Adding Eyes To Fishing Lures With A Marker: Will Scent Impact My Success?
- By: Tony Acevedo
- on
Last week, we shared a quick fishing lure hack to add eyes to lures with a marker to trigger more strikes.
However, many protested that the scent of the marker would inhibit the lure’s success and cause you to miss out on fish.
So I hit the water to find out the truth!!
Adding Eyes To Fishing Lures With A Marker [VIDEO]
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Equipment:
- Rod: 7’6 Slot Machine Custom Rod
- Reel: 2500 Shimano Stradic FL
- Line: 10lb PowerPro
- Leader: 20lb Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon Leader
- Lure: 4″ Slam Shady Mulligan Paddletail (Eyes added with a sharpie)
- Hook: 3/0 Hoss Helix Hook 1/8 oz.
You can use a Sharpie or a permanent marker to add eyes to any soft plastic lure you want.
Common thinking leads us to believe the foreign scent of the marker would be a deterrent and force fish to spook off.
But if you use a marker to add eyes AND combine that with Dr. Juice Saltwater Slam Scent, it should be able to mask any other odors.
The first fish of the day was a solid trout.
A little while later, I threw a cast at a broken tree stump in the water and pulled out a nice redfish.
Later, I was thinking of moving spots when a really solid redfish absolutely slammed the Mulligan.
There were times I had to change out lures as well due to puffer fish.
I would re-apply marker eyes each time before putting some Dr. Juice on the lures.
As I came up on another section of broken trees and mangroves, I threw a cast into the shadows and immediately picked up a snook.
That’s a slam on a Mulligan with permanent marker eyes!!!
So using a Sharpie or other permanent marker to add eyes did not seem to discourage the fish from eating.
But if you do use markers on your lures, be sure to have additional scents like Dr. Juice on board to help mask any negative scents from the marker.
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Sharp Shady, the EYES have it !!!! Great work Tony !!!
Slam sharpie! Haha thanks George!
Great video and information for doctoring up lures and yes it does work and I think not so much the fact that one modifies the lure it still come back and down to the correct positioning and presentation of said lure .. !
For sure!
Very cool video Tony! Thanks for sharing! I was curious what sort of boat you were in? It looks fairly small, but also very stable for standing and casting!
Thanks Darrell! It’s a Gheenoe Classic. Here is a walkthrough of it:
https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/walkthrough-of-coach-tonys-gheenoe/
Thanks, Tony – nice catches!
Thanks Matt!
Asked this before. Could you do a video showing how you outfitted your gheenoe. Equipment and cost. Things that work and don’t. Etc. Thanks.
Hey Bob! Yes I posted a video a few months back on it:
https://www.saltstrong.com/articles/walkthrough-of-coach-tonys-gheenoe/
Great info. I would think that if it sat for a day or so the scent should dissipate.
Possibly! Most lures and hard baits that don’t come pre-scented already have a pretty bad chemical smell to them.
Great tip Tony. I see lots of videos for fly tying which use markers to add highlights and have done so myself for years. I have caught a lot of fish species on flies which I have added eyes, stripes etc. with sharpies. I have marked up top water baits as well. I believe it is a minimal impact add on from the scent stand point. Contrast is always good to get the targets attention.
Thank you for the great feedback James!
Nice report, Tony! I wonder how many members are working on their lures now, lol! I did some with black, some with red, and some with a couple of red slashes. Anxious to try them out!
Haha, arts and crafts day!
Impressive!!! Thanks for the info. The way I see it this is another tool in my arsenal. Fishing is demanding, and expensive. I have several sharpies around. I will try and see if adding eyes makes me a believer. This is why I joined. Please keep the great tips coming.
You’re welcome Cedric!
I remember reading a tip in a fl sportsman mag years ago talking of taking a small section of bead chain the kind used in ceiling fans ect and cutting about a 3 bead section then punching a hole in a plastic lures head section slide the section in the hole then seal it in place using super glue never tried it but to me because the beads are silver colored to me that’s not a very natural presentation but you know fish if it’s got action chances are they will hit it but I would imagine the magic marker tip would work also thanks for the info and all you do👍😉
Interesting! I though about maybe using a small dowel (such as the stick part of a Q-tip and color it black to do the same thing.