Color Crankbait

[bassnbornboy]

What color crankbait do you guys out there use for heavily stained water? It would help if you could give an exact crankbait that you use. How do you retrieve it? Thanks guys!

[Mccallister25]

When in doubt, throw fire tiger!!

[Catch and Grease]

That depends on depth and the type of cover your fishing. Give us those and we can give you more info on a retrieve, but a good color is chartreuse/black back for low vis water. But any bright color should work

[Raul]

In low visibility environments it´s much more important for the bait to have a strong hydrodynamic signature ( because the fish can feel it ), loud noise, wide wobble, and/or flash than the actual color, the fish isn´t going to be able to see the bait unless the bait is real close, when you have selected the other features then select the color: bright orange, chartreuse, metallic finish.

[bassnbornboy]

Thanks, I'm fishing in 75 degree water before sunrise, overcast mornings and in scattered flooded timber.

[frantzracing0]

I throw a firetiger 90% of the time in really stained water. Rattles are a must

[Kevin22]

Square bill- chartreuse black back

medium/deep- firetiger. 

 

I like strike kings. 

[Big239Fish]

I second the previous.

[McKinneyLonghorn]

For me stained water calls for a firetiger crankbait with a wide wobble and rattles. Since the areas I fish are incredibly weedy and anything that runs deeper than 12 to 18 inches gets hung up, I typically use the Baby Minus 1 (in the matte tiger pattern) or a similar super shallow crankbait. 

[Bluebasser86]

Red craw, chart/black back, firetiger, black, and mistake

[TNBassin']

Black back chartreuse allll day. If the bite slows on that then I go to chili craw or citrus shad. If it's muddy you want reds or blacks .

[deadadrift89]

Black back chartreuse KVD 1.5

[aavery2]

So here is my take, and I will apologize in advance for the length of the post..    All material metal, plastic, wood, or whatever the case may be absorb a certain amount of light and reflect a certain amount of light.  What we as humans see as color is the light that is not absorbed by the material and is reflected.     Water acts as a filter to light as well as make it more difficult for the light to reach an object and reflect.   Some colors are much better at this than others. 

 

Red is the very first color to lose it's ability to reflect light, this can can happen in relatively shallow clear water, and when you add in stained or muddy water, which further limit light penetration a red baits ability to reflect light is almost nothing.  This does not mean the bait becomes invisible in the water, only that it no longer looks red, but becomes a shade of grey.   

 

IIRC, the colors that lose their ability to reflect light in terms of depth and water clarity go something like this, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Violet.   When you think about it in these terms it is easy to understand why a color like firetiger may be more visible (in terms of color) than something red or orange and why black and blue may work so well as a color choice for many baits.   

 

No no knows with absolute certainty how fish see, the rods and cones in their eyes are very different than ours.  It is reported that fish can see color and grayscale many time better than humans, and it is often thought that they may even be able to see into the ultraviolet spectrum.  But this like many things in fishing can be debated.

 

There are some great books out there on how fish see, and how to use color selection to your advantage.

[TNBassin']

[bassnbornboy]

So here is my take, and I will apologize in advance for the length of the post..    All material metal, plastic, wood, or whatever the case may be absorb a certain amount of light and reflect a certain amount of light.  What we as humans see as color is the light that is not absorbed by the material and is reflected.     Water acts as a filter to light as well as make it more difficult for the light to reach an object and reflect.   Some colors are much better at this than others. 

 

Red is the very first color to lose it's ability to reflect light, this can can happen in relatively shallow clear water, and when you add in stained or muddy water, which further limit light penetration a red baits ability to reflect light is almost nothing.  This does not mean the bait becomes invisible in the water, only that it no longer looks red, but becomes a shade of grey.   

 

IIRC, the colors that lose their ability to reflect light in terms of depth and water clarity go something like this, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Violet.   When you think about it in these terms it is easy to understand why a color like firetiger may be more visible (in terms of color) than something red or orange and why black and blue may work so well as a color choice for many baits.   

 

No no knows with absolute certainty how fish see, the rods and cones in their eyes are very different than ours.  It is reported that fish can see color and grayscale many time better than humans, and it is often thought that they may even be able to see into the ultraviolet spectrum.  But this like many things in fishing can be debated.

 

There are some great books out there on how fish see, and how to use color selection to your advantage.

Why apologize? Thanks for your time and info. Greatly appreciate it! Wrapping it up it sounds like firetiger will do for me. If not, Good Charlie! Get another one!

[bassnbornboy]

Another question: How deep do I want the lure to run? What does it mean when it says 6-13'? How can you adjust the depth it runs at? I've been confused about this for a time.

[Catch and Grease]

You can control the depth it runs by using heavier/lighter line. The lighter the line the deeper it goes to an extent

[Jassch82]

Does how fast or slow the retrieve is adjust depth also?

[Catch and Grease]

Does how fast or slow the retrieve is adjust depth also?

No, a general rule of thumb is that for the first 1/3 of your retreive your lure will be going down to the max depth your line allows it, the next third it is at the max depth, and the last third it is coming back up from that depth.

[Kevin22]

Another question: How deep do I want the lure to run? What does it mean when it says 6-13'? How can you adjust the depth it runs at? I've been confused about this for a time.

 

Well, you want it to get to where the fish are! Cranking is an electronics game really. If you see the fish on a break in 10 feet of water then you back off and get a crank down there. For the crank you mentioned, it will dive 13 feet with 10 pound mono. So with 12# fluoro it would dive to about 12 feet, 12# mono about 11 feet. So I would choose one of those two. You want to crank it down until it hits bottom and then reel as slow as possible to still make bottom contact. 

 

Another example. If you saw fish in 8 feet of water, you would take that same crank and tie it on 14# line to get it to dive about 8-9 feet. 

 

 

If you do not have multiple rods to adjust depth with, then you need multiple cranks covering all depths and each one of those cranks in different colors so you can switch cranks to hit the right depth. 

 

You don't want to be adjusting depth with crank speed unless you absolutely need to, it will be hard to duplicate over and over. 

[Montanaro]

I've truly found color not to mean much. I still consider it though. Just put in a tw order...Some chartreuse, some shad like, some browns, some bluegill.

Basic rule of thumb...If sunny use naturals like flashy ones or clear ones. Darker skies or water calls for solid colors be it dark browns or even whites and firetiger.

[Catch and Grease]

I'd have to disagree with "cranks being a electronics game" there are plenty of ways to find fish without electronics

[Fishing Cop]

I throw red most of the time. I have more luck with that color than any other. Usually a red, Red-Eye Shad or a red Livingston lip-less. 

[Kevin22]

Without electronics you are just guessing where to throw the crank and how deep to run it. Waste of fishing time IMO. Won't be able to see any breaks or underwater points or any other structure that will hold fish. Might as well cover your eyes with a bandanna and start casting. 

 

The exception would be square bills of course. 

[F14A-B]

Longer cast are always the deal when trying to get deep... You have to spend a lot of time in learning the crankbait game... I ain't talking about little farm ponds either, fishing a 10,000 acre to 150,000 impoundment is way, way, different than fishing lil ponds or smaller lakes...