Color Lure For Clear Water?

[zildjian]

hey guys,

my buddy took me to a new lake today, and this lake had sand bottom and crystal clear water. i never seen anything like it before. he said it was a lake back in the day that when they use to dig they hit a natural spring water? im not sure what its called but its awesome.

this lake had some really deep spots and it starts to get deep about 7' from the sandy shoreline and the deep areas also have great green vegetation underwater. so i wasn;t sure what to throw her at this lake with all sand bottom and with such clear water like this, so instead of throwing my go to worms, and jigs id figure here... a bright crank bait, spinner bait, or jerkbait would shine.

so i throw this shallow diving squarebill. kvd?

and i caught my first bass on a crankbait on the 2nd cast!!! small only 1lb 80z largemouth but still fun!

my question i have is what lure should you throw in clear water and more importantly what color? i just took a guess with bright and it worked. well only for that bass, because i didn't catch another after that. i throw the crank bait from the shoreline into the deep and retrieved it back into the shallow, and he hit it mid crank in the deep.

catching a bass on a new type of lure just opened a new door to lures for me lol but im still not sure what i did was correct or just a fluke catch because this lure is so far out from looking natural and it still caught me this bass.

any help would be great!

Thanks guys!

-Zildjian

[ripinthem]

Never agrue with success. I'd probably go with a worm/fluke in natural colors like Watermelon/GPumkin, if its a green bottom.

[StuPidaso]

Flukes and jerbaits in white/ghost or natural colors. We got a lot of clear water resivors out here. Seems to work

[BobP]

In clear water I have the best luck on natural color crankbaits with a fast retrieve. Generally, in clear water, you don't want the fish to get too good a look at your bait, that's why the fast retrieve. A Rapala Shadrap RS #5 or #7 in shad pattern burned over deep weed beds works well.

[Pepul]

Watermelon seed senko 4"

[kLuo]

Natural colors work best for me. Either a transparent bait, or greens and browns. BobP is right on, you don't want the fish to take a good look at the bait because it will notice unnatural aspects and cause it to not strike the bait.

You are located in Philly? I am as well. Where in Philly are you?

[ww2farmer]

I have seen every color work in clear water. From natural,to burn your eyes out bright. Sometimes in shallow clear water, with baits like a fluke or senko, throwing super natural looking baits don't get noticed, thats when I toss on a color like bubble gum............... works for me.

[smalljaw67]

In clear water I like baitfish hues like pearl, olive greens and colors like that but if smallies are present or the other offerings don't work a chartreuse and black may pay dividends. Another thing is speed, when I'm fishing a reation bait in clear water I usually burn it but if there is zero breeze and the water temp is in the 80's then green pumpkin, black, pearl, natural pumpkin, and most translucent color soft plastics will produce.

[zildjian]

Thank you guys! What about sandy bottom? Is theyre a lure that is exceeds in this condition with The clear water and vegetation in the deep? I'm not sure how the sandy bottom affects anything.

[clayton86]

I throw and have success with all the same colors if any 1 seems to have a lead id have to give it to white, pearl, and chrome. Especially on sunny days in clear water white spinners with nickle willow blades are money in the bank. I can see the flash and glimmer the whole way back to me and when I see it change I know it was more then likely just a hit even if I didn't feel it I seen it I love fishing gin clear water the best its when I do my best.

[RyneB]

throw a 4 inch shadalicious in the blue glimmer shad color, you wont regret it.

[Vinny Chase]

I would never have thrown a chart. color in those conditions, but they must have been pretty dang hungry!

Clear water = natural presenations

If you are refering to cranks, I would throw a realistic blue gill, perch, or craw color because that is the main forage in our lakes. The thing you should remember is that is clear water bass are going to have a longer time to distinguish if your bait is safe to eat or not, so you want that bait to be as close to what they are eating as possible.

**Do also note that weather variables such as wind and cloud cover break up the visibility and can change what I throw.

[lavbasser]

With very clear water try moving baits when you have some wind and keep the bait higher in the water column. I often downsize and speed up the retrieve. Topwater can be excellent in clear water as well. ...Careful to keep your reel out of the sand.

[zildjian]

I would never have thrown a chart. color in those conditions, but they must have been pretty dang

Lol that's because I wasn't sure what to throw or what color. When is the correct time to throw such a bright crank like that?

[Vinny Chase]

Lol that's because I wasn't sure what to throw or what color. When is the correct time to throw such a bright crank like that?

Stained water or mildly stained water when fishing deeper water. My top producing deep crank is a DD22 in chart./blue and I don't fish heavily stained water.

[zildjian]

Thanks for the help! I have so many crank baits but I never throw them, because I never knew where, when and what color for what condition. Plus had zero confidence. But I want to learn now, because I actually caught one on a crank!

What's everyone's favorite shallow diving crank and color?

Also what's the deal with lipless cranks? I have a bunch red eye KVDs and others, but again never knew when and where to fish them. Open water? Everytime I tried to fish them off the banks here they just pick up grass and stuff on the trebels.

I never fish anything other than worms, and now jigs. I want to expand and catch fish on other lures other than my go to lures.

Thanks again to everyone for all your help!!!

[Cincy Bach 29]

I try and stick to natural colors in clear water, but typically find my self using transleuscent colors. For the most part I work my lures faster in clearer water so they can't get as good of a look at it. Watermelon green zoom super flukes are my go to though along with alot of other plastics in these situations. But if it's fished heavily then I'm a firm beleiver in doing something different or try to stand out. Think about it, the bass see lures come by their face every day in this case. Since it's gin clear water they can see more details even further....So if most fisherman are going by the "natural" rule of thumb they get used to it. Then one day swims along a neon pink or yellow lure and they can't resist to at least give it a little taste

[bigbill]

Clear water;

smaller sized lures, natural colors fished faster

Slightly stained water;

smaller sized lures natural/brighter colors fished slower.

Stained water;

Medium sized lures brighter colors fished slower.

Muddy waters;

Larger sized lures brighter colors fished very slow or slowest.

I need to slap myself sometimes with this when my success is way off. I'm thinking were all human and forget this at times.

But decades ago Dr Loern Hill and Bill Dance proved that the bass can only see certain colors at times. They can't see all the colors all the time like we do.

[zildjian]

awesome man! thanks for the tips! love bill dance show by the way!

[iceintheveins]

I just match the natural forage as closely as possible in really clear water. I also like clear topwaters like spooks, poppers and torpedos.