On one of the fishing message boards I saw a clear/glitter soft plastic swimbait that the buyer could color using Sharpie markers. The patterns provided as examples looked great.

I did not bookmark the website.

Does anyone know where the cocahoe-type color-your-own kits are sold on the Net?

BillH

I believe its a mondo lure.But not a 100% on that.5000

Hi BillH,

As FINDICTIVE said, the product name is Mondo and they are selling them at the Fred Hall show here in Long Beach, CA. The one's I heard about were the 5"'ers. They have a kit where, as you say, you can color your own. Supposed to work great on the calico bass and in fact one of the guys that may be a co-inventor has a nickname 'Calico Kid' I believe.

This product is brand new and the marketing is not fully in place as yet.


JapanRon

Thanks for the hot tip. Got it bookmarked. I especially liked the example of a mackeral pattern and if the coloring works on Mondo lures, it should also work on other plastics. One thing though, the color (if using a Sharpie) eventually bleeds throughout the plastic. Perhaps, Mondo uses a special formulation in their plastic to prevent the bleeding.

BillH

I missed their booth at the show, but checked out the 7" lobster bait today, it looks pretty sick! These guys have definetly proven themselves as Checkerboard masters, I can't wait to try their baits.

Hi there BillH,

I was a little bit curious and ask them, (by the way, these guys are just regular joes and good angers who got together and decided to put a bait out that they've been winning tournaments with for years!!), a number of questions. It seems like the color does fade with time. If you try to do another color when it's faded you may get a brand new color! I asked if you could soak them in something that would draw out the color or make them clear and they said they hadn't found it yet.

Didn't buy a kit, big mistake! ha ha

JapanRon
a.k.a.tsurikichi

I used Sharpies on clear/silver flake Whams Fisheeze - ran a red stripe down the side and green on the back with black dots - trying to imitate a trout. It looked great. Just a few weeks later, the black dots were indistinct and had faded to dark blue. The stripe was very "blended" and no longer looked like a stripe. Same deal with the Kalin 1.5 inch clear/hologram flake grubs. I ran a black strip down the back to go with a jighead painted black on top/white on the bottom. Looked very minnow-like until a few weeks later when it looked like a blue grub.

Any idea what Wham/Blam uses to color the backs of their plastics? Some sort of vinyl paint? Plasti-Dip?

Billh,

From looking at your post I guess you found our site (Mondo Baits). We now have MPG's of how to color.

We don't use sharpies we use art marker by Chartpak. Sharpies seem to stay on the surface and block the reflection of light, that is ok for some details (dots, bold lines...) but you don't get the "air brush" look. Chartpak also has more colors than sharpies. We recommend 4 basic markers yellow, blue, brown, and red. With these colors you can combine then to make a variety of colors.

We like the colors to blend in. The patterns will last form 2 or 3 weeks to 8 weeks depending on the colors used. Lighter pattern/colors last longer. We recommend coloring a few baits 2-3 days before use and/or bringing clear ones and markers when you fish so you can "match the hatch".

Swimbaits don't last forever, after about 8 fish our baits are history.

If you have any other question about the bait or Calico fishing please contact us we will be happy to help.


Thanks,


Ray


http://www.modernmethodsllc.com/mondo.htm

I sometimes buy the clear or holigram color grubs, Kakin swim baits, or Blams. I too use the sharpee on these and it works just fine. When the color blends or gets faded just break out the marker and make a new color. They will last you a couple trips ussually before fading depending on how much you use them. Never tried the Mondo's and I don't plan too. I've been using this technique for about a year and I'm perfectly happy with the poor man's Mondo. It catches fish. It can out fish the standard swim baits on some days but doesn't on others. I even began to customize swimbaits that already are colored. Like adding makerel bars to a sardine pattern or something stupid like that which sometimes can make the difference.

JerryG