Caney Creek Croaker Frog Question...

[Cormorant Lures]

I am about to receive my first (2) Caney Creek Croaker Frog molds... YIPPEE!!! I have a question (or two or three)... Will they float?!? or I should say, can you pour them to float?!? Will they float automatically after you pour them?!? When you cast them, do you have to start your retrieve for them to float?!? I know these are kinda loaded questions, but a Frog is almost useless unless it floats (hopefully by itself)... Thanks!!! 

[bribass]

First off this:       "a Frog is almost useless unless it floats " ---- Is WRONG

I fish a frog 95% of the time buzzing it, not letting it sit still.

They do float ... with no salt... and without a hook in them LOL .. funny thing is we have to use hooks so they sink slowly. They are fished just like a traditional Buzz Frog but it out performs the traditional buzz frogs!!!

You can add that foam thats on the website here that jason has and it will float still while having a hook in it. Jason also has a video showing how he puts the foam in.

Hope this helps

[RagingRiver]

X2 on bribass' comments

[Cormorant Lures]

Okay, so I finally started shooting baits with these molds with mixed success... I have been getting big air bubble "voids" in the tips of my feet as well as smaller air pocket voids around the eye sockets... I have tried shooting slow or fast, hotter or colder, etc.

I know it must be air getting trapped in the mold... As I am drawing plastic into my injector, I keep
the tip below the plastic surface at all times... I am just trying to figure out how air is getting into my plastic, and/or if I am doing something completely wrong...

It is an awesome feeling to shoot five molds and get five great looking baits, and it is a very depressing feeling to shoot five molds and get only one good bait...

Oh and one more question, how do you minimize overall scrap?!? It seems like I get A LOT more overall scrap with injection then I did with hand-pouring... I was wondering if there were any good tips out there on this subject as well...

Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! Thanks!!!

One more thing I should add to the information stated above... Towards the middle and end of the existing batch, we added batches of remelt to the existing mix of plastic in the presto... Basically what we did is throw about 8oz. of new plastic in a pyrex with equal amounts of remelt and heated it to temperature and then added it to the already hot plastic in the presto... Could this method also have a negative affect on how the baits will inject?!?

[kipbass]

It's atmospheric pressure of where you live causing the bubbles in your croakers.  Naw just kiddin' What brand injector are you shooting with , just curious? I had the same problem. Never found a solution.

[superharmonix]

Cormorant...try SLIGHTLY backing off your clamp pressure then injecting and see if that makes a difference.  Be very careful, when I say slightly I mean slightly. 

Also, if you can take a few pics it would be ever so helpful to all the folks in the forum.

A few more questions as well, what is the temp int he room you are shooting in?  Does the mold do this after you shoot it once or twice?  What is your plastic temperature? 

[andrewlamberson]

Air IN the plastic....in MHO it's almost always something wrong with the injector. ...probably the o rings. There seems to be an issue with some BT injectors...although I have no issues with mine.

But.... Are you sucking in plastic...and then purging the injector (to warm it up)....that introduces big air bubbles into the plastic!

And to answer the floating question...the bait as a "neutral" buoyancy. With the hooks...slightly negative. This frog is not a "popping" frog (like a Hula popper)...but more of a "buzz frog". With anything other than a heavy hook (the superline hooks)...I'm confident you'll be very happy with the bait.

Inject slowly, hand pressure at 350 degrees (get a good digital thermometer!) and they will come out great.

[Denny Welch]

It always amazes me how much air can find it's way into the injector.  I purge the air from the injector and then dip and fill the injector.  I will then angle the injector upwards and purge the air out again.  It's only then that I'll inject the mold.  Make sure the plastic is up to temperature and that both the mold and the injector are warm/hot.  I think Jason's safety video illustrates this.  Good pouring.

[Jason]

Is this on the 3, 3.5" Croakers you just bought?

Are you using 2 bar clamps (front and back)? 




Your temp should be fine anywhere from 300-350 degrees.

Can you give more details of what you are trying to do.  Single color, pouring the belly, laminate block, twin injector, etc.

Pictures, especially of a clear bait and how you have them clamped would be very helpful.

Thanks,

Jason

[ghostbaits]

The times I would get air pockets towards the feet would be when I had my plastic a little to warm. Near 340 or greater seemed to cause the issue. Back down the temp and it is all good!

There is more "waste" from the injection process than hand pouring however you can easily re-melt and make baits. Putting that plastic back in should not affect your injection process at all.

I know when I first started injecting last year, I had a tendency to get my plastic a little warmer than required becuase I was used to doing that when hand pouring. I had to be conscious of the temps and now even hand pour at lower temps.

Good luck!! It will help a lot to get pics of your clamping set up as others stated. It is awful hard to over clamp but I have done it with new clamps before. Air can't escape good so it just build in the mold.

Jim

[Cormorant Lures]

I am going to be pretty busy this morning so pictures might be out of the question... I am clamping the molds just like Jason has in the pictures above... I was doing single color (black w/green flake)... I have a 6oz. Twinjector from Basstackle... I did not get many bad baits at all in the beginning of the batch... I did change one thing that I thought about last night... Around that same time I started get air bubble voids, I changed the way I sucked up my plastic... At first, I believe I was inserting the injector past the point of the o-ring seal, and then I pulled the plastic into the injector... That big piece of useless plastic on the side of my injector really started to piss me off, so I started to dip only the tip of the injector in the plastic in order to draw... I am thinking I am getting air bubble this way?!? I am going to try some things this morning, hopefully something works out for me... Thank you for all the tips so far!!!

[ghostbaits]

Simple. Try it back the other way. If you don't get air, you know you are getting air in due to a n o ring issue. If you still get air, look other places than your injector.

Jim

[superharmonix]

Simple. Try it back the other way. If you don't get air, you know you are getting air in due to a n o ring issue. If you still get air, look other places than your injector.

Jim

+1


Cormorant, another thing to take a look at- are you tipping your injector up after you suck up plastic?  If so, you will see the trapped air escaping, as air bubbles will rise upward.

[kipbass]

I was using a BT Injector as well, I even was having issue with CCM Freedom Fries. I was lucky enough to find a used Bears injector, 8oz cheap. There's enough plastic in the injector and I can inject 3 fry molds with no air now. I wish I could try it out on the croaker molds to see if the injector was the issue, I personally think it is. BT makes a fine injector I'm not bad mouthing them, but Jason makes molds and test them with his injectors. I guessing there is zero tolerance, they're 2 completely different injectors made by different folks.

[Cormorant Lures]

For all those of you who were following my post... I FIXED MY PROBLEM!!! It was the injector the whole time... I went and bought a couple new o-rings and replaced the ones on the injector(s), still no luck... A little bit of ingenuity was all it took... I took the o-rings back off and placed about three full revolutions of teflon plumbers tape in the o-ring groove... I put the o-ring back in the groove over the top of the teflon tape...  NO MORE AIR VOIDS IN MY BAITS!!! I have NOT had one bad bait since and I am loving every minute of it!!! Thanks for all your help!!!