What Do Flakes Do/represent In Soft Plastics?

[terrye]

Ive tried doing a search but not really come up with any answer.

 

When buying soft plastics, you can buy green pumpkin, and green pumpkin with black flakes, or green pumpkin with red flakes, etc.

 

With the senkos you can get almost any flake color.

 

My question is, what do these flake colors do or represent for the soft plastic. How does a red flake help the green pumpkin color? Is it better in clear water, dirty water. Does it help in good light, low light. 

 

[Djman72]

A little extra flash, I guess.

 

In all honesty, it's probably just an idea someone had at a tackle company to attract the bait monkey.
 

I like sparkly things, don't you?

 

[WRB]

Creates a spectrum of color reflection and contrasting colors giving the soft plastic a living appearance.

If you look at a simple brown night crawler it isn't only brown, it's has a blue neon shim and several shades of tan and brown to the human eye....we don't know how a bass eye and brain processes color spectrums.

If you don't believe flakes add anything, use flat single colors with contrast. Solid black and solid white sometime works, however works a lot better with contrasting color flakes added. By trail and error anglers have learned from experience that adding blue or red flakes to black increases strikes and white/ pearl with black and silver flakes improves strikes.

Tom

[bigbill]

I'm thinking some flakes that shine like gold and silver can represent fish scales in certain stained or dark water conditions. Think about the crankbaits with the fish scale pattern.

The reset ill leave to Tom above.

[Big C]

^Tom hit the nail on the head.  Making a soft plastic bait have multiple colors can be a little difficult (roboworm does it well) but by just adding some glitter it changes the entire color scheme from one block of color to a multi-faceted color scheme easily and effectively. 

[bigbill]

It's like shining red dot lazer pointers reflecting the light in all directions.

[Jrob78]

Next time you're out on a sunny day, tie on a plastic with flake and look at it in the water.  The way the sun makes the individual flakes shine at different times from different angles makes a bait look alive.   

[Senko lover]

^^ Yup the sun hits the flakes, causes extra attraction, sparkle, flash, etc.

[Montanaro]

Green pumpkin senko and green pumpkin red flake senko look significanfly different.

Some crawdads will look green pumpkin. Others will have a red hue to the green pumpkin.

[Molay1292]

I'm thinking some flakes that shine like gold and silver can represent fish scales in certain stained or dark water conditions. Think about the crankbaits with the fish scale pattern.

The reset ill leave to Tom above.

 

If the water is stained or dark water, how does the light from the sun reach the bait to make the glitter shine?

[Darren.]

Good comments above.

 

Nothing more to add from me other

than to welcome you to the forums!

[bigbill]

If the water is stained or dark water, how does the light from the sun reach the bait to make the glitter shine?

Near the surface as the bait falls. Think about it we get strikes on the cast as it falls. Chartruese silver flakes?

[WRB]

Try night fishing, bass often react to the same colors at night as they do in the day light and we can only speculate how they see colors at night.....the human eye needs lots of light, the bass doesn't.

Old plugs that pre date soft plastics often used glitter to enhance a life like look, this isn't a new trend.

Tom

[BaitMonkey1984]

I have always used no flake in clear conditions, flake in stained to dirty water. Works for me. 

[zachb34]

WRB nailed it. The only thing I'll add is, that on sunny days I like some red flake in my baits not so much to gain attention but I feel like it may look like blood from an injury or something to that effect.

[Molay1292]

color is the reflection and absortion of light, without light there are only shades of gray.

[blckshirt98]

I think 90% of the different color/flake combos made in any one product line are to catch fisherman (but I buy multiple colors anyways because I like to think my color selection had to do with my success).  Lots of pros just use 2 or 3 colors of a jig or plastic and do well enough to make a living off of it.  1) something dark 2) something light 3) something green.

[Maxximus Redneckus]

Flukes have a silhouette that looks like a minnow or shad also

[zeth]

Creates a spectrum of color reflection and contrasting colors giving the soft plastic a living appearance.

If you look at a simple brown night crawler it isn't only brown, it's has a blue neon shim and several shades of tan and brown to the human eye....we don't know how a bass eye and brain processes color spectrums.

If you don't believe flakes add anything, use flat single colors with contrast. Solid black and solid white sometime works, however works a lot better with contrasting color flakes added. By trail and error anglers have learned from experience that adding blue or red flakes to black increases strikes and white/ pearl with black and silver flakes improves strikes.

Tom

The above.

When I am fishing cloudy days I generally use baits with contrasting colors, no flake and or black flake. On sunny days I go for the flake. Seems to work for me.

[Maxximus Redneckus]

Dam i see it said flakes not flukes coulda swore this mornin it said flukes

[Haze]

Bass have a wide peripheral vision, but poor distance unless both eyes are lined on the object.  A flash in the peripheral is more likely to get my attention as opposed to a shadow, and I would imagine this holds true to bass.  The different color flakes are to reflect colors at different depths, IE red is the first to go, so I would think it would reflect better closer to the surface, where as possibly a purple or blue flake may maintain reflective color at deeper depths.  

 

All of this maybe completely wrong, this is from multiple articles I read a while back when wondering if the UV thing was a gimmick or not.

[F14A-B]

Flash.. Plus these baits tend to tear easier. It might also add a trivial amount of weight.