There’s no doubt fish react to colors and there’s no doubt that fishermen react to colors—probably more than fish do. That’s why well-stocked tackle stores have lures in every color of the rainbow and more.
Several lure companies are now selling some of their top products in clear or solid metallic colors specifically for professional and hobbiest lure painters.
The more could be options with glow in the dark finishes, UV tints and you’ll see patterns that mimic real fish and others that look as though they were designed by artists addled by psychedelic mushrooms.
I can only guess that all of them catch fish—probably lots of fish—or the dealers would stop stocking them and the manufacturers would stop producing such a large array. But even with the amazing choices of stock lure colors and patterns, it’s not enough for many anglers.
I was talking with the sales rep near at their display of lures at the ICAST show that highlighted the new color options available on one of their popular walleye lures. They already produced these walleye killers in over three-dozen colors and they were adding more!
I asked the salesman, “What are the best-selling colors?”
The rep quickly said, “The top three, are clear, completely chrome and completely gold. After those, I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head.”
I was befuddled for a moment, anticipating an answer like, Wonderbread, FireTiger or perhaps Silver Shad. Then it dawned on me why these rather “plain” colors were at the top.
Matt Maynard from M&M Customs produced and provided these Bandits. By the time you are reading this I’m confident these Great Lakes Angler “specials” will have teeth marks from Lake Erie walleyes on them.
They weren’t being gobbled up by walleye trollers—though I bet the solid chrome or gold colored would catch plenty of fish (probably not so many fishermen, however.) These bland-looking patterns were being sold to custom lure painters, both professionals as well as DIY lure painting hobbyists.
“Decorating” popular lures in patterns, finishes and color schemes has long been a popular hobby, no doubt started by artistic anglers who imagined how many more fish they’d catch if only the lure maker would produce it with more realistic patterns, or with darker stripes, or different colored highlights, or….
I remember taking a solid color, hot-orange Hot-N-Tot and putting black dots on it with a Sharpie. The original lure caught plenty of fish, but after doctoring it up, I imagined all the fish I caught with that lure after my artistry were biting because of the dots, not the factory color.
That’s about the extent of my lure-painting skills but hobbyists with artistic talents far more advanced than mine developed air brush painting skills and learned to make their own stencils and masking tactics to produce more realistic or more original creations. Then they went fishing with them.
Some succeeded, some failed, but with success, some of these hobby-painters turned their hobby into a part-time or even a full-time business.
These natural pattern Bandits and Smithwick P10s look more realistic than any that come from the lure factories.
It’s not that a lure that is painted with factory paint can’t be transformed into a custom painted beauty. I have several scratched, dented and tooth-marked veteran baits I’ve saved over the years to someday either refinish myself or send to a pro to be restored.
However, if these were originally sporting a metallic finish, very few custom or DIY painters have the equipment to make them shine like new. Metallic lures have to be “plated” like the chrome on the bumper of your car or gold on a cheap watchband.
Here’s a simplified version of how metallic looking lures are made. Start with a plain, usually off-white colored plastic lure body, freshly molded, then coat it with a special, electrically conductive primer paint. Once the primer dries, the lures are immersed in an electrolytic solution containing meta lions and they turn on the electricity. The chrome or gold in the solution deposits on the lure’s surface.
However, It’s much easier to just buy plated blanks to make chrome or gold lures. Transparent lacquer can be applied to make the chrome or gold appear to metallic red, purple or most any other metallic-looking color. That explains the gold and chrome colors being top sellers.
When I send in my well used lures to be rejuvenated the first thing the refinisher will have to do is remove all of the original paint. The custom colors applied over a previously painted lure body won’t usually show their true hue.
Some lure makers don’t sell unpainted or all chrome or gold blanks so the custom painter has to do that extra step often more tedious than the paint job to come. It’s far easier to start with an unfinished lure, either clear plastic lure blank or one molded with a nearly white colored plastic.
Many patterns are easier to produce starting with a lure blank molded with clear plastic.
Many custom painters lean towards making lures that are very realistic. They create bluegills, crappies, shad or other small lures that look as though they have photographs of the real fish somehow stuck onto the lure bodies. Most supposedly “realistic” lures from major manufacturers are more like “cartoons” of the baitfish they are emulating. Dumb fish probably don’t care. Smart, pressured fish or large fish that have seen the cartoon copies many times, might be fooled by these realistic beauties—at least some fishermen think so.
Hotshot Customs LLC (www.hotshotcustoms.com) is one of the lure painting companies I contacted. Check out these realistic Bandits and Smithwick Perfect 10 Rogues created by Hotshot Customs. Imagine pulling these realistic naturals on bright, sunny, calm days when your psychedelic “firecrackers” look like circus clowns to mature walleyes.
Other custom painters have developed brighter, gaudier patterns that have caught the eye of anglers looking for the “edge” they think will outproduce the stock colors from lure companies. The proof of these patterns comes from the number of tournament wins and master angler awards captured by anglers using a custom painted lure, along with the number of quick limits pulled by charter captains who match their custom lures to the conditions they are facing each day.
Invent your own pattern if you wish. Matt Maynard from M&M Custom Lures painters offers custom patterns he’s designed, but he can add a personalized touch to the lures you purchase from them both by producing patterns you provide or by ordering some lures using Matt’s basic patterns but having him paint them with the colors you pick. He can also reproduce a logo you provide on the side of his standard creations.
A confident angler will catch more fish than one who has doubts he’s using the right tactics in the right way or fishing with the right lures. Purchasing custom lures or taking a Sharpie to add a little more art to stock lures can boost an angler’s confidence and increase an angler’s success.
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