Color

[Horseshoe crazy]

How important do you find  the color of your bait  vs the action? Which is more important? I try to buy a Bright color , a natural color and a dark color. How do you guys buy baits without buying the entire rack. 

[Jeff H]

Action is always more important

 

After awhile your collection grows to the point that you just buy replacements, additional stock in favorites and the occasional wild hair.

[Jrob78]

I agree, action is usually always more important than color.  I try to buy 2 or 3 colors of a bait and just buy multiples of those colors instead of trying to buy every color.  I usually go with a bright for off color water, a shad and a bluegill.  Those 3 patterns cover everything I fish.

[Catch and Grease]

Every color is gonna catch a fish. Color is waaay less important than properly working a bait... Although some colors will work better than others under certain circumstances they all catch fish.

[Mr. BattleArmor]

It depends on the bait. Most hard baits today have their own action, so color would be more important since either way, two of the same baits would have the same action. Soft baits such as worms, many times have their own action as well such as ribbon tail worms, or a senko, which just floating down by itself will catch tons of bass. So for me I would actually pick color before action, because if the bass can't see the bait, or if the bait isn't something the bass wants that particular day, then the action doesn't mean as much to me. However there are many instances when the action is more important than the color. If the bass are really keying in on a specific type of bait, the color is meaningless because they are hitting that certain action. It happens to me often with flukes.

 

Again, depends on the bait. 

[papajoe222]

IMO color is as important in my decision making as using braid.  If I'm concerned with line visibility, I'm concerned about the 'right' color.  Otherwise, I'm throwing whatever type lure in whatever color on braided line.  In other words, if the water is clear enough to make a difference, it makes a difference.  Your choice of colors to purchase is on the money as far as I'm concerned. There's no need to buy every color offered.

[Catch and Grease]

It depends on the bait. Most hard baits today have their own action, so color would be more important since either way, two of the same baits would have the same action. Soft baits such as worms, many times have their own action as well such as ribbon tail worms, or a senko, which just floating down by itself will catch tons of bass. So for me I would actually pick color before action, because if the bass can't see the bait, or if the bait isn't something the bass wants that particular day, then the action doesn't mean as much to me. However there are many instances when the action is more important than the color. If the bass are really keying in on a specific type of bait, the color is meaningless because they are hitting that certain action. It happens to me often with flukes.

Again, depends on the bait.

name some baits that have their own action... You always can work a bait differently. A ribbon tail worm can be swam, hopped on the bottom, dragged, put on a shakeg head, Carolina rigged, used as a top-water, etc... Every one having a different action. Even with crankbaits you can give the bait many different presentations Sure you can catch bass just chunkin and reelin but your gonna be missing out on fish. Senkos can also be rigged countless ways for different actions

[Mr. BattleArmor]

name some baits that have their own action... You always can work a bait differently. A ribbon tail worm can be swam, hopped on the bottom, dragged, put on a shakeg head, Carolina rigged, used as a top-water, etc... Every one having a different action. Even with crankbaits you can give the bait many different presentations Sure you can catch bass just chunkin and reelin but your gonna be missing out on fish. Senkos can also be rigged countless ways for different actions

And? I agree with you? lol 

 

Just because you can impart many types of actions to a bait doesn't mean it doesn't have it's own. As far as I'm concerned anything with a bill has it's own action. You can do whatever you want to your bait haha no one said a bait has it's own action and that's it and don't impart any of your own to it. 

 

But as I said, twice, it depends on the bait, and as I also said, sometimes either is more important. I can impart all the action I want on all the things  you've kindly listed above but if the fish can't see it, or if they don't want it that day, or whatever reason, it won't catch fish. 

 

It's obviously a subjective question, and this is obviously my subjective answer. 

[Catch and Grease]

And? I agree with you? lol

Just because you can impart many types of actions to a bait doesn't mean it doesn't have it's own. As far as I'm concerned anything with a bill has it's own action. You can do whatever you want to your bait haha no one said a bait has it's own action and that's it and don't impart any of your own to it.

But as I said, twice, it depends on the bait, and as I also said, sometimes either is more important. I can impart all the action I want on all the things you've kindly listed above but if the fish can't see it, or if they don't want it that day, or whatever reason, it won't catch fish.

It's obviously a subjective question, and this is obviously my subjective answer.

sorry if I came off as trying to attack your reply... I just don't believe specific colors have much to do with bass bites.. Bright or dark and my favorite colors that's all I really think about now when I fish.

[Mr. BattleArmor]

sorry if I came off as trying to attack your reply... I just don't believe specific colors have much to do with bass bites.. Bright or dark and my favorite colors that's all I really think about now when I fish.

All good buddy, that's why we got on a forum, to find out everyone's different opinions and compare and contrast them to our own, find out new things and hopefully teach others sometimes too. It's all good and fun imo 

[Catch and Grease]

Any color works as long as its yellow.

[Sam]

Good question.

 

Bass do see colors.

 

Everyone has a favorite color so to expect everyone to give you their secret colors will not happen.

 

The three basic colors are Green Pumpkin, Watermelon and Junebug for plastics.

 

Depending on water clarity your color selection will either be seen by the bass or not seen by the bass.

 

You need to find out the forage in the waters you fish and try to mimic those colors for your moving baits.

[TTS]

First thing I'm going to do is decide what style of bait the fish want and what type of presentation is most effective with the conditions I'm faced with.  Green Pumpkin might be the hottest color on the lake, but I'm not going to try throwing a Green Pumpkin deep diving crankbait in slopped over, two feet of water, where perhaps a frog might be your best bet.  I'm going to find the most effective presentation for cover, water depth, level of fish activity, wind speed, etc. Then I'll fine tune the lure color to it.  In soft plastics and jigs, I like green pumpkins, watermelons, black/blues.  Crankbaits, bluegill, crayfish, golds.  I do think color makes a difference, but I've just not seen enough times where I started killing them by switching colors.  I've seen LOTS of times where switching location, presentations, and depth made all the difference in the world though.  Tom

[Munkin]

I use to carry every color made for every type of bait until the strap broke on my tackle bag which made me stop and think? I had 32 different colors of 6" lizards alone in that bad so I made a change. Now I limit myself to 5 or maybe 6 colors of a certain bait at most. Generally I like; black, green pumkin, watermelon, junebug, smoke, and white depending on the particular bait but these are the main colors.

 

Allen

[Creekcrappie]

I use to carry every color made for every type of bait until the strap broke on my tackle bag which made me stop and think? I had 32 different colors of 6" lizards alone in that bad so I made a change. Now I limit myself to 5 or maybe 6 colors of a certain bait at most. Generally I like; black, green pumkin, watermelon, junebug, smoke, and white depending on the particular bait but these are the main colors.

 

Allen

Well you beat me, I only have 21 lol. My 3 basic colors are green pumpkin, watermelon, and black/blue. There are exceptions though. The lakes that I fish, I usually catch more and better fish with a plum colored big worm than a green pumpkin or watermelon big worm. But for some reason, the worm has to be at least 9 inches to do any good with the worm. In the green pumpkins and watermelons I get carried away by all the different flake colors. In my opinion, bass will not hit a watermelon red vs a watermelon purple, unless the water is super clear or the fish are heavily pressured.