When Color Matters!

[Catt]

Do I believe bass see colors? Unequivocally Yes!

Do I believe color matters?

I've experienced times when color made absolutely no difference at all; I would switch colors to the opposite end of the color spectrum and that color would continue to be productive.

I've experienced times when I had to constantly change colors to continue getting bit, catch 3-4, change colors, & catch 2-3 more. This pattern would continue all day or night!

I've experienced times if ya wasn't throwing a particular color ya wasn't getting bit period!

And then there or colors like bubblegum, bright yellow, Zoom's Merthiolate, or a pink-n-chartreuse skirted spinnerbait!

[Mainebass1984]

 At times color can make a HUGE difference.

[A-Jay]

Agreed ~

 

And when it's all about just one color & one color only, if it's a plastic bait or trailer, with out fail I'll only have ONE BAG and it's usually a partial . . .

 

I hate that.

 

 

A-Jay

[scaleface]

I can only recall one time in my life where I ran out of a particular color soft plastic and couldnt get bit on anything else. That was on a lime green Fliptail worm. 

[Dwight Hottle]

That color theory has caused me great financial distress. I almost always have to have duplicates of certain colors in hardbaits.

[geo g]

I think color matters more to the fisherman then to the fish.  I have colors I love and always buy, and since I fish with a bunch of others guys, I see fish biting colors I don't usually have.  Buy whatever you have confidence in.  Having confidence is a big part in being successful in this sport.

[papajoe222]

Agreed ~

 

And when it's all about just one color & one color only, if it's a plastic bait or trailer, with out fail I'll only have ONE BAG and it's usually a partial . . .

 

I hate that.

 

That is the reason I fish alone the majority of the time.

I carry so many plastics that I exceed the recommended max weight when I have a partner. Most of my partners hate it when I push them overboard as the Water Saftey Check boat approaches........In my defense, it's a lot easier to recover a co angler than a hundred or so bags of plastics.

 

A-Jay

[Crestliner2008]

Color is certainly a mainstay in the conversation of a lot of fishermen. To be perfectly honest with you, I believe most folks believe in color because using a particular color is what has given them success in the past. Some will say they've tried different colors, but for how long? All day? More likely than not, for only 10 min. or so, before resorting back to the color they have the most confidence in. No one wants to pass up an opportunity to have another fish on the line.

 

I think the Yamamoto's Senko color chart contains over 50 different selections. I find that amusing. Like a fish is going to eyeball a worm to see if it has gold or silver sparkles before deciding whether or not to eat it! But hey, it's what drives the economy. I've never really been overly concerned about color. And I don't do too bad.

[Mccallister25]

Color is certainly a mainstay in the conversation of a lot of fishermen. To be perfectly honest with you, I believe most folks believe in color because using a particular color is what has given them success in the past. Some will say they've tried different colors, but for how long? All day? More likely than not, for only 10 min. or so, before resorting back to the color they have the most confidence in. No one wants to pass up an opportunity to have another fish on the line.

I think the Yamamoto's Senko color chart contains over 50 different selections. I find that amusing. Like a fish is going to eyeball a worm to see if it has gold or silver sparkles before deciding whether or not to eat it! But hey, it's what drives the economy. I've never really been overly concerned about color. And I don't do too bad.

Pretty spot on with the way I feel. With me, and probably almost anyone who fishes, its all about confidence. Different colors produce more/less confidence from person to person.

[ww2farmer]

I've never really been overly concerned about color. And I don't do too bad.

 Same here. Save for a few basic confidence colors, the only reason I stray from those is out of my curiosity. 99% of the time 99% of almost any of the colors will work. If I don't have that "one" color that is going to work that 1% of the time, well, so be it.

 

 As a side bar, I always know when I am talking to a complete idiot when the first question they ask me about fishing is "What color?"

[flyfisher]

interesting, that asking what color means a person is an idiot, haven't heard that one before.

 

I always go by color doesn't really matter but when it matters it really matters  It is all about confidence though.  I am more comfortable throwing certain colors so that is what i throw.  I do try different colors though just to see what happens and how they work as compared to the others i have.  For me it is about having other confidence options should i run out or not be able to get a color i like.

[F14A-B]

I could talk about a few case study's where a exact color flake mattered.. I would never have believed it, if, I had not experienced it.. Not just once either. It's a interesting topic, color, I believe Catts post is True. Seems like a few basic color schemes work most of the time here, but, go to Florida & those colors need to be different (regional) sometimes color matters, sometimes no so much, but when it matters, it really matters. At least in my experience, and apparently, in a lot of others too..

[BrianinMD]

some days it does not matter at all. but I have had days were watermelon got bit when green pumpkin didn't. Or watermelon red flake did and watermelon purple did not. Same baits, same confidence level.

 

And there will be days when you are getting a lot of short strikes, one of the best things to do is adjust color a little. Goes from short strikes to solid strikes.

[Mainebass1984]

I have seen color make a huge difference between cashing a check or not, getting a 25 lb 5 fish bag or not, getting a limit or not, winning a tournament or not. In my own opinion, subtle differences in a color, in a bait, in the way you work a bait makes a huge difference. It really isn't just about color but I will do everything to tip the scale in my favor and color can be the deciding factor.  I think it is all about attention to detail and noticing these subtle differences what ever they may be, separates good fisherman from great fisherman.  For me from my experience in the waters I fish using colors that mimics the natural prey has produced the best results.

 

I wonder how many of the top pros would answer this question.

[WRB]

Color makes a difference more often than it doesn't. Every lake goes through a period when a specific color combination is hot and times when it doesn't matter. Why?? Just accept it and keep a open mind and experiment with different colors. We all have our favorites and they differ.

The 3 things I'am trying to figure out are; how deep, how fast and what color.

Tom

[Patrick Morrow]

Color is just one variable, yeah there will be times where even , let`s say "perfect color " is not going to work because of other factors aren´t adding up to it like weather, time of the day or bass state of mind.

[Catt]

Toledo Bend in late April (post spawn)

A huge grass flat in 10-12' of water; water clarity, extremely clear.

Four boats with 8 experienced anglers

Three of the boats were already on the flat when my brother & I pulled up. Everyone was screaming " we're killing em on baby brush hogs in watermelon seed (black flake)". After digging through our tackle boxes we came up with baby brush hogs in watermelon neon (red flake). We proceeded to out catch the others at a rate of 3-4 to 1.

One could try to explain away "color" as being the factor but that's 8 tounmament level anglers who will tell y'all it was color!

That's one of many

[Cgolf]

I have seen color make a huge difference the last 2 years on a clear lake I fish. That said it was the extremes that matter. Certain chop, cloud cover scenarios water red yanked them in the boat. Had I switched to green pumpkin or even black blue would I have caught fish probably. One that didn't was smoke purple, zero hits on it in certain conditions.

Take flat bright conditions smoke purple and smoke blue/green flake crushed them and no takers on water red.

So I think shades of color not necessarily exact colors matter.

[A KGB Operative]

Have any of you guys try a color from berkley havoc pit boss, molted craw? Super excited to try that one this time. Blue and white looks sweet.

[smalljaw67]

When I first started getting into bass fishing a little more than casually, I was told that black grape and grape Mann's Jelly Worms were what was hot. This was in the mid 80s and for the next few years it was those colors and then when it came to hard baits, there was white with a red head in any diving bait and for topwater, a red wing blackbird crazy crawler and a chipmunk pattern jitterbug were king of all the colors. Gradually I learned that color wasn't as much of a factor as was the fish becoming conditioned to a certain color so I became the guy who threw something different than the rest and it worked. About the time I thought I had it figured out, I was introduced to river smallmouth in low, clear water, and that was a revelation because color did matter a lot, sure, I heard all the guys sying you had to use a certain color just like it always was but now these guys were getting specific with the shade of a color. Chartreuse had to be yellow chartreuse and green pumpkin had to be dark with some brown in it and what I noticed is all the colors matched the hellgrammites and crawfish but I had no idea why chartreuse but it worked. Of course I was reading any book or magazine I could get my hands on and I remember reading a piece by an angler named Daryl Black, it was about Smallmouth bass and how they react to color and one of the best colors was to use a natural color with a loud color, not too much but just enough to make it stand out, and sure enough that worked too. Spinnerbaits with translucent skirts and silver heads with a silver blade on top with a small red Colorado kicker blade became the standard and anything black with chartreuse, in fact a black tube with a chartreuse tail was the very first bait I was using when I caught my first Smallmouth in water that was less than 40 degrees but if you didn't have that color you didn't get bit. So what I learned from that was just like Largemouth or Smallmouth in lake environments, river Smallmouth became conditioned to certain colors but the difference between fish in clear water versus stained is that clear water fish are much more color dependent than in stained water and Smallmouth in general seem more color dependent, or should I say that color matters a little more to them as either the most natural color is needed or the loudest color and anything in between just don't cut it.

[primetime]

I like the post above about how much time we actually spend throwing colors out of your comfort zone? I will hear people tell me about a certain color that I never use like pink swirls, and I have tried them but if I know fish are in the area I can't help but go back to my confidence colors which to me are blacks, browns, and greens....Toss in a few whites, translucents, and smokes and purples and I am good....hand me some gaudy bright colors or UV and I am only confident if fishing salwater but lately I am trying my best to really throw some UV and brighter tones as well as some oddball colors since  I know a Classic was once won on a tomato gold flake Gator tail worm, and I never throw Red worms with gold flake.....

 

Color matters when it matters, and I carry way too many, but I still try to stick to past experience or the "general rules" when picking color. UV has me interested as the UV flukes fished aggressive have generated some viscious strikes this year, but I still forget to try them consistently.

[matuka]

I have seen color make a huge difference between cashing a check or not, getting a 25 lb 5 fish bag or not, getting a limit or not, winning a tournament or not. In my own opinion, subtle differences in a color, in a bait, in the way you work a bait makes a huge difference. It really isn't just about color but I will do everything to tip the scale in my favor and color can be the deciding factor.  I think it is all about attention to detail and noticing these subtle differences what ever they may be, separates good fisherman from great fisherman.  For me from my experience in the waters I fish using colors that mimics the natural prey has produced the best results.

 

I wonder how many of the top pros would answer this question.

I think we have all seen the pros displaying their tackle boxes on you tube, and they have ALL KINDS of colors in hard baits. They're still pretty basic, but they know how to make a difference with color changes. (Wish I could say the same for me). So I would have to agree, in the right hands, it may be important.

[Shane J]

Color matters when it matters, but a lot of the time, action, rate of fall, and retrieval speed are your target factors. I have gone head to head with matching bait, different color, and the color has been important, and sometimes it's not. It's not at the top of the priority list, though.

[justhere]

Like most others on here, I have found it matters sometimes, and sometimes they take what you are throwing no matter what color. I remember one time fishing, my buddy was killing them on white curly tail grubs, and i was using every other color besides white, and got nothing.

 

I also agree with smalljaw67, in that it seems smallmouth are more color sensitive. A lot of the stuff I catch smallmouths has some bright colors in them, while I have caught my fair share of largemouths with both bright and dark lures.

[Mainebass1984]

Color matters when it matters, but a lot of the time, action, rate of fall, and retrieval speed are your target factors. I have gone head to head with matching bait, different color, and the color has been important, and sometimes it's not. It's not at the top of the priority list, though.

 

When you come up in early May I will show you how much color can matter. You will be pleasantly surprised by the results.