Those old red head baits

[Blue Streak]

I remember when the red head was a hot color for cranks and top waters. Might have been because the pike and musky loved it but it was also good for bass. I still use a couple of the topwaters and the bass still like them.

  Anyone still use this color? I wonder how many have it in their tackle box?

[=Matt 5.0=]

I only use white with a red head for saltwater stripers. For bass I keep it natural. Black, green pumpkin, watermelon etc.

[Raul]

I 've been fishing for more than 3 decades, I don 't have a single white/red head bait.

Edit, now that I remember, I do have a white/red head bait, a Zara Spook from the guanim finish era ( late 80 's ), hasn 't touched the water ever.

[Blue Streak]

Guanim? Did you make that one up Raul? I have been fishing for six decades and I can assure you that a red head River Runt, Go Deeper Crab and several others were very reliable baits. I have a couple of old red head poppers that will be very effective here when the bass start to spawn. As for that Spook, it is a good top water bait with a white belly and you don't need a whole lot more than that. I won more than my share of tournaments back in the 80's with those guanish finished baits.

[Marty]

When I started 40 years ago it seemed that the two leading colors were yellow and white with red head. I still have a few but don't use them anymore, although there's no reason why they should be any better or worse over the long run than other colors.

[rboat]

I don't know why it was popular. I have never seen anything in a lake look like that. Maybe it was just easy to paint or red and white paint were cheaper. All the big companies used that color scheme. I still have an old bass oreno and they do work.

[The Rooster]

Well this might not mean much being that the bait is so small compared to the others mentioned here but I use the red/white combination on several different sizes of Roostertails, from 1/8 oz. up to 3/8 oz. and it's one of my favorite colors and catches many fish including bass.

Also, Rapala's clown colored bait is similar.  The X-raps have a red head with silver sides and chartreuse backs.  The overall color looks red/chartreuse instead of red/white, but this is also one of my favorite colors to use.

[mntreeman]

I started fishing, as a boy, in the mid 1950's.  Red head plugs were very common - river runt, bass oreno, etc.  Still have a couple in my tackle box and many more on display in the fishing cabin.   This was also a go to decoy color for winter northern pike spearing in Minnesota.  My Dad made many home made decoys and he always painted them red/white.

[=Matt 5.0=]

When I started 40 years ago it seemed that the two leading colors were yellow and white with red head. I still have a few but don't use them anymore, although there's no reason why they should be any better or worse over the long run than other colors.

Still the standard for East Coast stripers.  8-)