Colors, Do They Really Matter??

[jrsmith_80]

Im thinking about buying some jigs online and curious about color for dirty Kansas waters. Do they really make a difference? What colors would you choose to fish in the dirty waters of central Kansas??

[BassAssassin726]

No matter where you fish jigs or what color water you cant go wrong with tried and true black and blue. Thats the only color I use and have plenty of success with it.

[M-D]

I would suggest Black / Blue, and any variations of brown or green. With the exception of clear water, I feel that colors are more a confidence thing for the angler.

[greyleg33]

I'll buy the confidence thing but always like black and blue.

[Arv]

I would suggest Black / Blue, and any variations of brown or green. With the exception of clear water, I feel that colors are more a confidence thing for the angler.

x2

[rockchalk06]

Central Kansas, Im thinking Quivera, Cheney?

I had good success with black and blue with blue flake trailers when I lived there

[WRB]

There is no doubt if you always fish black amid blue, that color works for you. The question; what color are the bass biting on that day or night? If it's not black and blue, you doing a lot of fishing and not much catching.

Black and chartreuse, black grape and green (June bug), purple and brown, and brown and orange will sometimes out fish black and blue in stained water

Let the bass decide and try a few colors.

Tom

[Goose21]

Tom makes a good post along with others. I've had a lot of success across the board with simple green pumpkin or watermelon with red flake, and have caught some of my biggest bass on red shad or June bug 10" culprit worms this year. Both night and day.

Rather than obsess over color selection I go with my tried and true and focus more on the process of finding the bass in different situations and taking note of where I was and what I was doing when catching quality fish. This year I've found a better quality bite using larger or thicker profile creature and worm baits than I've used in the past.

I'm always learning new things on the water, and slowly I'm becoming more successful and consistent, but I admit I've got much to learn yet.

Over the winter I plan to invest in quality fish finders and tackling that bear next season, always looking for room to improve. (As I've always been a shallow water angler fishing from banks, or throwing to the bank from someone else's boat on the rare occasion I fished from a boat).

[ClackerBuzz]

if i'm catching fish i stick with 'that' color. when not catching fish i throw every color in the kitchen sink at them. the colors mentioned are great. most times changing ur retrieve and/or location is more important than changing color.

[Loop_Dad]

If I were you, I would get a few in basic color group and switch around. Color might matter, color might not. Only bass know for sure. Us human are only guessing. Over time you know what worked and what didn't. Now you are talking actual data here.

[Bluebasser86]

At times color will make a big difference but you can get through a vast majority of situations with some black and blue and some green pumpkin colored jigs. Personally I do very well with burnt pumpkin (brown,orange,black, and green pumpkin) and okechobee craw colored jigs in the stained waters I normally fish, also in Kansas

[BobP]

Black/blue, black, or brown for stained water. Green pumplin for everything else. If I want secondary color, I put it on the trailer. Otherwise, jig colors would drive me crazy.

[HeavyDluxe]

I would echo what everyone else has said... Whether for jigs, soft plastics, or whatever, I don't think color is as big of a factor as we might think. If you're using colors that are visible to the fish and seem 'naturalish' in the conditions, you're probably going to catch fish.

Presentation and location mean far more.

Now, I have seen it where you throw one color and you catch things, throw another it stops, and go back to the original and start catching again. So, color *can* matter - perhaps even immensely. But I think the number of occasions where that kind of 'color particularity' happens is so rare that you're better off not worrying about it.

[*Hootie]

I had good success with black and blue with blue flake trailers.

Ditto

Hootie

[roadwarrior]

Got outfished by another BR member last weekend. I was trying a lot of color combinations

in heavily stained water. He was wackin' 'em with a 1/2 oz PBJ Mop Head. The color mattered

on Saturday!

[Bankbeater]

In dirty water I like black, black/blue, or black/red. I also like to put on a big black trailer of some sort that will give the bait some bulk.

[cadman]

I use blk/blu, blk/red, green pumpkin and brown and orange. Can't go wrong with these colors. Start out with these and let the fish tell you the rest.

[Jake P]

Black, blue, gp, brown, orange. Those 5 colors in any variation. color selection can drive me insane so I keep it simple with those 5.

[WRB]

Color only matters to the bass. Here is a little trivia for those who always use black and blue jigs and matching trailers; in 50 years of jig fishing, during the day time, I have never caught a DD bass on that color combination and several hundred on black/ brown/ purple. The reason is I rarely fish off color water. I have caught some DD bass at night on black and blue. For that reason I have zip confidence with black and blue during the day.

Experiment and you will find a color combo that works where you fish and how you fish and at the end of the day only you can should make that decission based on success.

Tom

[Nitrofreak]

Color only matters to the bass. Here is a little trivia for those who always use black and blue jigs and matching trailers; in 50 years of jig fishing, during the day time, I have never caught a DD bass on that color combination and several hundred on black/ brown/ purple. The reason is I rarely fish off color water. I have caught some DD bass at night on black and blue. For that reason I have zip confidence with black and blue during the day.

Experiment and you will find a color combo that works where you fish and how you fish and at the end of the day only you can should make that decission based on success.

Tom

X2

Sometimes I will add a couple of chart strans to my jigs, my most common colors are the same as WRB's

As WRB said it best, no one but you will find the right combo, buy it, fish it, fix it, fish it again.

[merc1997]

colors at times can really make a difference, even in different water colors, and even at night. we have different amounts of ultra-violet present all the time. dependent on ulta-violet levels, amount of light, water color ect. different colors can show better to a fish. other factor of color would be colors of food source at a particular time of the year. here is a great example. during the full moon of march here on table rock and other area lakes, i have not found any color that will out fish a bright orange hair jig with a black 800 spring lizard pup. i have had many sit in the boat and try to prove their color is better, but they always end up asking if they could use one of my brght orange hair jigs. why is orange such a deadly color the full moon of march?? it has to do with the changes the crawdads are going through at that time. come april, you will not get one bite on that orange hair jig. if you are not throwing a jig with blue in it, you will be hard pressed to catch a bass. let the bass tell you what color. experience of course is a really big help. learn the food sources of the waters you fish, and match something to those colors. one reason that blue works so well in the white river chain of lakes is this is about the only area that i know that has the blue pinchered crawdads. red in texas works very well, and that is because of the color of crawdads there. not saying that you need every color in the rainbow, but use the basic colors and variations of. apply them to your local forage. be flexible, hone in on the best color for the particular day. instead of catching a few, catch the mother load.

bo

[deep]

If Bill Murphy's words are to be believed, then color makes all the difference. For big bass.

For small ones, it doesn't matter; since they are more aggressive and will bite almost anything anyway...

[Texfisherman]

Something that I do is look up the lake that I'm fishing on the internet and see what the main forage for bass is on that lake. Any kind of survey report, water studies, etc., might show that. Once I know the main forage, I do a picture search for the forage and print it out.

For example, I looked up a lake that I'm trying to learn and found out the main forage for largemouth bass in that lake is threadfin shad. Then I did the picture search for the threadfin shad (and quickly learned why dipping tails in chartreuse is so successful).

Take that picture with you the next time you go to buy tackle, and try to find soft plastics/lures/color combinations closely resembling the picture.

Best of luck.

[pat_walker_fishing]

I always throw a natural color jig......even in muddy water green pumpkin and browns still show up....but do mix some black in to it, even if its just the trailer, or a few strands blended in the skirt

[Jigfishn10]

All good suggestions here, I would like to add that you may want to opt for a rattle to the bass locate your color selection in your dirty Central Kansas waters?

Just a thought?