Shoot your tail color, then trim to size if you're going to inject the body color right away. Use a fine tipped artist paint brush to dip in plain work oil. Wipe the excess oil off on a paper towel, then give a quick brushing inside the tail portion of the cavity....both sides. Now lay your tail pieces in. Do this with each injection of the finish color. Takes but a second to oil the cavities but will save many minutes fiddling with the small pieces trying to get them put back in the mold.
If you're making tail color baits ahead, you can trim them down to save on bag space but leave them longer than you really want. In the bag stored the plastic will "make" oil that can hinder getting a solid weld when the body color gets injected. By leaving them long you can just nip them off at the length you want when you're ready to do the finish injection.
With this being my favorite bait, [I have six of the molds] I'll make up a couple, three, hundred tail color baits and snip them long and bag them for when I want to make more for fishing. In an average season fishing crappies I'll go thru between 600 and 800 baits, mostly in three or four colors: Junebug/chartreuse, purple/chartreuse, my own bluegill glitter mix in clear/chartreuse and partycrasher glitter clear/chartreuse. The first two colors are used about 75% more of the time than the last two colors, but I see the last two as "must haves".
