Spawning Crappie cranks

The top bait has a long bill and the bottom has a short square bill. Both are 2 1/2″ baits.

I call this pattern “Spawning Crappie” for a couple reasons: spawning male crappies have a great deal of random black coloration and they also have that bluish-purplish sheen across the back that shifts color as the fish is turned in light. Both of these baits have an interference top coat that puts a blue-to purple color shifting pigment right up there in the light. The camera’s internal filtering hampers some of this but if one looks close at the backs of these guys they can see the purplish-blue color there. Its way more dramatic in the hand.

I used balls of preserved moss to get the random black splatters on the sides. It was my first time using this as a template and I guess things went well enough I’ll do it again. One more dunking in the Seal Coat, then a day of dry time and some split rings and hooks and these can go swimming. And hopefully…..catching. lol

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Reel nice Tom! On a side note I was thinking of hitting LZ tomorrow afternoon and chase after a few of those Zumbro crappies. May have an open seat if you are interested? My daughter usually bails last minute.

I’ll have to take a pass on the invite eyeguy, but thank you.

Wow, very cool pattern you got on those Tom.

Nice job Tom. With your great painting skills you may not be retired soon. I see an opening for you custom painting IDO member’s lures.

Staying retired….I don’t have any spare time to work. lol

I spent an hour last evening cutting a few of the balls of moss in half and then spraying a light coat on them with a can of spray paint. As soon as they were tacky I pressed them between a couple sheets of thin plastic and weighted them with some notebooks. The idea was to firm the moss up enough to make it easier to handle and to allow the air brush paint to penetrate with more detail. I’m looking at some other stuff to work with for the random splotchy look that crappies and some sunfish can have.

This air brush stuff is a neat little hobby and the great part about it is if something looks goofy you can wash the paint off and start over. As long as the paint hasn’t been set using heat [hair dryer or heat gun] it comes off fairly easy. I seem to have had a lot of practice washing baits.