DIY Silicone Shrimp

Started by gstours, November 27, 2022, 03:17:45 PM

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gstours

Here an injeniously custom lure you could do if you had some spare time.  Shrimp, like herring are a good bait for many of the fish we fish for for fun and food.
 
     See what you think  :fish

thorhammer

I think I'd eat them is what I think.

Shellbelly

Nifty.  Silicone won't melt into the plastic trays in the tackle box, will it?
"Little boy,  you can get glad in the same pants you just got mad in."  (My Momma)
"You shot it boy, you're gonna clean it and eat it".  (My Dad)

thorhammer

Shell, not sure about a trayed box, but Plano 36/3700 etc. are likely HDPE, possibly LDPE, which has good resistance to silicone itself. I use a lot of silicones in my professional life, and they are kept in HDPE bottles in lab, and dispensed for use into HDPE 4 mil bags. Not sure what else may be in the material poured above.

jurelometer

Thanks for posting this.  Always interesting to see new techniques attempted.

Some good looking hobby crafting going on.  I think we need to differentiate lure and fly crafting as an art form vs fishing equipment.  I would give this one pretty high marks as arts and crafts, but I am not seeing it is worth the effort as fishing equipment.

Construction-wise, this is the wrong way to wrap a wire hook extender.  Too easy to pull through. And the wire is too thick.

Using a swivel instead of a ring, plus thst thick cable wire, makes for an extra long non tapering profile that is not very shrimp-like.  The fish probably care more about the profile than what we perceive as realistic.

Clear caulk used like this is not very durable.  The first fish that gets its teeth into that carapace is going to ruin the fly.  as a rule of thumb,  you want get at a bare minimum,  one fish for every five minutes of fly tying time.  This process is especially burdensome and time consuming.  I am guessing  close to an hour or so per fly with this method.  Silicone caulk does work as a coating material, but not a whole body.

I was going to note that paint is not going to stick to the silicone, but with such a short lifespan, it may not be an issue.

There are lots of good, durable shrimp fly patterns out there that are plenty effective.  The classic shredded polypropylene cord shrimp fly is massively durable, and is probably more attractive to most fish looking to eat a shrimp.

But you won't get a big tube site following tying shrimp flies from packing cord and old lawn chairs.  And they are definitely not much to look at from an arts and crafts perspective.

My $0.02,

-J