can be sometimes in hard baits. That's evidenced by the one knock types of lures sometimes doing better than the same lure with a lot of rattles.

[efishnc]

I don't recall what the tool was called, but there has been one marketed, that was nothing but a sharpened thin wall tubing, and you inserted it into the plastic to make a place for the rattle. Then it could be sealed in place using heat or glue. Of course even that depends on the bait, as very small, thin baits that may not work well.

You can get thin wall tubing at some craft & hobby supplies. They're usually brass or copper, or could be aluminum. Heat it enough and sharpen an end and you have a core maker for rattles. Then you push the plastic you removed back in the hole and seal it with heat or glue, so same idea.

I have used many different marinade injection needles (all cut with open ends) to make some of my less-traditional core shots... there is no reason a fella couldn't use this coring method and put a rattle in these cavities (instead of a different color of plastic).

[Lines]

I have used many different marinade injection needles (all cut with open ends) to make some of my less-traditional core shots... there is no reason a fella couldn't use this coring method and put a rattle in these cavities (instead of a different color of plastic).

Exactly!

[ctom]

I still think that putting a rattle small enough to fit inside a plastic bait will lose most of its effective noise to the buffering of the plastic itself. The larger the bait, the more sound is lost. Crankbaits are hard and hollow so the noise making concept there is entirely different and most likely works to a greater extent. Rattles attached externally in the jig will at similar to the crankbait and not give up any of the noise they are intended to make to the buffering of that soft plastic.

I'm not big on rattles period, but I think putting those small capsules inside and directly contacting a soft environment is simply going to hush them, or at least buffer most of noise and make doing this way less than worth the time. But that's just me and I am not a rattle nut. It might, however, be worth someone else's time to play with it.

[bigjim5589]

Ctom, I have some brass discs and glass beads for Carolina & T rigs that were intended to make the clacking noise when using worm weights. I guess that works as well as anything for adding some noise, but many plastics aren't rigged that way.

Like a lot of things in fishing, adding a rattle may simply be a confidence thing too, because we fish differently when we believe what we use is a better option & provides some added confidence in using it.

I do feel that sometimes things that are done contradict logic, but they're still done.

This is how I usually add a rattle to a fly. It's inside a braided mylar tubing and the whole thing is covered with epoxy. When I started using rattles, I was following what others had done and lashing them to the hooks with thread, and they didn't seem to be too loud, just as you're saying with the soft plastic deadening the sound. I don't know what fish can detect in nature, but I know darn well, they can know these flies are in the water! 

[efishnc]

 I never thought the he little glass ampules did much as far a sound (in or out of plastic). 

However, I BPS used to have (and maybe still has) small round bubble rattles that seemed quite unremarkable for sound until you put them inside a tube bait where they suddenly became tremendously loud... during the years I tournament fished (back in the 90s) would weld tubes to all my craw-worms so as not to miss this added attraction... IMO, this was something definitely worth doing because of the difference it made, so maybe this could still be done by welding tubes onto other baits?