Just A Suggestion

[logan9209]

I have read through the articles and realized that there is one topic that confuses me and I am sure I'm not the only one. That is color selection. Most of us understand color selection based on water clarity. But how much does sunny vs cloudy and calm vs choppy affect color selection. For example, cloudy skies slight choppy water but relatively clear. Or cloudy skies calm water and relatively clear. Do you "down grade" a color from clear water selection to stained if it's cloudy or the water is choppy?

Thanks to a bunch of great people I am starting to grasp the concept, but I think it would be great to have an article that explained it a little more taking clarity, current, and sky conditions all together in consideration.

[NCbassmaster4Life]

Color only affects MY fishing presentation depending on the lighting condition, wind and chopyness will only make me wanna change to the lure that fits the condition. If it's dark outside I use darker colors, and the water is murky or staind. Clear I use brighter and natural colors sunny or cloudy. The only time I actually change the color is at night, darker the bait the better.

[roadwarrior]

This isn't the answer you are looking for, but it's how I roll:

Soft plastics: Falcon, Black w/ Blue Flakes, Red Shad, Green Pumpkin, Purple and Watermelon w. Black Flakes

Hard baits: Green, Blue, Purple w/ Yellow, Silver and White

Spinnerbait: White, Chartreuse or White & Chartreuse

Pretty much without regard to water color or weather.

[logan9209]

Actually I think both of you answered the question to some extent. In essence, water clarity should affect lure color while light penetration should affect what type of lure and presentation to use. For instance: If the water is relatively clear then use a natural or light color lure. Given the same condition, but the water is choppy calls for slower presentation and if the water is calm then a moderate to fast presentation so as not give the bass time to think about it. Of course, the last statement also applies to sunny vs. cloudy.

[NCbassmaster4Life]

Fast and slow depends on the water temp and barometric pressure.

[irnwrkr]

I think its more a confidence thing. I throw darker colors regardless of the water, or weather. Is say pick a color or two from each end of the spectrum and fish em. Tight lines.

[Nice_Bass]

I guess I am with RW on this one-

Stained water- Brown and purple jig

clear water- brown and purple jig

sunny skys- brown and purple jig

cloudy- brown and purple jig.

Same thing goes for the various other baits i throw- pumpkinseed for worm, shad color cranks, etc.

Depth control is more important than color when dealing with sunny vs. cloudy etc. They may be tighter to cover or structure, but regardless of color if you put it in front of them chances are they will bite. Sunny day with some chop on the water they could be up in the water a bit more than no wind, etc...color would be the last factor i really look at other than for confidence. Most love black and blue- i feel less confident with that myself.

[logan9209]

LMAO! While it does explain why I do really good with a black trick worm (confidence) the rest is about as clear as the red water fished during the B.A.S.S. Master Classic this year. So regardless of clarity or light penetration, you just chuck the kitchen sink and what ever they bite on is the one you stay with for a while. Not much different than what I've already been doing. I guess it boils down to location and presentation then. Haha. The depressing moment isn't when you realize you suck. It's the moment you realize that you suck worse than you originally thought.

[Nice_Bass]

With a PB of between 8-9 you must be doing somthing right! Color does matter, just not as much as depth control, location, size, speed, vibration...etc. etc. IMO.

[DeBassin619]

LMAO! While it does explain why I do really good with a black trick worm (confidence) the rest is about as clear as the red water fished during the B.A.S.S. Master Classic this year. So regardless of clarity or light penetration, you just chuck the kitchen sink and what ever they bite on is the one you stay with for a while. Not much different than what I've already been doing. I guess it boils down to location and presentation then. Haha. The depressing moment isn't when you realize you suck. It's the moment you realize that you suck worse than you originally thought.

Yeah but that so key in becoming what you want to be or want to accomplish in life. You have to realize you haven't arrived yet and that motivates you to want to keep learning and becoming better at what you do.

Here's a good link that may help you with understanding water clarity (sunny vs cloudy) more. http://www.freebassl...rityAndBass.htm

[bassnleo]

I mainly use 2 colors of soft pastics.......green pumpkin (and some variations thereof) and black (and some variations thereof). Those 2 colors will catch fish regardless of any water clarity you may encounter.

I'm the same with cranks and spinnerbaits and mainly use the same colors as RW indicated above.

IMHO, what is more important is choosing the right technique to match the given conditions. On lower light days and times, I tend to use agressive techniques such as the cranks and spinnerbaits. Given bright conditions, I slow down and put the bait to where the fish is rather than making them chase it, that's where plastics come in for me. Of course there are exceptions to that, but generally that line of action works for me.

IMHO, color is way too overrated and many of the colors on the market are designed to catch fisherman.

[Busy]

Advice fishfordollars gave me about 3 years ago. I've not seen him around here in a long time

"Cloudy, darker lures

Clear Clear top waters and try to match the bottom colors. Lighter colors with flakes work

Muddy, go shallow and tight to cover. Large lures that move a lot of water"

Sunny day with some chop on the water they could be up in the water a bit more than no wind

This is also true!

[Glenn]

Sorry to tell you, but fishfordollars (Jack Yates) passed away about a year and a half ago. More info can be found here: http://www.bassresou...-a-true-friend/

[Nitrofreak]

I have read through the articles and realized that there is one topic that confuses me and I am sure I'm not the only one. That is color selection. Most of us understand color selection based on water clarity. But how much does sunny vs cloudy and calm vs choppy affect color selection. For example, cloudy skies slight choppy water but relatively clear. Or cloudy skies calm water and relatively clear. Do you "down grade" a color from clear water selection to stained if it's cloudy or the water is choppy?

Thanks to a bunch of great people I am starting to grasp the concept, but I think it would be great to have an article that explained it a little more taking clarity, current, and sky conditions all together in consideration.

The only time color changes should play a major roll on waters that you fish is when you become pro and fish hundreds of different bodies of water.

Gin clear water has a completely different way of thinking what effect your bait choice and prsentation should be verses the stained waters the mid west usually has in their rivers and streams.

If you primarily fish a local area and you know what the fish want, changes will/should be suttle as far as color is concerned, when we start talking about choppy verses calm clear waters etc...the one thing to keep in mind is how choppy? how clear? light penatration, yes, can play a roll in your crank baits, the choppier the water the less light penatration you will have, so if your throwing a crank that has reds yellows and or browns, the first color to go away will be the reds, if the water is really choppy a shad colored bait with silver and blues should be a better choice, or even concider a buzz bait in that scenario, as far as calm clearer waters, I will slow down my presentations, not speed up, the reason I do so is because the clearer the water the farther they can see, so running a buzz bait across the top will have an adverse effect and most likely spook the fish, unless you slow it way down, at that point I am changing baits to a slow worked spook or something of that nature, the presentation, from the cast to the technique is much softer, especially with the way the bait enters the water in clearer calmer water, soft as possible.

You have a lot figured out already, don't confuse yourself with a bunch of changes, make them suttle, if at all, if your waters are gin clear, usually brighter colors are what your working with, light penatration is still very good even in choppy waters, so you may have to use a light gray instead of white for an example, if they are slightly stained, visability is around 4 to 6 feet, light penatration will start to have a little more effect, more natural colors work better, you may find you have to add some browns/blacks to your greens, if your waters are stained, light penatration is even more dence and dark colors and rattles work good.

You have found what works well already, and you have done a great job in doing so, congrats !!!

[BassinNY]

Soft Plastic: Black/Blue & Green Pumpkin Any and all water conditions

Hard Baits: Bluegill in any water conditions

Shad in clear to stained any weather

Blue or Black back Chartreuse in staines to muddy water.

For me I just keep it simple. To me locating bass in structure and cover and presentation are way more important than color. jmho

[logan9209]

Basically I am over thinking things. Since with soft plastics I find dark lures to work consistently (blacks, dark red, dark green, purple, and brown) and some light colors work in some situations (chartreuse pumpkin seed and watermelon red flake) I should stick with those type colors in most, if not all, my soft plastics and jigs. With the Spook the bullfrog works great but I might want to get one in white or match the hatch. With spinners just stick with chartreuse/white and white with their variations except in muddy water using red brown or black. Still need to play with the cranks colors. My boy lost a bass off of Mann's baby 1-minus red craw with orange bottom.

More or less I need to turn my focus back to finding the patterns and zones. I have been creating more stress than what's called for.

Gotcha, colors come into play if I am fishing different places, but since I don't then I need to stick with what I know to work on my lake. Thank you all for putting up with me.

[Nitrofreak]

Basically I am over thinking things. Since with soft plastics I find dark lures to work consistently (blacks, dark red, dark green, purple, and brown) and some light colors work in some situations (chartreuse pumpkin seed and watermelon red flake) I should stick with those type colors in most, if not all, my soft plastics and jigs. With the Spook the bullfrog works great but I might want to get one in white or match the hatch. With spinners just stick with chartreuse/white and white with their variations except in muddy water using red brown or black. Still need to play with the cranks colors. My boy lost a bass off of Mann's baby 1-minus red craw with orange bottom.

More or less I need to turn my focus back to finding the patterns and zones. I have been creating more stress than what's called for.

Gotcha, colors come into play if I am fishing different places, but since I don't then I need to stick with what I know to work on my lake. Thank you all for putting up with me.

A constantly producing color is a great head start to the rest of your fishing puzzle, for just one or two bodies of water concentrated in one local area, in my opinion.

Establishing patterns is something that is common to us LMB fishing guys and gals for all bodies of water, however if you can find fish on your home lake and learn the important parts of fishing structure with baits and colors that work, then you will have a much better understanding of how to fish an unfamilure body of water should you ever decide to do so.

It's always fun to experiment with different variations of colors that work well for us, don't be afraid to add/take away a small change, just remember the result of that change, for example you know black with green/blue flecks works here on a cloudy,calm day, but lets take away the green/blue fleck from the bait since the water is a little bit choppy today, don't forget what happens when you do these kind of small things.

You stated you were basically over thinking things, no, I don't think you were, being open minded is a great tool for fishing, and one that gets very little attention.