Custom colors

[ctom]

Here are 6 of my most asked for custom colors. All of these begin with powder paint.



I'll go from right to left.

In this pic the far right head is a black based paint laced with fine blue glitter. The blue does not show up well in the pic but in the hand this head lookes just like its name...blueberry. It has that deep black with a sheen that is blue. It is a great color and very popular with our local anglers.

Next is Merlot. Look carefully at this one and you can see the fuscia glitter that gives this black based paint some unbelievable depth. Again, the lighting hurts the picture and how beautiful this color is on a jig. It is my second all time color by popularity with anglers.

Blue Infusion is the next color. This is a transparent blue chock full of very fine blue glitter. This is one of the best mid-day, bright with clearer water colors I have.

Electric Grapejuice follows. This color looks exactly like the name suggests. A transparent purple paint is fortified with a bunch of fine fuscia glitter that makes it snap with color. This one ties with the Merlot in second place as an all time favorite.

Number 1 is a sneaky looker. Almost Blue begins as a transparent purple that receives a liberal dose of blue glitter. On the head, as seen here, it really isn't purple and it definitely is not blue. It's just almost blue, so that's what its called and how the name came about. I use more of this color than any other hands down.

And finally on the left is a dandy, Strawberry Chewin Gum. This takes shape after fed and fuscia glitter goes into a transparent hot pink paint. Coupled with a white, chartreuse or orange plastic and it spells "fish on".

The transparent colors are all available at Do-It as the powder paint's candy colors. The black is a no brainer. Most of the glitter I use in the recipes detailed here come from a local source and are super fine in texture. I've tried this super fine stuff in the plastic but it gets"lost" its so fine. In the paint its a whole different story.

If you're into powder painting, what comes from the jar is just part of the big picture. Play around with it and see what you can come up with. 

[gone2long]

Nice work!

[Muskygary]

Now another question. Do you use certain color plastics with the certain color jigheads; or any color of plastic with any color of jighead? Which is more important jighead color or plastic color.I know guys who only use plain jigheads, but they are partical to certain colors of plastics.

[ctom]

On all of the darker heads I tend to fish them more according to the time of day or what the ski is like. Early in the morning and late afternoon/evening or on cloudy days I tend to use the two purples and merlot with just about every color of plastic I am going to use. Almost always I will switch to one of the two blues by 10:30 in the morning and fish either until around 5'ish when I go back to the purple. The Strawberry I use with chartreuse, hot pink, or white baits but I might hand a reverse contrast color on like black or smoke or junebug.

For about the last year and a half I have used the Almost Blue more than any color or colors combined. About the only time I change out the Almost Blue is to hang the Strawberry on and that doesn't occur a whole lot.

I think sun angle on the water regardless of stain or clarity plays a huge part in why I see so much success early and late with a head that has purple in it. I also feel that as the sun gets higher in the sky each day the blues become a more visible color, hence my switching to a blue at mid-morning. The Almost Blue covers both of those venues so I can tie it on and not change out to a blue since it has blue as well as the purple....no need to that I have seen where with a blue or a purple I see a specific shift in color preference thru the day.

If a purple or a blue fails to get me going on fish I generally lean on the Strawberry and play a lot with different plastic colors. The reverse contrast thing I mentioned is a trick that has put a lot of fish in the boat when others have given up and set sail. 

[andrewlamberson]

All I can say is that CTom's Merlot color does make a big difference on our crappies. I was never much into jig colors until I tried some of his jig colors and used them against my standard white and plain lead.

[pjmcla]

I believe that head color does make a difference; particularly when combined with given bait colors.  I know shellcrakers at certain times of the year show a big preference for an orange head over green chartreuse or black.  There must be something they are eating at that time.  Now; crappie are a whole different league of picky.   

[ctom]

I know shellcrakers at certain times of the year show a big preference for an orange head over green chartreuse or black.   

I fish a local lake in the deep summer heat and have to look at water past the 30 foot mark to find them. Hot orange heads are very often the only color that will get noticed at those depths. I've pretty much given up on fishing for them when they sink that deep due to the higher mortality rate from coming out of deep cool water into higher temp at the surface. Even bringing them up slow has most of the fish released croaking and floating so I just avoid fishing them there when the heat sets in for the long haul.

[CrabbyBass]

Those look great! Nice job Tom!

[Muskygary]

What about other head colors: white, chartruse green, chartruse yellow, hot pink, orange and ruby red? Ever use those or do you prefer to use only the ones above/

[ctom]

I make and use the full range of colors of heads, but I personally use those which I mentioned more than any. I rarely will use white.....I don't like the color and success using it is real poor for me. Chartreuse is a "maybe if someone else is having better luck than I is using it". The hot orange mentioned earlier is a one that sees limited use in that particular scenario. I do a lime green that I'll hang on the line in a couple northern waters I fish but that's a water color contrast thing speciific to those waters.

Around home here and on the Mississippi River the colors shown in the pic reign supreme for me. I carry that full range of colors so others in the boat have a selection to choose from. I won't hinder anyone from trying something different or some color they find more confidence in.

[Hammy19]

They look great!!!

[MO QWACK]

Glow orange and glow pink are my go to colors but I know I hinder myself by  not straying from those but confidence goes along way 

[TommySkarlis]

ctom - I really appreciate you sharing not only the colors - but your timing "philosophy" on when you use them.  It is one of the coolest aspects of fishing: "The ability for anglers to agree to disagree on the topic of color selection, and still be friends at the end of the discussion!"

[ctom]

Thanks Tommy. This whole site is about sharing, or it should be.

These colors are for the most part ones I developed long before I started with the plastic. A couple of these colors are maybe twenty years old now. I used industrial powder coating paint back then since protect wasn't around yet. I actually had a Twin Cities tackle company, known for their knock off tactics, tell me that they were going to copy a couple of the originals and protect them so I'd have to stop using or making them. As I understand it they met with some frustration and vacated the idea. But I really don't have any problem in sharing the components nor do I feel that people shouldn't tinker with color. If the colors shown here help someone create a great color for them, then the purpose of the post has done well.

Every one has a confidence color and its those colors that hold more secrets than others. By looking deeper into a confidence color one can pick out little things to enhance it. In my case I like hyper-fine glitter to contrast or manipulate how color works with light. I haven't shown many pictures of these, but I also have several colors that I have added various hi lite powders to and many of those are mind blower colors. When I figure I have those colors refined to where I want to share I will.

[Botanophilia]

Tom was kind enough to send me a couple of his custom colors and I got the chance to play around this morning and coat some 1/16 and 1/32 heads.  The black one is a color I mixed.  That blue reflection isn't reflected light source, it's a liberal amount of blue hi lite added to black paint.  Looks amazing when wet.  There's blue glitter like Tom uses in there too, but the black covers most of it up.  I may need to go buy some clear powder to mix glitter into.