Color combination question

[MickD]

If I have found that color A is ineffective and color B is effective, will fish find the same lure in a combination of the two attractive or a turn-off?

[smalljaw67]

The only way to know is trial and error and color is funny. There is always an argument about color and whether is is just for us or if it matters and the truth is probably a little of both. The only real way to know is to try and then keep a log.

[Megastink]

My thought is: if color A is effective, why throw anything else? The fish speak to you, if you choose to listen.

[eyedabassman]

Lets say you fished a orange craw would you get a bite,maybe.If you fished a green pumpkin craw you could have a better chance to get hit but, put a green pumpkin craw with some orange and you should have a much better chance! All lake can be different and water color comes into play as does bait that is in the lake. You could fish a black jig and not get a hit but go to a black and blue jig and ware them out! Like the other posts said also too. Just try it out but  if it works don't try and fix it untill you have too.

[Munkin]

Color matters but after bass fishing for awhile I have narrowed down to a few main stays. Having fished in 9 different states I have only found one body of water where GP did not work in soft plastics. So besides that pond on FT. Leonard Wood it has worked everywhere else so it is my go-to color. Sometimes adding an accent helps to dial them in but most the time basic colors work.

 

Allen 

[Cgolf]

41 minutes ago, Munkin said:

Color matters but after bass fishing for awhile I have narrowed down to a few main stays. Having fished in 9 different states I have only found one body of water where GP did not work in soft plastics. So besides that pond on FT. Leonard Wood it has worked everywhere else so it is my go-to color. Sometimes adding an accent helps to dial them in but most the time basic colors work.

 

Allen 

I think I have another lake where it wouldn't work some of the time. The lake is ridiculous, flat and sun, smoke and something colors get bit and green pump or water red zip. Heavy waves or overcast water red and green pump golden and smoke and something colors get zip. Color matters that much on this water.

One thing I like to do sometimes is throw that yum wire thing for two baits with two different colors and see which one gets bit. Interestingly on that body of water I have never doubled up, they usually prefer one color over the other. 

[Munkin]

12 minutes ago, cgolf said:

I think I have another lake where it wouldn't work some of the time. The lake is ridiculous, flat and sun, smoke and something colors get bit and green pump or water red zip. Heavy waves or overcast water red and green pump golden and smoke and something colors get zip. Color matters that much on this water.

One thing I like to do sometimes is throw that yum wire thing for two baits with two different colors and see which one gets bit. Interestingly on that body of water I have never doubled up, they usually prefer one color over the other. 

In that situation I go with translucent colors like smoke and watermelon. We have a place here called Deep Creek Lake that you can tell which side a coin is on in 30 FOW.

Allen

[SwampLife]

I think colors matter.. I was fishing a location with muddy water here recent  and after not getting bit on junebug, black and blue, June bug red and black neon, I through watermelon red and ended up slamming them...

But.....that  doesn't happen often, I honestly think colors matter more with moving baits.. 

 

[gardnerjigman]

Some times I match colors and others I go completely different. Just let the fish tell you. Usually can process it quicker with 2 in a boat doing each. 

[smalljaw67]

I'll give you guys a situation that happened to me on water that Munkin here knows pretty well. I was fishing the Susquehanna River with my buddy 2 years ago, it was a tough day as the water was falling and it was a bright bluebird day. After 2 hours without a bite I found a bait that was working, a 3" Senko in black neon (black with red flake) rigged on a 1/16oz ball head jig, kind of like a Ned rig. Anyway, after I land my 3rd fish my buddy goes to the same set up but the only thing is he has Bass Pro Shop 3" Stick-O worms and the closest color was one called "Sure thing" , it is a laminated color with black neon on one side and green pumpkin on the other side. I just released my 6th fish and he still didn't have a bite, he then switches to all black, and still no fish and so he begins to tell me it isn't the color, it is the fact I'm using a different brand, so I switch to an all black and after 30 minutes no takers, I go back to the black neon and immediately get another fish, my buddy then conceded and borrowed my worms and he suddenly began catching them too. I always carry black and black neon in my waters, especially the river as I've learned, by accident, that there is something that the fish in that water like about the red glitter in it. The accident that happened was many years ago when Yum first came out with their Craw bug, it was a great bait and I was getting a bag of black and the place I was at didn't have black, only black neon so I figured it was close enough, and it turned out to be the only color they would hit and ever since that trip I make sure to have that color in all my soft plastics.

[MickD]

Thanks for the replies.  I don't have any doubts about the importance of color; I've switched colors many times and changed the results immediately.  But was curious about the combination thing, which I've never seriously tried to figure out, and thought others may have.  My own experience with laminated tubes, those with one color above and one below, has not indicated that they are better than single color tubes. In fact, I think they may not be as good as single color tubes.  With swim baits I think I have concluded that a chartreuse tail is a real advantage over a single color. 

[Last_Cast]

I usually stick to the color that worked best on that particular lake. Sometimes I do change it up out of curiosity. 

[Cgolf]

Also don't be afraid to throw color combos on water where you wouldn't think they would be effective normally. I found that Red Shad works really well at times in gin clear water which doesn't make sense because I can't think of any prey with that coloration. I just read my lake notes from 2007 and found that I was whacking them on a producto grape worm when I had no idea how to Bass fish and was just a beginner on clear water. Now that I know what I am doing I don't carry those worms anymore, that will change this year. 

I guess the moral to this story for me is all my offerings to the bait monkey are worth it, because as small jaw says there are days that a flake color change can mean the difference between getting skunked or filling the boat.

[Cgolf]

2 hours ago, MickD said:

Thanks for the replies.  I don't have any doubts about the importance of color; I've switched colors many times and changed the results immediately.  But was curious about the combination thing, which I've never seriously tried to figure out, and thought others may have.  My own experience with laminated tubes, those with one color above and one below, has not indicated that they are better than single color tubes. In fact, I think they may not be as good as single color tubes.  With swim baits I think I have concluded that a chartreuse tail is a real advantage over a single color. 

I have some tubes like that and some of the Netbait worms I toss Water jelly, table rock red, and sun perch are layered worms and I do really well with them. I have never really thought about if I had a worm that was one of the colors of the layered worms how would it do. I think with the laminates you are trying to match some sort of prey with the two colors. It is an interesting thought. I am surprised that a few years back when northland came out with the slurpies tube they had a layered perch, Shad, and craw were the colors I bought and they worked great, but they were discontinued pretty quickly. Not sure if people didn't buy into the concept or if they wouldn't buy bass baits from a historically walleye company.

If I think of it while I am on the water this summer I may experiment a bit with this, but not try to overthink it, because I would then carry way too many colors in the boat lol.

[WRB]

Color contrast often improves strike ratio.

Tom