Question About Colors?

[jeremyt]

I fish a river where targeting a pattern is very difficult. By that I mean you can pick a fish or two up here  and there, but generally speaking it's very sporadic at best. My main question to you all is if I catch a fish or two lets say in a 3 hour period on a fire tiger crank bait if I were to switch to a jerk bait should I throw the same color or switch to say a clown or pearl?  Thanks in advance.

[BassThumb]

I'm a fan of switching lures quite often.  If I were on a 2-fish-per-3-hour pace, I would be switching it up about every 10-20 minutes until I found something that worked well, or until my time on the water ran out.  Another thing, at that rate, maybe it's not a matter of choosing lure color, but instead choosing a completely different lure.

[WRB]

By river bass do you fish for LMB, smallmouth or spotted bass?

Color is usually not the primary factor, locating active bass is a primary factor.

Here is advice that is true for all predator game fish, including all 3 bass species mentioned; don't leave the area where you have caught fish to find more fish. Bass by nature tend to group up when feeding, so the odds are very high that there is more than one bass where you caught that one. When you catch the first bass, try a different color of the same lure before leaving. If the new color doesn't work, then try the original color to determine if the first color still works. Then try a different lure in the same area and repeat a few colors. It's a lot easier to change colors when bass are biting.

In a river LMB prefer slack water areas, both smallies and spots like current areas and limits the type of locations each bass prefers.

Tom

[tbone1993]

Try to match the hatch and switch up colors.

[jhoffman]

Catching fish on a specific bait is not a pattern in my eyes.

 

A pattern to me would look like this:

 

On an overcast day, mid summer in the 90's, I found that they were feeding on crayfish in the rip rap on the east side of the bridge as the sun started toward the horizon. They want a slow fall rate, large profile craw imitation as the fish in my livewell were barfn up shells.

[Hyrule Bass]

Catching fish on a specific bait is not a pattern in my eyes.

 

A pattern to me would look like this:

 

On an overcast day, mid summer in the 90's, I found that they were feeding on crayfish in the rip rap on the east side of the bridge as the sun started toward the horizon. They want a slow fall rate, large profile craw imitation as the fish in my livewell were barfn up shells.

 

the bait is part of the pattern, as even you relate in your scenario that the fish want a large profile craw.