Fishing Forum

Anyone have any experience with painting old spoons with finger nail polish? Does the scent affect the bite? If so, what paint or tape would anyone recommend to re-paint some old lures?

Years ago I had a co-worker that used to love to troll.  His favorite lure back then was the triple teaser.  He caught a lot of fish with those things, but he hated the colors.  He would paint them with nail polish a certain brass color.  Didn't seem to affect his catch rate at all. He would let them dry out before using.

Nice, can't hurt to repaint.

Years ago, on a multi-day trip to an Idaho lake, the only lure that worked was a brass/gold spoon - and there were none to be had, being all bought out. The first night there, I bought a can of white and one of craft gold spray paint. Primed several spoons with white, then gold and let them dry overnight. Next day, they worked just fine on big brook trout.

Paint won't stay on a spoon long, but for short-term use, it works.

Most of us who custom paint...or repaint lures...started out with nail polish.  And it does work.  But it does not hold up well to being dinged on rocks or wood.

There are lots of different types of paint and other colorizers available for use on metal lures.  Some folks like the powder coatings.  Again, they work fine for single colors, but the color tends to chip off when you hit something solid.  If you wanna go crazy you can blow a lotta bucks on some of the exotic auto paint products.

You can also find a lot of good colors of enamel paints in the model car section of hobby shops.  Easy to work with but does not hold up well to serious fishing.

I have been painting and repainting lures for a long time.  I now mostly use the same vinyl jig paints I use for lead head jigs.  It is widely available, not too expensive, easy to work with and comes in all the fishy colors.  If you finish with a 2-part epoxy clear coat your paint jobs will last until the fish gods eat your lures.


Another option is to get several colors of prism tape and add that to otherwise plain vanilla lures.


Bottom line is that by getting set up to properly paint your lures, you can come up with some super colors that are not available anywhere else.  And sometimes the fish even vote for them.

It works but its not the way to go this day and age. Saying that when I was young in 1964 I flew into Canada with my father, mother and 1 brother. We caught pike until the spoons were bare of paint and mom would repaint them with finger nail polish at night . The repainted ones out caught the unpainted. She also landed one of my dads pike using her large sombrero style sun hat as a landing net.

(02-25-2021, 04:06 AM)CatchaBuzz Wrote: [ -> ]Anyone have any experience with painting old spoons with finger nail polish? Does the scent affect the bite? If so, what paint or tape would anyone recommend to re-paint some old lures?

  I do it all the time.  I repaint ice jigs and other things the same way.  Once completely dry, the smell doesn't affect anything. 

The main issue is that I'm kind of limited to the colors at the dollar store, funding-wise, and it goes on a little thick. 

Couple of tips: clean off old paint completely, and start with a white or very light-colored base coat, or it's hard to build an opaque coating.

     Also, the chemistry is different from commercial paint, so get the nail-polish jigs/spoons their own box so they don't sit jumbled up with others, or they will gum each other up.

(02-25-2021, 04:06 AM)CatchaBuzz Wrote: [ -> ]Anyone have any experience with painting old spoons with finger nail polish? Does the scent affect the bite? If so, what paint or tape would anyone recommend to re-paint some old lures?

Awesome! Thanks for the tips guys!

I got into airbrushing lures last year, works great then finish with epoxy for doing the threads on rod guides.


I did a bunch of these for ice fishing.

You can also clear coat with "Sally Hansen Hard as Nails" clear nail polish. This stuff is as hard and durable as the epoxy for most applications.

(02-25-2021, 02:14 PM)TubeDude Wrote: [ -> ]Most of us who custom paint...or repaint lures...started out with nail polish.  And it does work.  But it does not hold up well to being dinged on rocks or wood.

There are lots of different types of paint and other colorizers available for use on metal lures.  Some folks like the powder coatings.  Again, they work fine for single colors, but the color tends to chip off when you hit something solid.  If you wanna go crazy you can blow a lotta bucks on some of the exotic auto paint products.

You can also find a lot of good colors of enamel paints in the model car section of hobby shops.  Easy to work with but does not hold up well to serious fishing.

I have been painting and repainting lures for a long time.  I now mostly use the same vinyl jig paints I use for lead head jigs.  It is widely available, not too expensive, easy to work with and comes in all the fishy colors.  If you finish with a 2-part epoxy clear coat your paint jobs will last until the fish gods eat your lures.


Another option is to get several colors of prism tape and add that to otherwise plain vanilla lures.


Bottom line is that by getting set up to properly paint your lures, you can come up with some super colors that are not available anywhere else.  And sometimes the fish even vote for them.

Have you ever tried the auto touch up paint pens? I haven't,  but was curious if it was durable and practical.

(02-26-2021, 08:39 PM)muirco Wrote: [ -> ]Have you ever tried the auto touch up paint pens? I haven't,  but was curious if it was durable and practical.

  I don' know if he as, but I tried it with some I had bought or cresting arrows, and it is better than nail polish, bu a lo mor expensive. 

   Just head to a local craft store and you'll get plenty of ideas.  Even Christmas bows and ribbons have  holographic patterns and wild colors. Glue on ribbons or paper tape, and coat wit epoxy, clear polish, or a hard lacquer.

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