The Sunfish Family

[Guest]

I painted my own version of a bluegill and a green sunfish.

Keep in mind, these are my first prototypes and will improve with time.

The netting or scales are the most difficult part of this whole process.

Pull it off too soon and it smears the paint.

Wait too long and the net sticks to the paint and pulls it off in chunks.

These 4 baits took the entire holiday weekend to paint.

I sure hope they catch some fish. LOL

[stlfisher]

Those look really good! Nicely done.

[Mitch f]

Man, I've got to tell you...these baits look better everytime you post a new picture!

I still believe the fish are having a little spawning hatred toward panfish and these would work well!

[Gavin]

Great Job! The Bass & Pickeral would really go for those!

[flyrodman]

Those lures look REALLY good!

[Guest]

Thanks for the kind words,

that keeps me motivated to go back to the drawing board..

I like to paint my own color scheme from fish that I've caught out of local waters.

You know, match the hatch...

People ask me all the time "can you paint a Lucky Craft color?"

I'm not trying to copy a Lucky Craft color scheme, b/c you can buy them in stores.

I kinda went overboard with the turquoise lines on that green sunfish. They don't have a gill plate that color.

The diamond shaped scales really came out good, but they're a pain in the butt.

I was very pleased with the orange throat on that bluegill.

It was actually a color blending mistake that came out right.

[Al Agnew]

Beautiful work! One thing you might think about the next time is the size of the bluegill and sunfish you are imitating. If you look at little sunfish the size of crankbaits, they are colored differently than the adults. Every commercial bait company that produces realistic sunfish patterns do the same thing; they imitate adults. The adult colors are a lot prettier, but not as realistic when on a 2-3 inch crankbait.

I used to take that kind of time and effort to paint my lures realistically. Finally got tired of doing it...I spend the whole day painting on canvas, don't feel like doing the same kind of painting on lures anymore. Now I just play around with a couple of templates that I can wrap around the lure and spray over for markings, and otherwise just spray 'em with various mixed colors. I often do a spatter effect by barely pushing the button on the spray can, which kinda drizzles the paint out.

But I still have a few floating Rapalas that I did realistic paint jobs on imitating various Ozark stream minnows.

[gotmuddy]

Those look great. Makes me wish I had time to mess with my airbrush stuff. I got everything to paint with and on just no time.

FWIW, the bluegill I saw yesterday on CC had a orange spot right at their tail.

[Guest]

Beautiful work! One thing you might think about the next time is the size of the bluegill and sunfish you are imitating. If you look at little sunfish the size of crankbaits, they are colored differently than the adults. Every commercial bait company that produces realistic sunfish patterns do the same thing; they imitate adults. The adult colors are a lot prettier, but not as realistic when on a 2-3 inch crankbait.

I used to take that kind of time and effort to paint my lures realistically. Finally got tired of doing it...I spend the whole day painting on canvas, don't feel like doing the same kind of painting on lures anymore. Now I just play around with a couple of templates that I can wrap around the lure and spray over for markings, and otherwise just spray 'em with various mixed colors. I often do a spatter effect by barely pushing the button on the spray can, which kinda drizzles the paint out.

But I still have a few floating Rapalas that I did realistic paint jobs on imitating various Ozark stream minnows.

You are correct, sir.

These are adult fish that I photgraphed and painted.

Maybe I can catch some bait sized bluegills this weekend.

There's never a shortage of sunfish species to go around.

The lure companies only care about selling lures, so they're going with the best looking color scheme.

Its funny how I find these templates: minnow nets, insect nets, fruit sacks, etc.

[Quillback]

Those are some good looking cranks, I bet you'll catch a bass or two on them.