Bioplastic lures

[slabjig]

I've wondered about Gulp lures for some time...they're clearly not PVC, and they claim to be biodegradable. So I did some research on YouTube and came up with this method. I'm very impressed with the final product, they feel like plastisol lures, are flexible and stretchy, 80 ml of water, 16 g of beef gelatin and 4 ml of glycerine, plus a couple of drops of green food coloring. I heated to 194 F in a 250 ml pyrex beaker on a corning laboratory heat/magnetic stir plate (because I have both, you could certainly sustitute a pyrex measuring cup and a table knife to stir, heating in your microwave) and the final product poured easily and set up quickly in the refrigerator. So why would I do this?? Gulp lures incorporate water based scents, something you can't do with plastisol. Biodegradable lures are going to slowly dissolve in water, releasing scent as this happens. Plus the whole process is totally non-toxic, the gelatin is food grade and glycerin is non-toxic, as is food coloring. So you can do the whole operation in your kitchen and not poison the family. They release from aluminum molds without using a mold release. Plus you can buy a 12 pack of liquid food colorings on Amazon for under $10. These were just made with my wife's food coloring, she only had green and red, but I think a little experimentation with the 12 pack would allow you to make almost any color. Gulp sells "recharging fluid", I'm going to try incorporating some of that in the next batch to see if it causes problems. Because of the low temps, you can incorporate craft store glitter without it melting as it does in plastisol. And the whole lure is biodegradable, you could actually eat ( and probably digest) the darn things if you were starving.

 

[DOKF]

Gummy worms! Without the sugar.

 

[slabjig]

Kind of, although I think the key difference is that, gummy worms don't contain glycerin which is a big contributor to the plasticizing process. These things have the consistency of medium saltwater plastisol baits. I'm sure that they will slowly deteriorate when in contact with water (I'm going to test that after I hold on to them for a while to make sure that they don't start rotting or growing mold). Gulp baits aren't known for their strength, in fact some users recommend removing them from the fluid they come in and letting them dry for an hour or so to increase their strength. I make a lot of soft plastics out of plastisol (PVC), but there is a lot of chatter about removing plastics from the environment, so this is just an experiment to see about alternatives, as well as finding out if they will hold and disperse incorporated scents (plastisol baits are impervious to added scent, and all you can do is apply it topically which washes right off)

 

[DOKF]

Actually, depending on the recipe, gummies do use glycerine.

Individual recipes may vary with individual taste

 

[slabjig]

So a followup on these lures....nasty mildew grew on them after 9 days at cool room temperatures. A little research suggests that a few drops of an essential oil can stop this from happening, however most essential oils are highly aromatic and would probably turn off fish. I'm going to try tea tree oil, since it's used to treat some diseases in aquarium fish. I don't know how aromatic this stuff is but if it stops the mildew, worth a try. The alternative is going to be to make up small batches of plastics in anticipation of going fishing within a couple of days. I enjoy messing around with stuff like this during the "winter doldrums", so this isn't a huge disappointment.

 

[slabjig]

Actually essential oils aren't the solution....it's as simple as salt. Sea water is 3.5% salt, and interestingly enough, that's the concentration of salt in bioplastic which will inhibit mold growth. Going to give this another try using salt water in the recipe instead of distilled water. Essential oils would certainly have influenced fish, but salty lures, for saltwater fish....pretty sure they won't even notice