The airbrush came out to play yesterday. I found a couple of Yugoslavian balsa baits that crappies had pretty much chewed the paint off, so I spent some time taking the original paint off, resealing them and then re-painting them. They're the top two baits. Originally, they had blue backs and everything else was as you see them. The crappies really like these guys, so it was worth the time to save them.... and they cannot be found here anymore.
The bottom three baits are of unknown maker. They're plastic and when I found them, un-finished, I bought about 60 of them. Getting down on numbers now.... pike like them too. lol The purple over pearl and chartreuse has been a super good crappie color.
Both of these baits paint up easy and look pretty darned nice. Do-It's line of airbrush paints did the trick. The eyes are Precision Pearl of the Attack Series and the baits are sealed up with Seal Coat.
These baits weigh up around a mid-point between 1/64 and 1/32. I fish these on ultra-light rods spooled with 2-pound Clam Frost braid and they cast like bullets. They have about 4 to 6 foot working depth and are murder during the spawning season. Another option, my favorite, is fishing them on a drop shot rig [1/4-ounce lead weight] with about a three-foot light leader behind the weight and very slowly trolling them.... this is particularly good method when the crappies are suspended over deep water during the heat of summer.
