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Try searching the web. On some of the other fishing sites you will find similar forums or posts by guys that make lures for freshwater bass and muskies. I have seen some really elaborate work along the lines of what you are trying to accomplish posted over the last couple of years.
Some of the techniques have been tried by guys on this forum, like using foil and/or foil over netting on plugs to mimick scales.
Another trick that has been detailed elsewhere is using graphic editing software (nothing fancy, could be "Paint" that comes with your basic MS-Windows) to generate color fish patterns that you print out and apply to your lure. One version of the process goes kind of like this:
1) You can start with a digital or scanned photo, edit and scaled to the size of your lure. Could be full color or B&W, depending on what you are trying to acheive for an effect.
2) Prep your lure all the way to painting the base color or at the very least up to the primer white base.
3) Print out your fish pattern on your desktop inkjet onto a sheet of thin tissue paper. Silkspan or rice paper for model airplane building works well. The trick I saw was to temporarily tack the tissue onto a thicker sheet of paper with tape so it wouldn't jam in the printer.
4) You cut out the printed pattern, then paste it onto your lure using your favorite brand of clear coat. When you do this the paper becomes transparent as the clear coat permeates it, and all you can really see is the printed pattern so the result looks like a clear backed decal.
5) Finish with your top coat or clear coat as you normally would, and go fishing!
I've seen pictures of lures guys made that looked just like real baitfish since they started with pictures of real baitfish. There was one guy who was even applying his pattern over foil, and it looked very realistic.
I have played around with this, it does work, but it is a very tedious, slow and messy process. Best of luck to you, and let's see your results!
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