Orange Belly

[smallies24/7]

I have heard numerous guys say jerkbaits and crankbaits are better if they have an orange belly. Is this true for you? If it is true, I was wondering why I dont see the majority of hard baits having an orange belly? Also, if it is true, would coloring an orange belly with an orange sharpie onto some of my favorite hardbaits elicit more strikes? What is your guys opinion on all of this

[gbryant04]

I have had luck with cranks/jerkbaits with orange belly but i don't think there is any color that is the best. Color is all specific to the water conditions in your water.

[Montanaro]

Some theorize the belly gives bass a target to strike specifically.  Same with black dots or chartreuse highlights around front treble

[RCCA]

Caught a ton of large mouth on orange belly Rogues. Not sure about small mouth. We don't have that. 

[papajoe222]

This is strictly a personal observation that is based on the history of my favorite lake, it has everything to do with the forage and in this case that is bluegills;

From ice-out until they're on the beds, if it doesn't have an orange belly, I either won't use it or I'll give it one. It isn't that I can't catch some on a bait without it, I just seem to catch more with it. 

BTW, the fish in my Avitar was caught in April on a Bomber Long A with, you guessed it, an orange belly.  

[IndyGlockMan]

Here in Indiana, the orange belly cranks seem to do better on overcast days with lower daytime light.

 

[the reel ess]

I've known guys who swear by a bait with some orange or red and will even paint it on if it doesn't come with some. I believe it can be a trigger. I try to get topwaters with an orange belly if I can. Sometimes bass just need that little extra something to trigger a topwater bite.

But I've heard no science behind it.

[RCCA]

I'm one of them people.

[MIbassyaker]

I don't actually think color matters very much, most of the time. I think on occasion bass will dial into particular color patterns related to particular forage in particular conditions, but from my own experience and from the published evidence I've seen, it's very situational, and other aspects of presentation (depth, speed, size, movement, general visibility) tend to dominate most of the time. Again, it's not that color doesn't matter, just that it doesn't matter as much as most other things, most (not all) of the time.

But quite a few bass forage species have distinctive orange highlights -- bluegills and pumpkinseed sunfish have orange throats, yellow perch have orange on their pectoral and pelvic fins, craws in many places have orange coloring, especially undersides and claws...If bass are going to key in on color patterns indicative of quality forage at least some of the time, I would expect an orange belly would be a good candidate pattern for that, in many places. 

[Buckeye Ron]

I think I do better throwing a crankbait with an orange belly vs.just about any other color. I don't know if the color really makes the difference or if it's because I've convinced myself it does,which makes me throw it more than any others.

[fishinbub]

It is pretty common among prey species (amphibians, reptiles, fish, insects, crustaceans...the list goes on and on) to have "flash colors", with orange being the most common. Flash colors are usually on the belly, throat, or underside of legs. For example, several species of frogs have orange under their legs and throats. The theory is that they serve as kind of a "bait and switch". When the frog jumps the orange is visible and predators key on the bright colors. But when the frog lands it blends with the surroundings, and the orange is not visible. Because the predator is keyed on the orange it is more likely to overlook the prey item.

Bass are ambush predators, meaning they generally strike when prey are moving vs. sitting still. So keying on flash colors in theory would increase the odds of capture. Think about it; craws, blue gill, perch, frogs, salamanders, newts, and some species of minnows often have orange coloration somewhere.

[FloridaFishinFool]

An orange belly might look nice and orange up here in the air to you and I, but when I put something like that in the dark tea/coffee stained waters I fish, it won't look orange to the bass if they can see it at all because I believe the water filters certain colors and changes the hue once it goes below the surface and continues to change the deeper it goes and light gets less and less. So to me, orange belly is a non-issue. Most of the natural prey around here have lighter undersides like frogs, minnows, lizards, etc. same as the bass for the same reasons.

So no, I don't bother with orange bellies. I either go more towards natural white bellies- even golden, or darker, but not really any orange bellies.

In clear water it might make more of a difference, but not here. Where I fish for bass the most in the lower St. Johns river basin, if you reach your hand down into the water at high noon with bright sunlight overhead, quite often you can't see your hand 6 inches under the surface of the water. So how the heck will any bass 4 feet deep or deeper ever see what color it is to you and me up here in the air and light? They can't see it and are striking it for other reasons.

I often wonder if bass can even see or interpret colors as we humans do.

How do I know when I see an orange belly up here in the air and light that it don't look red or blue or black even to some bass down in the water? I have to wonder if what we humans see is even on the same page with what bass can see. Sort of like how human hearing is different from dogs and how human noses are not as sensitive as dogs.

I can not sit up here above the water and try and talk myself into thinking or even believing that what I see and how I see it is anything close to what a bass sees or how it sees it. Seems kind of out there for me to even try to think that way much less operate that way.

There is no doubt an orange belly bait can catch bass, but is it because of the orange belly? I have my doubts.

[bigbassin']

I'm not sure how much the color had to do with it, but my 3 biggest crankbait fish (and pb) all came off a crankbait with an orange stripe on the bottom, so it definitely doesn't hurt.

[RCCA]

Good points. All I know is a bream belly looks orange above water as does an orange belly bait. Who knows what it looks like to a fish under water. Hopefully, it looks like a bream whatever color a fish sees. Gotta start somewhere. 

[Catt]

My #1 Rogue; gold, black back, orange belly

My #1 top water , Magnum Pop-R; bone orange belly

My #1 Rat-L-Trap; gold, black back, orange belly

[MIbassyaker]

19 minutes ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

I often wonder if bass can even see or interpret colors as we humans do.

I often wonder if other humans see and interpret colors as I do.

In the end, it doesn't matter though: we can still agree that a thing is "orange" whether or not we see it exactly same way. What matters is the ability to distinguish it from other colors. And bass are demonstrably capable of distinguishing the same basic colors from each other that we can. A bass may not see orange as you do, but the idea is, whatever it sees when it looks at something orange still bears some similarity to what it sees when it looks at, say, a bluegill's throat.

[Airman4754]

It's probably a strike target as much as anything. I only throw a single tail chartreuse trailer on spinner baits no matter the color of the skirt, blades, or water condition. It just flat out works in every scenario. 

Nothing a bass eats is squiggly and neon. 

[roadwarrior]

8 hours ago, Catt said:

My #1 Rogue; gold, black back, orange belly

My #1 top water , Magnum Pop-R; bone orange belly

My #1 Rat-L-Trap; gold, black back, orange belly

I'm going to pay more attention to this, but I have never noticed orange being important. My #1 lipless has always been the Blue/ Chrome Excalibur Xr50 followed by the Red Eye Shad Delta Red. Jerkbaits, topwater and other crankbaits have white bellies for the most part.

[Paul Roberts]

I can't tell. Don't know how to get at that either. I've done well with orange, chartreuse, white bellies. I've always appreciated white/pearl bellies, probably following the effectiveness of the original Rapala's. With the high clarity of many of my current waters, I've re-finished a number of cranks and topwaters to offer a better bluegill/prey-fish look, which has involved scraping the orange off some of those baits. I do use fluorescent colors under some circumstances.

[alzun664]

Firetiger is easily my most productive hardbait color, including topwaters, and it happens to have an orange belly. I think it has more to do with the overall bright color of the bait and not so much the orange belly. 

I don't think I've had as much notable success with other color hardbaits featuring an orange belly, so it would fall under the 'easy target' theory for me.

[bunkerbstr]

Interesting post, love the ones that make me think.  

Reading you guy's responses, I think everyone is correct.  There are times where orange is 'the color' and times when white is the color to use and so on -- no wrong or right answer.  

That said, water color and forage should be what dictates your choice.  However, I wouldn't be afraid to throw an orange belly jerkbait in a herring lake either, might be the ticket for having something different.  

I fish lakes that don't have any shad, herring and shad baits work.  I fish lakes that have shad & herring and bluegill baits work.  I do think for certain baits like jerkbaits, poppers (baits that fish are looking upward to see) color makes more of a difference.  

For deep cranking, not sure if it matter as much, though the "homer" color was won guys an awful lot of money over the years.  

Guess that's why we have a dozen boxes of crankbaits and honestly, I don't know if I have a color, I like the color that's working that day. 

[Scarborough817]

22 minutes ago, alzun664 said:

Firetiger is easily my most productive hardbait color, including topwaters, and it happens to have an orange belly. I think it has more to do with the overall bright color of the bait and not so much the orange belly. 

I don't think I've had as much notable success with other color hardbaits featuring an orange belly, so it would fall under the 'easy target' theory for me.

i'm always hesitant to buy firetiger i don;t really have much faith in it though the one time i did throw it it was hit immediately by a 2 pound smallie

[Mumbly]

My experience is for smallmouth as we have no largemouth here. Whether it is is my head or that the fish actually prefer it I am really not sure. What I do know is that it works for me.

It works well enough that I carry a couple Sharpie neon orange markers. I will typically add a throat patch or a patch highlight around the front treble area on a bone super spook jr or fill in the cupped face on a bone pop'r and sometimes add a small throat patch.

I will buy baits offered with an orange belly but if not available it is easy to add as an option if you choose.

[WRB]

I agree with Catt that lures with dark backs, gold sides and orange bellies have been working for decades. The bone white orange belly and fire tiger orange belly is very popular. The past 2 years lipless Yo-Zuri 3DB prizim black back orange belly has been very good. 

Years ago fishing at Lake of the Woods, Ontario,  the 7" Bomber long A in CHO, dark gray back, gold sides and orange belly was the hot lure and we caught nearly every type of fish in the lake on that lure; smallmouth, largemouth, walleye, pike and musky.

I haven't figured out why that combination works, but it does!

Tom

[Catt]

Tom 

I don't now why, I just know it does!

It's kinda like a black-n-blue jig, I caught all 3 species of bass from the Rio Grande to the Atlantic, from the Gulf of Mexico to central Ohio.

Do they work all the time? No!

But they are a solid place to start!