Must Have Crankbait Colors.

[Bankbeater]

Shad color is about the only thing working for me right now.

[PersicoTrotaVA]

Color hasn't seemed to be that important this year.  I throw the Tennessee Shad color a lot and my brother throws the black back/chartreuse a lot and we both catch fish fishing them at the same time.  To me size is the important factor.  Right now I'm fishing the 1.0 KVD in Tennessee shad, 1XS in Tennessee shad and chartreuse sexy shad.  I will throw a 1XS sexy sunfish or a KVD 1.5 bluegill if I find they are eating bluegill more than shad.  I fish shallow lakes so I don't really throw deep divers...actually I don't own any crankbaits other than the KVD squarebills, 1XS, Series 1 and 4S.  

[Fishing Cop]

Glad to hear of your success.  What color was the water, or I guess a better question would be how deep was the light penetration and how deep were you fishing? 

The water was a little stained. About 2 foot visibility. The crank was only running about 3-4 foot. It was a lipless.

[Scottjr1979]

I'm new to bass fishing just starting learning about colors but when they say natural colors what colors do I go with any help will help me thanks for your time.

[Scottjr1979]

1 hour ago, Scottjr1979 said:

I'm new to bass fishing just starting learning about colors but when they say natural colors what colors do I go with any help will help me thanks for your time.

 

[Bass Rutten]

2 hours ago, Scottjr1979 said:

I'm new to bass fishing just starting learning about colors but when they say natural colors what colors do I go with any help will help me thanks for your time.

Natural means matching the local forage in the waters you fish... bluegill, perch, shad, baitfish, crawfish, etc. I’ve found an easier way is to just match the color of the bottom of the lakes or rivers you fish as prey will be close to the color of their surroundings to blend in. In weedy lakes-green pumpkin or watermelon, clay bottom-red or orange, mud-brown/black, etc. Keep it simple, size, vibration, depth and speed of the lure are all more important than color.

[Dens228]

A natural, like bluegill or shad, I usually go with shad..

A reflective

A bright with chartruese

[MIbassyaker]

12 hours ago, Scottjr1979 said:

I'm new to bass fishing just starting learning about colors but when they say natural colors what colors do I go with any help will help me thanks for your time.

 

Start with three styles: (1) Shad, (2) crayfish, (3) Bluegill/sunfish. There are many, many varieties of each, but just pick a couple of each that look good to you.  The most basic shad is just a white body, black back. Crayfish in browns, reds or oranges are popular. Bluegill or sunfish...anything that looks kind of like a bluegill or sunfish.

[MN Fisher]

13 hours ago, Scottjr1979 said:

I'm new to bass fishing just starting learning about colors but when they say natural colors what colors do I go with any help will help me thanks for your time.

You don't say where you are, and that will determine the local forage.

28 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

Start with three styles: (1) Shad, (2) crayfish, (3) Bluegill/sunfish. There are many, many varieties of each, but just pick a couple of each that look good to you.  The most basic shad is just a white body, black back. Crayfish in browns, reds or oranges are popular. Bluegill or sunfish...anything that looks kind of like a bluegill or sunfish.

 

Here, I swap that sunfish/bluegill for perch - seems to work better here for me. The shad closely imitates the bluntnose and fathead minnows which are prevalent in MN waters. Crayfish is always a good one almost anywhere.

[Tizi]

Natural/Perch

Bright color for off color water

Ghost

Red Craw

[MIbassyaker]

29 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

You don't say where you are, and that will determine the local forage.

 

Here, I swap that sunfish/bluegill for perch - seems to work better here for me. The shad closely imitates the bluntnose and fathead minnows which are prevalent in MN waters. Crayfish is always a good one almost anywhere.

Indeed. Shad patterns make a passable imitation of crappie as well.

[J Francho]

Pretty much all my crankbaits are LC, and MS Am. Shad.

[Paul Roberts]

I guess I've never been able to tell if one color is really better than another. That said, I've been sitting here tricking out the colors on some cranks here. 

[schplurg]

I haven't fished long enough to have a good opinion yet, but I'll try anyways  

 

Something light, something dark, something in the middle.

 

I throw cranks a lot and in my area none of the colors I have tried outperform/underperform the others. I've caught bass with perch, craw red, and shad all within an hour from the same spot on the bank (because I lost them all one after another). Anyways, see first sentence above.

[ChrisD46]

I see a few new crank colors that make sense to have … *Who's that knocking at my door ? … Why,  it's the bait monkey - come on in pal and make yourself at home , can I get you a cup of coffee ? (lol !)

[ChrisD46]

On 7/10/2014 at 11:42 AM, Catch and Grease said:

On 7/10/2014 at 9:41 AM, Fishing Cop said:

I went again yesterday and fished several cranks with no luck and then went back to my go-to RED crank and wham, 3 fish in just a few minutes. They just love the red.

I like red during spawn but that's it really

*Red from Feb. to Apr. - then it's on to shad and bluegill colors until Oct. when I start mixing in the craw brown / orange color cranks over the winter.

[scaleface]

I use a lot of different colors . Besides shad/baitfish , crawfish and sunfish patterns I like the Rapala perch , Rapala foil both gold and silver , the Bomber's with the mirror  flash insert and, fire tiger . just to name a few .

[Spankey]

On 2/19/2020 at 12:12 AM, Scottjr1979 said:

I'm new to bass fishing just starting learning about colors but when they say natural colors what colors do I go with any help will help me thanks for your time.

Just an FYI you can pick up crankbaits that are of this real image design. Look real as heck. You might like them. They may work out great for you if that is a direction you want to go. They are not for me. 
 

I’m a Rapala Freak, one of my favorite patterns is the original Rapala bluegill. On A few models it works great. 
 

That real image bluegill of Rapala came out and I was all over it like white on rice. I have never done well with it. Got a few. But soured me from anything real image. Shame, I see a lot of nice RI baits out there but I’m not gonna bite.