OK, so I like to color. But I don’t do it with a coloring book and I don’t use crayons. I do it with nearly every lure I own and with a variety of Spike-It products.
Some weeks ago I wrote a blog telling everyone how and why I modify lures on the fly. The basic idea behind that is that I’m a big believer in matching the hatch, especially when I’m fishing clear water or heavily pressured fish. Over the years I’ve come to realize that the closer you can come to the real thing the more bites you’re going to get.
All the tips I gave you in that blog are still good, but there’s some new — or at least new to me — products that’ll help you make color changes in just a minute or two when you’re on the water. I want to tell you about them.
Sometimes all it takes is a subtle change in color to trigger bites. Maybe it’ll match the hatch, maybe it’ll help the fish see your lure or maybe it’ll give you confidence. It doesn’t matter why you do it. What does matter is that you do it and that you do it quickly and efficiently. The products made by Spike-It help with that.
One of their creations is called Blade Dip. It’s a liquid, lacquer-based dip made from transparent dye that comes in a wide-mouth bottle. It dries super quick so you can use it almost without missing a cast. And, it’ll work on almost anything. Spinnerbait blades, single spinners, terminal tackle and plugs all come to my mind.
Blade Dip comes in 10 colors and it’s all the same so you can mix colors to create your own look. One color that I’m especially excited about is their white. It has an opaque finish so it’ll mute an underlying color or it’ll make a base to mix a new color.
Two other products that I really like are their Jig-N-Dip and their Jig-N-Coat Powder Paint.
The Jig-N-Dip is super good for painting raw jig heads while you’re actually fishing. It dries instantly. Buy them unfinished and then color them in whatever color works best for the day or the hour you’re fishing with them. It also works great on sinkers when you want to make a perfect presentation.
The Jig-N-Coat Powder Paint is a little different. You heat your jig head, or whatever else you want to paint, and then dip it in the powder. It puts a thin plastic covering on the head. You can do this quick with a cigarette lighter in your boat or you can do a more permanent job at home if your wife will let you use the family stove for your fishing lures.
The last thing they make that I want to highlight is their LumaPearl Paint. It’ll cover darn near everything — metal and plastic —and it’s long lasting, but not permanent so you can change things around when conditions change. And, it smells like garlic. How great is that?
There are several other great products they make that helps us all match the hatch, and they all come in lots of colors. I’ve put a collection of them in a Flambeau Outdoors box that I keep right in my boat. It’s small, portable and available to help me catch more bass.
The products I mentioned, along with everything else they make, costs less than $10. They’d make a great stocking stuffer “for the angler in your life.”
Make a serious effort to match the hatch the next time you go fishing. You’ll catch more fish.
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