Gettin tiny and detailed

[MrTom]

Mostly my airbrushing of blank baits has focused on color patterns and not so much on detail, but lately I've dug into the world of detail painting and rather enjoy it. I have, however, been sort of unsure of myself with really small bait blanks. I was looking at some pictures with a buddy yesterday of fall fishing trips from a couple years ago and recalled a couple of occasions where the crappies we caught and put in a bucket of water had puked up several 3/4"-1" sunfish fry. I tried a couple small store-bought vibe baits and did pretty darned good on the fish last fall late. Over the winter I ordered some 30 mm blank baits to tinker with and painted what I though was all of the blanks but found two unfinished ones late yesterday afternoon and set them aside to mess with this afternoon while it rained.

It took a little while and thirteen different color changes and washouts, but I think I have a darned good rendition of those tiny sunfish to tease the crappies with again this fall. It took about 2-1/4 hours to get from the base coat to the fishing dip. Well worth it I'd say. But now I have to try and find some more of these tiny blanks and that can be a puzzle.