Got bugs?

[ctom]

I finally found some time this morning to work with the new Mayday Mayfly mold.  Lets just say its going to be a fun mold.

 

This shot is sort of complex but I did it this way to answer as many questions as I could that I had about the mold and how it might be manipulated. For the sake of orientation, I did all the hand work in the mold side WITHOUT the vents.

A simple black was shot so I could clip some legs. When the mold was opened I laid the entire plastic contents out on the table exactly as it came from the mold and then I cut each leg off the corresponding bait to lay back in the mold where it was made. This took some time but the legs went back in very well, just slow with the old eyes.

Next a added a single drop of glow plastic in each cavity. The top bait shows the glow plastic real nice.

The belly was finished with a plastic made using sweet potato and motor oil. The amounts of each color is obscure since I dipped a toothpick in each color , back and forth, to get what I wanted. Some gold hi lite was added as was a little .015 black flake. The amber was hand poured using my spoon.

The top color is a mixture of Brown Watermelon and Green Watermelon, more brown than green and mixed up the same way as the belly color was. Green and purple hi lite was added along with some .040 black flake and this was injected to finish the bait.

The finished product is a real keeper. It takes some time to put a bait like this together but the realism that is in the end result is uncanny. The small dot of glow was included because so much of the food chain has some glow to it and the tail tentacles could easily be glow simply by shooting a mold full using glow and then cutting the tail portion and re-inserting it. I haven't done a plate for the mold yet but that is next on the list.

Every component used was a Do-It product. The colors are all X2 colors.

[TommySkarlis]

Those are pretty sweet looking C.................!!!

[pjmcla]

Ctom  -  For size perspective, could you put a dime, or some common object, in a picture with a couple of the Bugs.  I, for one, would really appreciate it.   Nice looking baits, my man, real nice.  The pictures show more intricacies of the mold as well.

[DF]

 That's a good looking bait!

[ctom]

Here you go Paul....

[pjmcla]

Thanks a bunch; Tom.  I have trouble getting an accurate perspective with web pictures. 

[Fatman]

Sweet bugs Tom!!!!!! 

[efishnc]

I would not have guessed that you were going to go color crazy with the intricacies of this mold, but I was wrong...  now I'm expecting you to make one in your stand by colors (at some point) and calling it a 'king fly.   

[WALLEYE WACKER]

Tom another awesome example of what can be made when you have the right stuff!!!!!!!!! 

[ctom]

I would not have guessed that you were going to go color crazy with the intricacies of this mold, but I was wrong...  now I'm expecting you to make one in your stand by colors (at some point) and calling it a 'king fly.   

I already have a friend who has asked about three color combos in this bait. All three are my top three go-to colors so I guess I have to at least do those.

When I open a mold for the first time I can instantly see places to go with it, then I sit and study it. Venting is always an issue I look at real hard even if I haven't shoot the mold and some will get additional venting added before plastic ever goes in. This mold is vented well for the size of the bait so that issue was passed on pretty quick and I got right into the small pieces I wanted to move.

I think we've all seen the static in newly shot plastic, but the legs done in black were outrageous. I could get them to their respective cavity placements but they'd either jump out or crawl out from static about as fast as I could place them. Then too, size 88 finger tips in a mold where leg cavities all but touch complicate things even further. Then of course comes the eye sight and lighting. I found out on this one shot that both need to be enhanced when placing the legs. Later last night I played with the same colors in this mold but the lighting became an issue so I opted to shoot just the top and bottom colors trying to find a balance between them that allowed that nice green to stand out more. I finally thinned down the belly color about 50% and that did it. That sweet potato is a very dense, thick color and can over-whelm pretty easy. Thinned it let the green shine a bit more. Today I am going to brown the butterscotch color down a hair and do another run to see how I like it.

As mentioned in the opening post, I think this mold is going to be a fun mold to work with. The initial shot of black was the first color the mold saw and being a cold mold I was properly impressed with the way all of the small cavity portions and extremities filled. That in and of itself is half the battle. Of all of the molds Do-It shelves and sells, this is the most natural of all that I have seen or worked with. It is size and dimensionally appropriate. It doesn't need the fancy three colors to look alive, two will do very well. Still, I have no problem recommending this mold to anyone who want a realistic bug. The proto-type to this finished bait I was able to fish earlier this year and it did well on crappies and some huge sunfish. A friend who saw the early baits got the shakes thinking of stream trout using a small jig to take the bug places but I think a hook on a fly rod will do the same thing, the hook being heavy enough to sink the bug. I honestly think that this mold and the bait makes it a great entry level product simply because as it stands it simple to make but effective to use. It also allows a fairly broad area of room to make variations that even beginners can explore with some patience.

[smalljaw]

OMG!!!! That is just sick right there!!!!! I love the look, they would be killer for late spring river smallies as they look identical to emerging mud bugs. Mud Bugs are dragon fly larva and when they start to go to land when ready to turn into dragonflies, the smallies gorge on those but so do every other fish that swims. The 3 color deal looks alive, the dark legs with the body color with the different shade for the head and tail, if you threw one of those on me I'd freak out, incredible job to make that thing look so lifelike it isn't even funny!!!

[ctom]

This was next on the list and they turned out ok.



Like the legs, getting this split tail back in place was interesting but the base that I left attached really help to stabilize the long feelers after I got it in place first. That turned out to be the key.

I'm thinking this color, being my go to, is going to raise pure hell with the crappies anywhere near standing submerged wood.

A note on the mold and injection. If I lean on the injector after the rod stops for a couple seconds I find a line of plastic at the bottom edge of the mold. Looking closer at the mold its coming from where the legs have a super short vent near the edge of the mold. look closely at the legs in relation to the molds bottom edge and you'll see what I am referring to.

[efishnc]

Like the legs, getting this split tail back in place was interesting but the base that I left attached really help to stabilize the long feelers after I got it in place first. That turned out to be the key.

I was thinking you would shoot purple (or chart) first, then cut out the center portion of the body (or maybe the whole body), and then shoot the other color (to have the appendages all one color and the body another)... I'll have to do some tinkering when I get mine, but it seems the fish on this side of the channel prefer 'green and gold' as their favorite color pattern.   

A note on the mold and injection. If I lean on the injector after the rod stops for a couple seconds I find a line of plastic at the bottom edge of the mold. Looking closer at the mold its coming from where the legs have a super short vent near the edge of the mold. look closely at the legs in relation to the molds bottom edge and you'll see what I am referring to.

To me, this should be all the better for a little more action/vibration in the legs... those mayflies are a home run for sure!

[Denny Welch]

As always, fantastic.  How long did the first one take you to pour?

[Nordy]

nice looks like a panfish catching bait.