Sanddab Imitations?

If the leadheads don't work out, try a Texas rig w/3oz egg sinker. Or dropshot!

If the leadheads don't work out, try a Texas rig w/3oz egg sinker. Or dropshot!

Yep. That was/is my plan.

Love the mouth!  I was going to put one on mine, but wanted to keep the end thicker for the jig head.  I know the jig will take some of the action out of the lure, but between the thin sides and the tail, it should flap fairly well.

Mine are still drying.  I guessed the size about right.  My large dab is down to 6" and the smaller one is 3 3/4", and thinned out nicely.  What size did you go with ewb?

I got some of the 500 plastic from lurecrafters.  It is nice to work with.  I might get some plastic paint to paint spots on the dab after it is poured. 

The nice thing about the clay is you can really make any lure you want, any size you want!  I can't wait too see these work!

Matt

Almost totally dry. I just measured and its just a hair over 6.5 in. I am guessing I will loose a bit more when I mold it in plastic. Ideally, I am shooting for 6.5 ish inches. All the pics I see are kinda a muddy pink/gray/brown color with a few darker spots. So I think that is the color I am gonna shoot for.

Take a hammer to the jighead and flatten that baby out....you could add all kinds of action with a couple swings.

Matt, yours look like fish shaped sugar cookies ready to bake!
I'm sure the lings will love them
Really nice work you guys!

Mmmmm Ling sugar cookies! Hey wait. I think we got a name for them!

It's up to Matt and Eric since they are the creators, but how about "THE LINGCOOKIE"?

I like it. But we may be getting way ahead of the game. We still need to mold and cast and test. But one can dream right?

You guys will nail'em 
Have a little faith baby,think positive!

I like it!  The Lingcookie.....  Funny you should bring that up, my daughter wanted to know if she could eat my fish this morning.  I guess they really do look like cookies  .  I admit, I made my a little cartoonish, but they simply bring out the kid in us!  It is like playing with playdough again.  The dough recipe I used was easy to work with.  I just smoothed out the surface with a wet spoon to save myself sanding anything. 

I poured my first mold.  I was a little low on putty, so the mold was a little thin and got a hairline crack taking the fish out.  I was able to save the masters though.  The dough dried hard and strong.  I did glue the small crack and have it all drying.  I may be able to salvage it.  I did buy some more putty today, just in case.

I will wait for the mold to dry and then seal it up.  I hope to try a cast bait in a few days!

As ewb said the proof will be in the pudding.  I can't wait to drop one down and see if it gets bit.  I want to try a swim test to see if the tail flaps properly.  I may try to post a video if it works.

Hammering out the leadhead is a great idea!  I may have to try that.

Matt

So I just made my mold in plaster of paris and I am having a hard time getting the 'dab' out. I am gonna let it dry overnight ad try again in the am. If all else fails I will re-make the dab and then re mold...I got a felling this is gonna take a few shots. Good thing modeling clay and plaster is cheap!

I made sure to seal the dabs with Acrylic sealer and spray well with Pam.  Even still, I had to take a razor knife and trim around the master and mold to seperate them.  I think that the plaster and clay are similar enough to bond.  Hopefully when the plaster dries, it will shrink enough to drop your master out.

Well here are my first test pours.  They came out decent.  I need to seal the mold a little more, as I am getting a few dimples on the baits:





I didn't have any brown coloring so broke up a little brown crayon in the plastic.  It colors the plastic fairly well.  I made the dots with a sharpie and them flamed the bait to smooth the surface dimples and set the marker ink in place.  The flaming gives the bait a nice smooth surface, but causes me to loose a little fin detail.  I doubt it is that important to have all the fin detailing though.

I tried the baits in the bathtub.  The tail doesn't seem to swim right, being a little stiff.  However jigged, the rear of the bait undulates just like a little flatfish, and the tail moved very well up and down, especially with tight shakes on the rod.  So I think it is definitely a jigging bait and not so much a "swimbait".  A curly tail may be more practical for swimming this bait design, or a much larger square swimtail.

The size seems to fit the jig head well.  The spires head doesn't match perfectly, but hey; they are just for rockcod after all. 

The one piece mold allows me to pour them as thick or thin as I want.  The thinner baits side fins seem to move nicely.

My thoughts are to get some black glitter for the spotting/mottling.  It would save flaming the bait and loosing detail.  Maybe trying a segmented tail to allow more movement.  The downside with this would be a weakened tail, which would likely tear.  I think the proportions are about right.  Not overly wide to interfear with a hoodset.  I may try casting with softer plastic, but the LC500 is more suited for saltwater applications.  I probably could have made the rear of the bait thinner, to save on plastic, but again with a loss to durability on short strikes.

I am open to any suggestion or ideas.  I will hold off making another mold for production, until I test some of my ideas with these baits.  I will just take a hotknife to the tails to melt in the segments to see if that helps.  The nice thing is being able to remelt all mistakes!

Thanks, Matt

Nice job Matt!