When You Don't Get Many Color Choices

Most of the time, I have no problem finding enough different colors in any given line of lures to satisfy my tastes. When I don't, especially if it involves a proven fish-catching bait, I find it a little frustrating.

One bait that falls in the latter category is the Strike King 1XS (see photo at top right). Having followed my friend Charlie's advice and "played in my tacklebox" for the past several days, I became acutely aware that I didn't have enough color options for this particular crankbait. As it worked out, I had extras of this Tennessee Shad color.

I also had extras of this Sexy Shad color. "But what to do... what to do?" was the question I kept asking myself. In little to no time, the answer came to me: repaint my extras. Unlike some of my friends, though, who are painting their own lures these days, I lack the know-how to perform such tasks.

As if I needed any further convincing of my ineptitude when it comes to mechanical skills, I today tried to epoxy a planter back together for my wife. Two of the three pieces fell into place acceptably, but the third piece looks like something a third-grader may have assembled. I'm just fortunate that my wife understands my shortcomings in such areas and didn't throw the planter at me.

Getting back to the business at hand, I soon put together an order for getting my extra 1XS crankbaits repainted. Here are the colors I settled on:

                                                                 Blue Tiger

Black Back Red

                                           Purple and Chartreuse

H-37

                                                  Shimmering Shad

Red Orange Craw



Half of these are "confidence" colors. The others represent what I'll call "test cases." Most importantly, all of them are colors you won't find among Strike King 1XS crankbaits in catalogs or on store shelves. In short, they'll be giving fish their first look at this bait in these colors, which may or may not provide some sort of edge, even if it's only an imaginary one.