Why Is It That Hardbaits Are Not Common In The Most Popular Soft Bait Colors?

[primetime]

I was having this debate with a buddy and was wondering why we never see a Junebug or Black & blue flake Crankbait or Top water lure, or even a green pumpkin/gold flake etc...

 

I have no idea what a Bass is thinking when it grabs a Senko, Ribbon Tail, Finesse worm etc...and in some lakes here in Florida, colors like Black with blue flake, Junebug, Watermelon Red, and Green Pumpkin Gold truly shine above all other color's most of the year. Since Crankbaits/Lipless cranks and Minnow baits/Poppers all essentially imitate a Crawfish or smaller fish, any reason as to why companies are not marketing a Purple Crankbait with green flake? Or am I not seeing them....

 

 I have found that any Spinnerbait, Crankbait, or Jig in a Orange/Red/Brown pattern is often the best color during the Pre-Spawn, and then for Post Spawn color's Like Gold and Firetiger begin to produce better & then Chrome in fall. Obviously there are exceptions to every case, and everyone has their own color preferences, but I would think lures in the same color patterns would work well as soft bait colors stay similar for the most part all year long.

 

I like Red Shad soft baits when doing well with a Crankbait in a Rayburn Red color for example, and I would imagine most people are using something totally different with a hardbait when doing well on a Junebug worm for example.

 

Does anyone own a black and blue flake Hard bait and if so, how does it work? or Junebug etc...Thanks, Hope this is not a dumb question but I was really struggling to answer this question while using Chart/Blue crankbaits, Green Pumpkin/gold swimbaits, and black and blue Plastic worms?

[bigbill]

I do really good with hard baits in craw colors.

Bomber in redapplecraw, firecraw, browncraw, greencraw. But the chrome and silver flash color has worked too. There is a blue/chrome color too in another brand. Some new crankbaits manufacturers have added sparkles like in the worms/plastics. I think that Norman crankbaits have sparkles in some of them. I do find that the orange bottom crankbaits do work better at times. I have had some new cranks and top props painted in bass colors. I had some peacock bass topwater lures painted in hotter looking colors but there too pretty to use.

The bottom line is the bluegill and sunfish colored cranks work better sometimes. It's matching the colors to the water conditions.

Some of the newer $25++ cranks do copy the worm colors.

[Montanaro]

Lil johns come in a black blue craw and a "green pumpkin" color.

[Ozark_Basser]

Marketing.

[rboat]

I thought about this as well. I believe the reason is that cranks and such are moving so fast that the fish do not get a good look and just see the movement, flash or outline. Soft plastics move slowly so color is more of an issue to give it a life like look as the fish get a better look at the bait.

[Ozark_Basser]

I thought about this as well. I believe the reason is that cranks and such are moving so fast that the fish do not get a good look and just see the movement, flash or outline. Soft plastics move slowly so color is more of an issue to give it a life like look as the fish get a better look at the bait.

Then it should be just the opposite. Cranks should be given sloppy paint jobs while soft plastics should be more detailed if the fish get a better look at it.

[Catt]

Ya need to look at Rat-L-Trap & Bill Norman

[smalljaw67]

There are some hard baits with colors of soft plastics but in general they aren't. There are two reasons I can think of, one is getting people to buy a junebug crank and the other has to do with the water column. Most plastics are mimicking invertebrates like worms and insects or injured and dying baitfish and those have splotchy colors or scales falling off which is what glitter is supposed to represent. Most hard baits are moving, they are designed to mimic injured bait fish or just baitfish in general and therefore they are painted to look like the prey they mimic. Now there are exceptions all over the place but in general it is about what prey items the baits most often represent, where at in the water column they are presented at, and marketability as they have to look good to the angler for him or her to purchase it.

[rboat]

Then it should be just the opposite. Cranks should be given sloppy paint jobs while soft plastics should be more detailed if the fish get a better look at it.

The realistic colors on cranks are to catch anglers not fish. One of my best cranks has no paint left on it and it catches better than any others.

[Ozark_Basser]

The realistic colors on cranks are to catch anglers not fish. One of my best cranks has no paint left on it and it catches better than any others.

I believe you. But the question was why aren't hard baits in colors like green pumpkin etc. like soft baits are. You said because cranks are moving so fast they don't need realistic colors. This, in my opinion, is true, but it doesn't answer or pertain to the question. In reality, crankbaits ARE given more detail and certain color schemes. And again, I agree with you, but that doesn't answer the question of why hardbaits are given particular color schemes different than that of soft baits.

[Catt]

To answer the question, they do!

Rat-L-Trap & Bill Norman offer more colors than any on the market. Both come in more than 100 colors!

Visit their web sites for yourself

[WRB]

Catt you can lead a horse to water but it's hard to get them to drink....you are a patient man and good teacher.

Tom

PS, are you having any flooding issues?

[Cgolf]

I have fished an olive green bandit 100 with really good results. Really similar to green pumpkin. Will say when we bought them a few years back that color was on sale so apparently it wasn't to popular with anglers.

The pink has been good for smallies.

[Catt]

Catt you can lead a horse to water but it's hard to get them to drink....you are a patient man and good teacher.

Tom

PS, are you having any flooding issues?

Some students do not really want an answer!

And no sir I'm just far enough east & south to miss a majority of the rain!

[primetime]

I was just curious, I guess I never really looked at every Norman or Bill Lewis Crankbait in detail, I am a huge fan of the original rat-l-traps especially the models with the Triple grips but I typically purchased the standard colors...Chrome Blue, Rootbeer, Chart/Black, I love the Bill Lewis Translucent craw patterns, and I also usually get a few in chrome chart...

 

I guess I need to look closer, I have never seen a Black blue flake, black and red flake or laminate or blue sapphire crank or jerkbait but maybe I am not looking close enough..I am sure it has too do with marketing since they don't want to use the same names for hardbaits and soft baits...

 

I have a hard time believing that a bass see's an earthworm or leech when it inhales a 12" worm, the only time an earthworm ends up in the water is on a hook or is dead from drowning in water and I doubt it get's past the baitfish at the shoreline...I have no idea what a bass see's when it grabs a big 7" Senko on a wacky rig, but I guess they just feed out of instinct and opportunity....

 

One of the best selling fluke colors here in Florida is Electric Chicken or flat out Pink especially for saltwater, and I am probably not looking for pink lures since I rarely throw pink, but I will say that Pink sherbert senko's sell pretty good compared to other colors that you would think would be more popular....Swirls are actually more popular than I ever realized and other than craw patterns I never see a Black and blue swirl etc. on a hardbait...I paint my Zara Spooks with a sharpie to change bottom color, almost every topwater comes in the same patterns for most part..I was just wondering, I would think that Bass react to color based on water color and forage, and if they see Junebug the best and that is what they want when a jig is falling super fast, then I would think burning a purple and green crankbait would also work well, I will check out Norman...I like the Norman cranks,especially the Little N which is a killer, and I was a DD22 fan when I lived up North....Great lures for the money and the Bill Lewis One knockers are killer as well.

[Catt]

primetime, you will be amazed at the colors offered by Bill Lewis!

Most people look a lure colors on sites like tacklewarehoure or bass pro shops which may show a dozen colors of traps or Norman. Goto their web sites it will be an eye opener!

[McKinneyLonghorn]

I always wondered this very question. After not being able to find the lures I was looking for in stores or online I found a custom painter who painted lures in a watermelon red color. After purchasing a few and liking his work I had him paint up some wakebaits in black/blue and junebug. So far I haven't caught anything on the watermelon red square bill because most places I fish are too full of weeds to use subsurface crank baits, making wakebaits the lure of choice. I have some store bought wakebaits that work in clearer water, but when the water gets murky and the light gets low the two custom-painted ones come out and do a fine job of catching fish. 

[Senko lover]

There are many similar colors, they're just not named the same.

[primetime]

Thanks for the responses, I need to visit the Bill Lewis website and take a look at some of the full Product lines companies offer...I realize that many are similar but I have a desire for some black and blue flake lipless cranks, watermelon red or some type of Lucky Craft Flash minnow or thin minnow bait that is in a solid dark bases with flake, I may get some custom painted from a company I recently found, but I rarely examine all the colors from lures and I am rarely in a Bass Pro with time to really look around, typically I have a list and simply walk in and get what I want....

 

I noticed that on the Pradco website they had some colors for various lures that I was unaware of, and are similar but Royal Shad or purple shad color lipless cranks are one of my favorite baits and colors to throw...I have some Reaction Strike LV-75 Lipless cranks which are not expensive and I realize they have a sound that is 100% unique compared to my other 300 or so lipless cranks I have accumulated, but that color in that bait is one of my favs...

 

The Reaction Strike Lipless cranks have a sound as if they filled them with sand......It is almost silent and has a nose down Spro Action that is really good, I found them at a liquidator otherwise I would never have found them, but I encourage anyone to but a $4 Reaction Strike LV Lipless crankbait, the 65 size is the "Standard" 1/2 oz size and 75 is more like the 7/8 Rippin Rap size...

 

Thanks for the Norman and Bill Lewis calls, I like to support both companies since The Rat-L-Trap is like the GYB Senko or Lunker City Sluggo when it comes to creativity, and I also love the fact that Norman makes lures in the USA that have produced for ever....I love that little N and Flat Broke cranks, rarely use them but have had times they have worked well for me.

 

Thx again.

[Team9nine]

Once upon a time, when the Color-C-Lector first came on the market, most all the major manufacturers jumped on board, both soft and hard plastic manufacturers. It created a slew of "unusual" colors in hard baits. I remember the "pumpkinseed revolution" (LOL). Bagley baits in particular, but several others. We couldn't hardly sell those things no matter how hard we tried...but they were labeled as a particular Color-C-Lector color. We got all kinds of purple, black and blue crankbaits back then. If you do an eBay search for some of the old lures you'll probably be surprised at what was made. After that "fad" kind of wore off, and people simply stopped buying the weird colored baits, manufacturers had to discontinue them from most of their lineups, simply because they wouldn't sell. It's all in the minds of anglers.

 

 

-T9

[Comfortably Numb]

In Wiggle Warts the brown and green craw are most popular.

[WRB]

B.A.S.S. Times, May 2015 has a article on this topic; The Coorful Crawdad with several makes of hard lures that duplicate soft plastics.

Tom

[Big C]

Simple colors, like green pumpkin, junebug, and watermelon, lack the detail a larger surfaced lure like a crankbait needs.  If the whole lure is painted in a solid color with little to no contrast it gives the false impression that the lure was made on the cheap.  Even though those colors would work, the consumer would think it was "too bland". 

 

Another reason is hardbaits immitate different forage than soft plastics.  Hard plastics almost exlusivley simulate baitfish of some kind or another, which have more complex color patterns (with the exception of crawfish which does give simpler color schemes).   Soft plastics* that use monotones are usually imitating worms, crawfish, and creatures, which in nature are comprised of bland color patterns.  So it's kind of self defeating to have a lure that moves like a fish but has the color scheme of a bug. 

 

 

*swimbaits not included

[whitwolf]

primetime, you will be amazed at the colors offered by Bill Lewis!

Most people look a lure colors on sites like tacklewarehoure or bass pro shops which may show a dozen colors of traps or Norman. Goto their web sites it will be an eye opener!

 

The Norman website has a deep baby n in the color Tilapia. It's one of my confidence baits that you will not find anywhere but that site!