Orange Belly

[Comfortably Numb]

Orange belly = sunfish

[Catt]

Bone chuggers with orange bellies has been a killer color for decades.

Rapala's original floating minnow in silver black back had a touch of red or reddish orange around the throat area.

Alphabet baits like the Model A, Balsa B, Big O, & Little N was & is highly productive in Tennessee Shad Orange Belly. Most had red or reddish orange around the gill area.

I think more than anything orange, red, or variations of the two around the throat area or belly mimics bait fish of whatever kind.

In most conditions meticulously painted or patterned lures are not needed but it doesn't hurt either.

[Goose52]

I've always been part of the "color usually doesn't matter" crowd...but I'll have to admit that when I look at a bait and it has some orange on the bottom it always raises my confidence level a bit. "Brim" (misc. sunfish) are the primary bass forage in my water, and usually have that flash of orange under their chin, and I guess I attribute it to that.

Then, in winter I often tend to shift over to craw-colored baits - most often of an orange color.  Of note is the orange belly craw Red Eye Shad:

Orange seems to work - catch fish. BUT, under the same conditions as when I caught the fish above...would another color have done just as well ?    I didn't want to cut off the orange belly craw bait and tie on another color to experiment...I just wanted to keep catchin' fish...

Even snapping turtles like orange...

 

[senile1]

On 1/22/2016 at 9:48 PM, FloridaFishinFool said:

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.

Like FloridaFishinFool and others, I don't base a lot of my decisions on color at the lake.  However . . . . as Goose, Catt, and others have stated sometimes something just seems to work.  With regard to what a bass sees, I have read the literature and there are obviously a few uncertainties.  With regard to the statements above, it isn't the orange as we see it that may be attracting the bass, but it could be whatever color it becomes once it is at depth.  And whatever that is, I know Goose has posted some big fish for a few winters now, many of which were caught on that orange colored RES.  Maybe any other color would have worked, but it surely does give one confidence when a certain color and type of bait seems to work year after year in the same season.

[stkbassn]

On 1/22/2016 at 9:44 AM, 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.

Firetiger seems to do well on my home lake here but it's a fairly clear water lake so it surprises me that it does well in bright sun but it does. Black and Blue does equally well in my experience which is opposite side of the spectrum.  I've caught a lot on a firetiger crank for sure. There's a few firetiger baits that I want to pick up this year to test the color to the max on that lake. It could be a winner or a bust but fun buying and trying anyway.

[Jaderose]

Every single custom color soft plastic or jig I've ever had made has at least SOME orange on it and they work.  Why do they work?  Don't know...don't care.

[Ginosocalbass]

It works for the same reason a jerkbait with a purple top and chartreuse sides works. You have 2 contrasting colors that excentuate the jerkbaits more subtle movement. 

Most suspending jerkbaits have a side to side action that varies but all of them have a secondary action a rolling movement similar to a baitfish movement when feeding. With 2 contrasting colors it helps excentuate that secondary action. 

When orange in on a main forage species like yellow perch or crawfish. It's a given.