Custom Baits Magazine | Page 26

Painting My Homemade Lures—The Fun Part This is where the lure making project gets interesting. I could realistically paint my lures just about any color under the sun. However if you have read what I wrote earlier in the about my lure making plan you will know that I intend to paint all my lures in perch pattern to target the pike in particular lake where perch are the only prey fish of the pike who live there. There are few different ways to paint lures—hand painting, dipping, spraying with an airbrush kit or similar or spraying aerosol spray paints. For this project I’ll be using a combination of dipping, hand painting, and aerosol spray painting. Prior to doing any painting the lure blanks were sanded thoroughly with a very fine grit sandpaper to make them as smooth as possible. Once they were sanded properly the first step was to dip them in an oil based undercoat. I used a cream white coloured undercoat that I had left over from some cabinets I had been working on. I put up a short string line in the workshop between the end of a shelving unit and a wall and made some little light wire hanging hooks to use for hanging the lures up to dry between coats of paint. After the two coats of undercoat it was time to spray on (using aerosols) the base colour of the lures which in this case was going to be gold. I cut some little blocks of wood and made small notches in them to use as props for the lures - see picture below. This way I could spray the top and both sides of the lures in one go.