How to Airbrush Lures

Creating your own color scheme on a lure can be rewarding.

Creating your own lures is a way to keep yourself busy with fishing-related activities whenever you are not able to actually be out fishing. Many people design, carve and paint their own lures. Whether you are one of those people, or you just want to apply a fresh color scheme to an unlucky lure (fish are attracted to color just as much as they are to motion), using an airbrush to do so is a viable option.

Things You'll Need

• Sandpaper
• Primer
• Water-based airbrush paint
• Clear coat
• Wall hook with threaded screw
• Vice

Instructions

1. Screw a wall hook into your lure near the opened mouth of the lure or near the hooks on the underside. Try to use the smallest wall hook you can find to keep from damaging the lure.

2. Use a 300 grit paper to sand the lure completely and create a rough texture over its surface. Don't gouge anything or scrape too many ridges into the lure, but simply create a slightly rough finish under the touch. This texture will help the primer stick to it.

3. Place tape over any part of the fish that you don't want covered in paint (the eyes, for instance, or the hooks). These can be covered with paint---there's nothing that can't be painted---but it's more for personal tastes that you may want to mask areas of the lure with tape.

4. Place the lure in a vice by placing the attached wall hook into the vice and tightening the tool. This will allow you to paint every spot on the lure without having to move it around in your hands, smudging the paint.

5. Spray a layer of white primer onto the lure by using quick, light strokes of your airbrush when applying the primer. You want an even, smooth coating as opposed to a thick, splotchy covering that comes with an excess of paint. Then allow the primer to dry.

6. Sand down the top of the primer. Do this in much the same fashion that you sanded the actual lure---by only sanding enough to create a rough texture that the paint can adhere to.

7. Spray your paint onto your lure according to your preferences. If you would like to keep the white primer as a color, wrap tape around it so that if you paint the top of the lure a blue color, the paint won't seep onto the bottom half of the bait (where you want the white to remain). The color scheme is up to you, so have fun with it. Allow approximately three hours of drying time before removing any tape and moving on to a different color.

8. Use your airbrush to paint eyes on the fish (if you had not masked them off previously). Simple white eyes with a black dot in the center is plenty. Complete this step last, as it is the topmost part of the fish and therefore the topmost paint layer. Allow the paint to dry.

9. Sand the top of the paint to create a textured finish. Once it's sanded, spray a clear coat onto the lure. This can be found in aerosol form or airbrush form. The clear coat will keep the lure's paint from fading or running. It's used mainly for protection. Once the clear coat dries, remove the wall hook and test out your lure.

References

• Make Your Own Fishing Lures: Paint Your Own Freshwater Fishing Plugs
• The Ultimate Bass Fishing Resource Guide: Painting Masterpieces