Saintly Fish

Your mannerisms are fine, it's your face that upsets people...

How could my mannerisms ever upset anybody ?

It's too wet for this year mate!! 🤣
Hasn't been too bad so far as it goes.....
Will help the boy learn about boats as well

Get down there with your truck at night and tow it away Jon.

I made these a while back but thought some of us on here might find it interesting. I needed a large, cheap SP lure body for use on a 6oz jig head for vertical fishing but couldn't find anything off the shelf that was suitable, so I thought I'd try pouring my own. Never done this before so it was a bit of an experiment.

The first stage was to make a mould I can pour into, so I needed to make a master of the lure.

Using Fimo I made the rough shape of the lure body, then baked it. After baking I used a Dremel with a coarse sanding drum, plus 320 grit wet & dry to get the final shape. After shaping I mixed up some fine filler paste to smooth out a few low spots before sanding smooth again. The finished master below.


Now I had the master, I needed to make the mould of the mould, so to speak. So first I bedded the master into a block of plasticine. This started by hollowing out an imprint of the master so that it fitted snugly half way into the plasticine.



I added the shape for the pouring funnel in plasticine too. I ended up opening it out once the mould was finished as it was too narrow to pour smoothly.


The next step was to build up the sides of the mould around the plasticine block. I used the kids's Duplo bricks as they were quick and easy to assemble. I also added some ball bearings from the kids' marble run toy to make locating lugs for the two halves of the mould. See that ball of plasticine at the top of the pic below? We'll come back to that....



At this point I also sealed up all the edges with small beads of plasticine to give a good seal. I then gave everything a light coat of vaseline to ensure the mould releases well once cured. Now ready for the first pour.

I worked out the volume I'd need and used an online converter to work out the total weight I'd need, then worked out the respective weights of RTV and catalyst. This is quite a large mould so I ended up needing needing nearly 400gr of silicone for each half.

After weighing out and mixing for a good 5 minutes the first pour went in.



After curing for 24 hours the first half was ready to pull.



Not bad at all. Pleased with the way the first half came out - fully cured, released well and no bubbles.

Next step was to prep the first half for the second pour. So I rebuilt the mould sides again, remade the second half of the pouring funnel and re-lubed everything with vaseline. The second pour went in - very few bubbles, which is good.



Mould fully cured and separated after curing.


Next step was a test pour.
First batch of lures from the new mould...



They all have an imperfection or two but as a first attempt I was pleased with them.
PS: remember that ball of plasticine I mentioned earlier? It went missing overnight after I had poured the second half of the mould - I originally put it down to having a semi-senior moment - did I put it away somewhere and forgot? It turned up eventually..... out of the back end of the dog . She must have snaffled it during the night when the first part of the mould was curing. Who knew that dogs like plasticine...??

Born and bred in the essex area (Rochford hospital, Shoeburyness, Southend, Leigh, Westcliffe and Rayleigh). Pier fishing was free so spent many hours on the pier, I never managed to catch anything, but still enjoyed it. I joined the Sea scouts at Leigh and the Sea cadets at Westcliffe. I always enjoyed the seaside and during the summer holidays had a job on one of the pleasure trip boats at Southend, great holiday job for a young lad. In the early sixties my parents bought a wooden speed boat with  a white 20 or 25hp Mercury and trailer. Their car was a two tone Vauxhall Cresta (cavern green over shark yellow), but had no towbar, so I removed the rear bumper and cut up an old bedframe for the angle iron (very twisty) drilled holes, fitted a tow ball and mounted the "towbar" directly onto the bumper brackets (home made number plate, but no lighting set) and we set off for Stone where they had a caravan (river Blackwater). Then came the embarrassing bit, but that's for another day. Anyway the following year they ordered a brand new Microplus at Earlscourt boat show, with a new mercury 35HP? outboard and trailer. I went with them to Mitchum? to collect the rig (a wheel came off the trailer in London - new trailer - wheel nuts just done by hand, but at slow speed in traffic, wheel nuts were found so no damage done). This boat was taken to Stone, water ski's and tow rope were bought and that is where I started to water ski. I married Joyce in 1965 and I managed to get a well paid job as a labour only sub contractor in Germany. Back to blighty and we visited the Earlscourt boat show in 1967 and bought a Loftus Bennet 19' hull and superstructure  for home completion with a Snipe trailer. Yes Neil - it did get finished - and we took that to Bavaria, Germany, using it as a caravan for eating and sleeping en route. That is how/why we got into boating. Geoff.☺️

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know such a thing existed. Will look it up

At the age of around 10 I’d heard of this bloke called Jon from the IOW. He was a nut for boats and had had a few.  That was my inspiration. To own more boats than JonD. Not sure if I’m quite there yet but will keep trading. 
Oh and I used to go boating with my dad who sent me to sailing school at 11 where I sailed single handed to the IOW after my second lesson. My dad had a mirror dingy which we used to sail in the bay that my home looks out over now. He would be mad for it and go sailing in hurricanes and thunder storms. It was fun tbh. After that he had a 5m inflatable, not a rib but a big old heavy black rubber thing. Used to stink, but we caught some big fat flounders from it. 
That was it, I was hooked. And I’ve been wasting money on boats ever since. If I totalled up how much I’ve spent I could probably retire tomorrow. But where’s the fun in that ? I’d much rather be working for the next 20 years and have boats along the way 👍🏻

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👍

Haha it was a chicken start 3 diff flavours I’ll find pic 
I actually thought the green chicken lump was avacado at first . To my relief it was a 3rd piece thankfully.

Sounds like a good day out Josh. One question though (I’m asking on the behalf of JonC) ...
Nice starter pic but what did you have for your main ? 

Andy loosing branded weights would be no more difficult than loosing any others!!! I know that pouring leads would be very simple, but depending on size I would expect to cast up to about 8 weights per spin which would take about 1 minute at a guess. I could include a line hole through, or a SS loop with the ends cast in at 90 degrees or whatever. Geoff. ☺️

Omg JonC is going to be so moist right now. 
Very nice looking boat, what is it? 

No worries, distance is the cure!!!

Oh dear.... didn’t mean to open up old wounds...

Hi Jon and welcome. 
This is a monumental day for JonC. 
Since he learnt of your arrival this morning he’s been like a dog with two dicks. You will never truly understand the amount of man love JonC has for you. 
All he talks about on WhatsApp is how in awe he is of your legendary tales from Aus. 
I think you’ve really made his day. 
Having said that, I am going to have to double check your IP addresses to make sure your not the same person !!
Good to have you here regardless ! 
 

Uptight ? Me? Nah I’m happy for the big guy, he’s been wanting this for at least 18 months. 

A giant whiting for me ! 

That’s because he never took it out, apart from to take photos of scrap metal. 

Hi Jon and welcome. 
This is a monumental day for JonC. 
Since he learnt of your arrival this morning he’s been like a dog with two dicks. You will never truly understand the amount of man love JonC has for you. 
All he talks about on WhatsApp is how in awe he is of your legendary tales from Aus. 
I think you’ve really made his day. 
Having said that, I am going to have to double check your IP addresses to make sure your not the same person !!
Good to have you here regardless ! 
 

Uptight ? Me? Nah I’m happy for the big guy, he’s been wanting this for at least 18 months. 

Not caught one for a couple of seasons now, and yes I’d had a hat on most of the day.