Bottom line up front - what color should I paint 3d printed trout lures? What other lures should I be printing?

So, I was gifted a 3d printer a few months ago, and have been learning the ins and outs of printing various shapes with the basic PLA plastic filament. I am at a point where the kids have printed the fun bendy toys and whatnot, and finally have some time to print stuff for myself. So, of course, first thought went to finding some lure designs online to print.

I've found a few lures that look "trout-y" enough, even though they are mostly scaled down salmon lures.

I started with two Tomic style plugs, and one flatfish type that seems similar to a Brads Cut Plug - mostly because I was looking for somewhat popular designs that I could run the line through without needing to epoxy loops or wire into the body.

I can scale these up or down, but I think 2-3" is a good starting size for these type lures. The flatfish one is a out 2.5" and the plugs are about 3". One plug is set for a 45 degree line lay, and the other for 30 degrees.

What colors should I paint them first?  They are two colors now because my kids wanted to use yellow for a different project, and I was too lazy to switch back to grey or black, haha.

I'm kinda thinking one black and silver, one white and chartreuse, and maybe one fire tiger?

There are a ton of crank bait models available out there, and a handful of other trolling types lures too - anyone else 3d print lures for trout, or other species? Seems like this could be either really cool, or a giant waste of my time....

How are y'all rigging up large live baits? Thinking 12" size smelt, croakers, or macks.

Been talked about a lot - plenty of options out there for live bait setups. I usually use a three way with a spreader, about 12-15" dropper for the weight, and about a 3' leader to the nose of the bait.

Yesterday I used a some croakers, about 12" long, rigged on trap setups. 1/0 or so octopus hook for the nose, hard tied, about 10" or so from a #2 short shank treble.

One of the baits got absolutely shredded, in between the hooks. Had to be a ling - it gave that dead weight, then a dive or two to the bottom again, and then came off. I pulled the bait up and it had teeth marks 1/4" deep down both sides, right in the middle.

Not gonna guess as to how big it was - I never saw it - but it wasn't small. It left a rather large bite mark in a bait that was about 12 inches long.

How do you guys rig up to ensure that is a fish landed vs just a torn up bait? Should I just run bigger hooks?

Anyone use a trolling rudder? I assume this goes in front of a dodger? Looks handy to keep spinning bait/lure from twisting your line by forcing the swivel to spin.

https://www.sportsmans.com/fishing-gear-supplies/hard-baits/luhr-jensen-trolling-rudder/p/p134395

I played around with Google Gemini today, and it seems pretty capable of pulling weather forecasts from various places at once, and then evaluating based on criteria I provide.  Could be helpful tool to help figure out where weather is best for fishing on any given day.  Took a little back and forth to refine my ask and the results I wanted.  Biggest concern I found was that it consistently got the date wrong - it tried telling me multiple times that today was the 31st of May, and that tomorrow is Friday June 01.  I corrected it, and still it persisted, haha.  Results were drawn from NWS, and seemed to align with information in the forecast on NWS site, no issues there.   

Anyone else using AI for this yet?

Considering what to use for a descender weight.

I do have a 4lb downrigger ball, but it is fin shaped, not round.

I also have several 1lb cannonball weights. Was considering melting a few of those together. Not sure the best way to go about that though. I think 3lbs would be plenty, but could do a 4 or 5 lb.

Or, I could just string them together, and not bother melting anything. 

What is everyone else doing for this?

Anyone ever use any of the commercially available preserved baits? 

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/magic-preserved-baby-shad-baits

I see stuff like this all over the place, but never see anyone using them or talking about them.  Curious if something like that can take place of frozen baits - would be nice to not need to keep it frozen.  Can they be kept after the bag is open?  Can I make something like this at home using herring?

Hope everyone is having a fun and safe Halloween!

Thinking about making a more intentional effort to get fish on ice faster. From a boat, not a big deal, just bring reg cooler along. On kayak, kinda tricky because limited space, and saltwater fish add up to a large volume rather quickly. I'm thinking about DIYing some kind of bucket/cooler/bag solution. I'm not on a Hobie, otherwise I would probably go with their soft bag, but even still, those are pretty pricey.

I have a smaller soft cooler that fits in my tank well sorta-okayish but is kinda the wrong shape and not really big enough. 

Maybe just a bigger cooler bag is my best/easiest/ cheapest option? Any suggestions?