Custom Baits - Forum
Soft Plastic Bait Making => Soft Plastic and Plastic Baits - How To??? => Topic started by: Mike J on 09/17/17 11:10 UTC
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Last fall I caught a lot of walleyes that were feeding on frogs all the way up until freeze up. That has had me thinking all summer about a frog bait for walleyes. My favorite walleye bait is the 3.5" swimshad so the 3.5" swimtoad looked like the perfect walleye frog for me.
I got the mold and shot a few up the same day for a test. I walked down to the river to test them and realized that with the thick legs and feet on this bait you need to move it way faster than I want in cold water to get them to move.
I noticed that the legs were exactly double the thickness of the thin tail swimshads I normally use. So I made the decision to fill in the legs and feet on one side to make them thin.
I screwed up a little and filled in the vent side, but luckily it didn't hurt a bit.
Here's a couple pics of the mold modded and a pic of the results. The left is the original and the right is one shot after the modification.
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Great idea, Mike. What did you use for the filler?
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Thanks AP. I used JB weld.
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Great idea here Mike. I'll bet those thin feet have some action.
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Thinking outside the box. I like it
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Thanks guys. Now I just need more rain up north and some cooler temps to put this to the test. It really does have some great action with these thinner legs.
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Thin to win.
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Love it! Please explain how you applied the JB Weld so cleanly.
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Great idea dude. The eyes will hammer those frogs in the spring too. It won't be long now and it will be game on for the fall frog bite.
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Thanks for the nice comments guys.
Thump hunting I just used a tooth pick to put the JB in where I wanted it and went slow. I used the original formula so it gives plenty of time and will basically level itself out. I had to kind of drag it to the ends of the "fingers" but the rest I just put it in the larger areas and let it flow where it needed to go.
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A little harder to work with, I like the high heat stuff and just knock off the excess by lightly running a fine flat file over the area filled. I lay a masking tape "cover " on the mold face of the side being filled first and use an exacto knife to trim out the cavity areas. The file doesn't leave any marks on the mold face that way.
That JB is some amazing stuff to work with if one is careful.
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How hard is to remove the JB weld from a mold cavity should you choose to do so ? I've used it to patch up old boats but that wasn't exactly a precision job.
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Good idea on the masking Tom. I have some of the high heat but havnt tried it yet.
2XL I don't know how it would be to remove. I've always looked at it as a permanent kind of thing.
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Good idea on the masking Tom. I have some of the high heat but havnt tried it yet.
2XL I don't know how it would be to remove. I've always looked at it as a permanent kind of thing.
An alternative that might work is to place a piece of aluminum foil to only cover the legs then shoot the mold. You should get a full bodied frog with split legs. Kust cut off one side of the legs and voila. I have tried this on othe molds with success so I don't know why it wouldn't work here/ I will try it and get back
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Update. I couldn't wait any longer so I went out to the garage with the essential 3.5 frog mold. I covered the leg area of both cavities with foil and shot the baits. When I demolded just the legs were nicely split. Cut off the bottom sections and they looked really nice. A nice little alternative that gives you a thin legged or a thick legged frog without any mold modifications,
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That sounds like a good way to get the job done, Sarge.
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Good idea Sarge
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Update. I couldn't wait any longer so I went out to the garage with the essential 3.5 frog mold. I covered the leg area of both cavities with foil and shot the baits. When I demolded just the legs were nicely split. Cut off the bottom sections and they looked really nice. A nice little alternative that gives you a thin legged or a thick legged frog without any mold modifications,
Brilliant!!!!
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Good thinking olsarge. It was a good walleye bait for me last fall.
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All the above is what it is all about!
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Just wondering if you left both pair of legs on the frog how that would work. With four legs that might give you all kinds of action. You got me wanting to try this now.
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My first thought also Lamar. Could be interesting. Double action legs.
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Just wondering if you left both pair of legs on the frog how that would work. With four legs that might give you all kinds of action. You got me wanting to try this now.
I have thought of that too and plan on trying it out this spring. Out of the mold, the legs stick together but I am thinking that the water may "lubricate" them enough to help keep them apart. Will see this spring
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Just wondering if you left both pair of legs on the frog how that would work. With four legs that might give you all kinds of action. You got me wanting to try this now.
Great idea. Now I'm wanting to try that too. I've got 4 more 3.5" coming. I think I'll leave at least one unmodified for experimenting with this idea.
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I just shot some more with the skinny legs but I added some foam flotation to them as well. The idea being to work them towards an opening in the pads/grass then just twitch them to get them skinny little legs to shakin. I'm thinking irrisistable (or at least I hope)