hey guys... i dont paint my own baits or anything so this may be a REALLY dumb question. but could use use a sharpie to add some lines or dots to your cranks? or would it just come off in the water? thanks

it will come off eventually but you can always just touch it up.

the answer is yes you can use the sharpie, but it's not permanent.  I like to use it on my zoom flukes to give it a touch up.

Sure, a Sharpie will last as long as anything.  It's solvent based so if you mark up a crankbait, it may soak into the surface of the clearcoat and become pretty permanent.  To remove it, use naphtha or denatured alcohol (other solvents will remove the bait's finish).

Defiitely the short answer is yes. Matter of fact, I use them to make the squiggle marks on my cranks and poppers because this is far easier to do than doing it with a paint brush.

I then coat my lures with a top coat, so that the marks won't fade. I used sharpies on the two homemade baits in the pics below:

Yeah, This one sure is ugly but it is a trout and smallie magnet, ugly as it is. Proof that it doesn't have to look pretty to catch fish.

On plastics, it will bleed and discolor.

Dye markers like Sharpies are solvent based, so they will run if you coat them with a clearcoat containing solvent - like polyurethanes, some epoxies, etc.  But if you are just using them to add marks to a lure, they work fine.

some great tips here. Thanks