Tej custom crankbait painting TJ chartreuse craw

If you travel to fish, you may learn ahead of time about certain baits that outproduce others on particular waters, or certain colors that are better than the rest. Sometimes that’s a crock, but other times it can mean the difference between incredible success and abject failure.

Unfortunately, sometimes the best baits and best colors are either out of stock or out of production. Ebay can be a source, but often you’ll pay an arm and a leg for lures you’ll never use again – like, say, a discontinued pre-Rapala Wiggle Wart in Green Phantom Craw. Meanwhile, that same crankbait in a gaudy, salmon-oriented chrome pattern can cost much less. It can pay to buy the “off” color and have it custom-painted for a fraction of the difference. On my first trip to the Amazon in 2011, we learned that bright red was a great color, but we couldn’t find Zara Spooks in that color, so when we went back in ’12 I had my friend Phil Hunt of PH Custom Lures match my Super Spooks to my red prop baits.

Alternatively, a good painter can take a beat-to-crap warrior of a lure and restore it to past glory. Just make sure that you have someone who not only is an artist with the airbrush, but who can do so without messing up the balance of the bait. After all, if your Wart runs off-center or your topwater sinks, it doesn’t matter how good it looks.

One painter you need to know if my friend Tejmohan Sawhney (aka, “Tej”) of TJ Custom Baits. Not only is he more “ate up” with fishing than anyone I know, but he’s a kick ass painter as well. He’s also humble, not only conferring with other painters and sharing secrets, but also promoting their work. That’s confidence.

He has killer craw patterns