# Painted vs. unpainted



## Garyoutlaw77 (Feb 3, 2005)

I have always been one of those geeks who paint all my jig heads with two tones & eyes but often see other guys fish unpainted lead..and catch ! I also see this same trend in Crappie fishing circles but can't come away with a clear opinion... what say yea fellas ?


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## Recondo37 (Jan 11, 2008)

i seem to do just as good as others with unpainted. a lot of it is eye appeal to the fisherman I think. throwing spoons i catch more with the faded lead grey as opposed to shiney...be good/good fish'n


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## London calling (Dec 12, 2008)

I always fish with a painted head of a different color. Ex chartruse jig orange head, white jig pink head. I think the contrast gets an extra fish or 2 to take notice especialy in stained water.


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## Wanda Walleye (Feb 22, 2008)

I am the opposite I use matching tail with matching jig. I feel the most important thing is to change presentation or size of jig or tail. In the spring I have better sucess when using smaller gear altogether and slower.


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## Tiny Tim (Sep 19, 2006)

I always use painted heads. I spend every winter pouring and painting them. There have been several times when a color change has been the ticket to a good day on the water. I dont think it is that big of a deal at night tho. When fishing the Ohio river at night I use un-painted ones for the plain simple fact I loose so many in the current and in the low light I dont think it matters that much because that cant see them as well as in the daylight.


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## saugeye2 (Feb 15, 2009)

always use painted heads except on ohio river due to losing so many


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## fishslim (Apr 28, 2005)

I use both. Never used painted at all till last few years. I cannot truely say i catch more now then i did then. Matter of fact would have to say caught more large fish on unpainted. I fish so many current spots that after a few casts paint is pretty well knocked off anyway and you know come to think of it those jigs work as well with half paint half not. There are times as mentioned i think it works well and that is as mentioned orange/red jig head chartruese twister tail. Use that combo most of the time from clear water to stained. Does not matterin muddy water as long as the tail is hot pink to orange!! Crappies i rarely use a painted jig tail color seems to work just fine and i really think as also mention a dull finished jighead like a dull colored spoon works really well.


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

I am to lazy to paint them and too broke to buy painted jigs, so I dont use them much, I really dont think the fish care. but I am a believer that confidence is a great bait, if you think painted works better use it, the only time I bother is really clear water if I'm fishing just a small jighead and live bait, I like the bit of color.


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## sjastrz (Jan 31, 2009)

i've always used painted jigs, gives you a few more options when one presentation might not be working, mix and match with different grubs and what not


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## starcraft67 (Jul 4, 2004)

I always use painted jigs,with a minnow,1/2 crawler for pitchin. Put on a grub when drifting. Color I feel gets their attention,along with the movement. As said earlier,it's a confidence thing.


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## CRAPPIE LOVER (Feb 11, 2007)

I always use painted jigs...Never had much luck with unpainted ones...I also prefer them with eye's on them...Bought some with white eye's onetime took a brush and put a red dot in the middle of the white...they caught better than any others....As everyone say's on any given day one color out fishes the other...Good Fishing Guy's....JIM.....


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## Star1pup (Aug 3, 2004)

Many winters ago I wrote an article for Fur-Fish-Game on making jigs. I painted these, but had a nice letter from what at the time I thought was old guy who fished the Allegheny for walleyes and smallmouth. He didn't paint his jigs. All he did was use his pocket knife to scrape the lead a bit and it would shine. I tried it and it worked fine. Might be worth trying and just scraping the head after several casts to bring back the shine.


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