Custom Baits - Forum
Soft Plastic Bait Making => Soft Plastic and Plastic Baits - How To??? => Topic started by: Eep3501 on 12/26/25 17:51 UTC
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Hello everyone,
Long time lurker with a question. Not asking for recipes, but am asking what are your most used color or color combinations. Really just getting started as a hobbyist with a semi limited budget and not looking to spend hundreds of dollars to get started. If you could be so kind as to point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated. Looking mostly to do realistic minnow baits for crappie. Again, Thank You Ahead of Time. Eric.
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Monkey milk would be a good one. Also if you have a dual injector then black would be another color to get that way you can have either a smoke or black bcak & a monkey milk belly.
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Thank you Les.
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My top three are Junebug, Green Pumpkin, and Black
And three glitters would be green, blue, and black
I use more colors but can catch fish anywhere with these three.
My best advice is to buy colors you'll use and add as time goes on. If your on a budget, try and avoid buying stuff you will not use.
Some folks try and copy specific colors, but my take is to enjoy the hobby. Don't feel the need to exactly match colors. Put your own spin on it and enjoy.
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For crappies it's darned hard to beat this bait and color combo. Here in SE Minnesota this bait in this color reigns supreme and its proven itself in Wisconsin, Iowa, North and South Dakotas too.
Next in line color-wise would be Junebug with the chartreuse tail [also in the picture]. After that is a glitter mix in clear plastic I call my bluegill blend, equal parts of copper, blue, purple and green .015 glitter, again with the chartreuse tail. To round out my favorites is a clear plastic with a micro string glitter called Party Crasher teamed up with the chartreuse tail.
The purple shown has zero colorant. Its clear plastic with a load of purple .08 glitter, like a tablespoon full in 6 ounces of plastic. The bluegill blend and the party crasher are super heavy on glitter too. The heavy glitter load makes a super tough plastic without giving up much of the normal plastic's action.
For crappie baits I'd suggest the chartreuse and purple colorants. And before I jumped out and bought the X2 colors, I'd spend the money on the Essential series colorants..... strong but smaller bottles. You can stretch your budget doing this.... maybe get a couple more colors. The Essential junebug is a very strong color that takes only about two or three drops in four ounces of plastic and will take you a long ways. The Essential Chartreuse is a very strong color that will go a long way too.
My advise is to work your way thru the Essential colors and as you gain confidence in your making and coloring the plastics you can slowly build into the X2 colors which are super strong. Chartreuse, purple, black, maybe watermelon to get started.
If I were to start out with this hobby and wanting to target crappies and knowing what I do now, I'd get the 1.5" Thump-It and the 2.25" Small Fry [shown] molds. Both are superb crappie baits and both molds are super friendly to inject.
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My top three are Junebug, Green Pumpkin, and Black
And three glitters would be green, blue, and black
I use more colors but can catch fish anywhere with these three.
My best advice is to buy colors you'll use and add as time goes on. If your on a budget, try and avoid buying stuff you will not use.
Some folks try and copy specific colors, but my take is to enjoy the hobby. Don't feel the need to exactly match colors. Put your own spin on it and enjoy.
Thank you anyfish. Having fun and stress relief is what I use it for. Thank you.
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For crappies it's darned hard to beat this bait and color combo. Here in SE Minnesota this bait in this color reigns supreme and its proven itself in Wisconsin, Iowa, North and South Dakotas too.
Next in line color-wise would be Junebug with the chartreuse tail. After that is a glitter mix in clear plastic I call my bluegill blend, equal parts of copper, blue, purple and green .015 glitter, again with the chartreuse tail. To round out my favorites is a clear plastic with a micro string glitter called Party Crasher teamed up with the chartreuse tail.
Thank you CTOM
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Monkey milk, monkey milk with a chartreuse tail, and orange/chartreuse (green or yellow) have been my go to. My monkey milk consists of a half cup plastic, 1-2 drops of white, blue high light until it has a suitable blue huge, and .015 black flake to taste.
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Monkey milk, monkey milk with a chartreuse tail, and orange/chartreuse (green or yellow) have been my go to. My monkey milk consists of a half cup plastic, 1-2 drops of white, blue high light until it has a suitable blue huge, and .015 black flake to taste.
Thank you Fishermanbt...