Lure Foil – “on the cheap”

This is a follow up the the D bait post where I said I would explain some things. This is the foil tape from the side of the Blue-back crankbait. It is just simple metal duct foil tape. The stuff they use to seal holes in duct work or seal the seams. It’s not duct tape!! It feels like sticky backed aluminum foil in your hands once you peel the backing off. The D bait below is the one from the previous post using this tape.

One day I was paying with lures and painting them. I had the “silver” acrylic paint, which should just be called grey, because it sucks at being silver like that. It just looked so dull painted on one lure and it was not going to attract any fish to it. So my fishing work bench is in the utility room with the fridge, washer/dryer, water heater and “forced air heating system”. The heating system I changed out to a duel fuel system a couple years back. I looked over and this shinny metal duct tape was sitting on the shelf. I grabbed some and cut a strip to play with and it shined very nicely. A nice flash of light when wobbled like a lure would do.  Below is the layout of how it was done.

The bottom piece is a cut piece of tape showing the silver side. Above that is the back paper side and it shows the lure traced out where I would cut it out to stick on the lure. Above and an unfinished lure and the top is one with the tape stuck on it. You can see the shine it makes at the top of the lure where the lure rounds to the top.

I also tried making a scales pattern and its so simple. You cut the tape close to the size to go on the lure, then you turn it silver side toward the knurling on a ratchet handle or similar tool and rub a pen or dowel up and down the white backing side. Move the tape around and continue until the entire piece has “scales”. Then trim to size and stick on the lure. This is where you have to be careful! You can only rub hard on the very edges and you cannot rub on the scaled area. you can only press with your fingers there or you crush and ruin the scale pattern. Notice there is not scales on the edges or cheeks as I flattened them out.

You can also buy fancy foils online so you can add to give colors and different looks, but this was silver foil “on the cheap” and it work extremely  well and you get a huge amount for the cash payout..