Color revisited!

[Catt]

The last couple of threads have been rather informative.

 

Here's some random thoughts for y'all to mull over!

 

It has been established that there are 300-350 species of crawfish & each species is capable of changing color 4-6 times a year.

 

Each individual crawfish is capable of changing color 4-6 times a year.

 

Color variants are almost endless with respect to degree and/or pattern of expression.

 

Now let's look at sunfish (Bluegill, Bream, Pumpkinseed, ect) another species bass pray on.

 

The coloration of sunfish change dramatically from family to family & is highly effected by water clarity & cover.

 

Again color variants are almost endless with respect to degree and/or pattern of expression.

 

Another popular food source is shad, again coloration changes from family to family & is effected by water clarity & available cover.

 

Again color variants are almost endless with respect to degree and/or pattern of expression.

 

Ya think the endless color variants is why so many lure color are productive?

[Choporoz]

So......since a single food source might come in infinite varieties....perhaps it doesn't matter at all what color I throw....

Or...maybe the opposite is true....predator are keyed on the color that predominates at any one day/time/condition....so I'd better have 89 different colors available to hone in on exactly what Mr. Bass happens to be seeing/eating right now.

[WRB]

I mentioned dying live crawdads with food coloring...Knowone asked why?

In nature survival for animals that are preyed on rely on camouflage to hide, if they stand out they don't live long. 

Bass have big eyes to see prey, they also have other senses to detect prey they can't see well. Bass live by hunting live prey and if that prey has stand out coloration a hunting bass will see it, eating it is a choice only the bass can make.

I believe color contrast helps bass see our lures, getting them to strike it requires the bass to make that decision based on it's experience hunting prey. The slower a lure moves the longer time the bass looks at it, the more important details like color matter and we hope it decides it's prey and strikes. 

Tom

[lonnie g]

interesting thoughts and perspectives. and a hard question to answer. I do know in certain lakes I fish one color may be better than another even on the same bait. and a couple  of the lakes may only be a mile or so apart. with similar vegetation in and around them both .as to why I cant honestly say. just did notice the difference by experimentation. your guys info is appreciated, good reading! I wish I had the answer to everything , maybe my wallet would be a little thicker, and then I could get some more new gear! LOL

[Darren.]

That's it, I'm throwing black from now on.

It's the combination of ALL colors, so should 

work all the time!! 

 

Just kidding. Good writeup, @Catt. Something

to think about (and @WRB)...

[Raul]

Spinnerbait.- as long as it's white & chartreuse any color is fine

Jig.- as long as it's black any color is fine

Worm, grub, stickbait, creature.- as long as it's watermelon any color is fine ( should have mentioned some other colors I like but finally after 4.5 decades I realized that watermelon works almost anytime )

Crank.- if it's got metallic finish any color is fine.

Jitterbug.- is there any color other than black ?

Popper, frog.- some really hot color so I CAN SEE IT.

Buzzbait.- whatever you wanna pick, I don't fish buzzbaits.

Prop Bait.- it don't matter as long as it's noisy.

[riverbasser]

If you could made a log of all tackle sales in the country for the last 10 years, I think it would pretty much reflect what @Raul just said

[WRB]

Quoting from Bill Murphy is his book In Pursuit of Giant Bass, Beyond the Visible,  "The spectrum of white is so great, two people can be using the same white lure and have completely different colors. White is a neutral color, and not being able to tell the radiation factor in either white or black, it's hard to tell what color you actually have when using white". 

Tom

[scaleface]

Through a humans eye . Sorry , couldnt help myself . 

[J Francho]

White is the most common color in nature.  Interesting....

[Team9nine]

Quoting from Bill Dance's book on the art of worm fishing, "There He Is."

 

"Any color is all-right, just as long as it's blue!"

 

-T9 

[MassYak85]

2 hours ago, Darren. said:

That's it, I'm throwing black from now on.

It's the combination of ALL colors, so should 

work all the time!! 

 

Just kidding. Good writeup, @Catt. Something

to think about (and @WRB)...

No you've got it backwards, throw only clear baits. If they can't see them they can't decide it's the wrong color 

[Darren.]

1 minute ago, MassYak85 said:

No you've got it backwards, throw only clear baits. If they can't see them they can't decide it's the wrong color 

 

LOL, I almost said that very thing - clear baits. 

[slonezp]

What I can't figure out is there are dozens of flavors of bubblegum yet it is only represented in soft plastics by a single color. What happens if the bass is in a tropical fruit mood and all I have is Bazooka Joe pink?  

[Spankey]

Great post. I'll hang a bit low on opinions. Can only comment about my experiences. I'm more of a river rat so I'm dealing with water that has a tendency to stain to various degrees. The last couple of years in my area the rainfall has been on the low side and not many big storms. More of a moderate thing just enough to keep level from dropping off too fast during the heart of the season.

 

With the water being a lot clearer, I've been throwing many more natural color crankbaits. But the patterns of blue gizzard shad, green gizzard shad, blue back herring, chrome w/ blue, chrome w/ black back to me seem to draw the same reaction strikes. Black, black w/ blue, blue w/ black, Alabama craw, brown w/purple, olives, blue w/brown, I use equally in the variation of stain.

 

I've long been a fan of the fire tiger patterns and chrartreuse patterns but have not had to use them much the last few seasons due to cleared water conditions.

[Paul Roberts]

7 hours ago, Catt said:

Ya think the endless color variants is why so many lure color are productive?

 

Sometimes.

 

It could also be bc color is low on the list of triggers.

[davecon]

I'm in Florida so usually fish tannic stained waters. That being said, over 50 years of bass fishing I have narrowed it down to 4 colors for plastics. Black early in the morning, purple/grape midmorning, watermelon late morning on. Blue is used in deep water, by deep I mean 12 feet or more. I know that's not deep for most of you but this is Florida.

 

One experience I always remember - years ago I was fishing a power plant reservoir. Water was being pumped in at a tremendous rate. Found a ledge 1/2 mile off shore. Abrupt depth change from 18 ft. to 12 ft. On a good day could catch 30 or more averaging 2.5 to 3 pounds. One day a piece of debri must have washed up and was sitting on the drop. Using an old Creme 6 inch light blue worm could catch them like crazy off that small piece of debri. After catching a bunch I decided to experiment with color. Caught 3 fish on 3 casts by hitting the debri using the blue. Switched to an identical worm in purple. 3 casts, hitting the debri all 3 times - nothing. Switched back to the blue. 3 casts 3 fish. 

 

I'm I'm not real smart, but I'm not real dumb either. 

 

Blue in deeper water every time.

 

Hard baits - gold or silver, depending on water stain.

 

You can carry every color under the rainbow and drive yourself crazy or just settle on a few and have confidence in them. Works for me.

 

 

[jimf]

I don't put much thought into color, although I will use more blue/grape the deeper in the water column I am fishing.  More or less I use colors based on depth and how that color penetrates.  Shallower stuff - spinnerbaits, topwaters I'm using yellow's and red's and stuff like that, deeper stuff on the bottom grape and blue and black.   It's not 100%, but in general that's how I pick colors.  I keep it really simple, rarely will I switch something out just to try a new color.  If I do that, I'm desperate because I've tried about everything else.  

 

[RoLo]

On 2/8/2017 at 4:51 PM, Team9nine said:

Quoting from Bill Dance's book on the art of worm fishing, "There He Is."

 

"Any color is all-right, just as long as it's blue!"

 

-T9 

 

Lending further credence to the color 'blue' is the fact that it's also the favorite color

of Roland Martin, who's the uncontested AOY leader (Roland-9 | KVD-7).

To be more specific, the color "purple" was the odds-on favorite for about 30 years.

 

Roger

 

 

[Paul Roberts]

20 minutes ago, RoLo said:

Lending further credence to the color 'blue' is the fact that it's also the favorite color

of Roland Martin, the uncontested AOY leader (Roland-9 | KVD-7).

To be more specific, the color "purple" was the odds-on favorite for about 30 years.

 

 

Could be a social effect? Dance and Roland are from the same era.

 

As to purple: nowadays it's Green Pumpkin. I wonder what's next?

[RoLo]

2 hours ago, Paul Roberts said:

Could be a social effect?

 

As to purple: nowadays it's Green Pumpkin. I wonder what's next?

 

 

I grew up hearing: "Any color will work, as long as it's purple" (royalty indeed).

Today of course, 60% of anglers fish 'green pumpkin' and 40% fish 'black-&-blue'. So what does that tell us?

It tells us that whenever green pumpkin catches 55% of the bass, green pumpkin is under-performing  

 

Roger

 

 

 

[Paul Roberts]

I dunno what to say about color... OK, I take that back. I could say a LOT about color. But in terms of conclusions around why bass bit or not, with all the possible variables and the general inefficiency of angling at shedding light on those variables, I tend to put color well down on the list. This is not an opinion as much as a decision. I've seen too many well thought out color theories crash.

2 minutes ago, RoLo said:

 

 

I grew up hearing: "Any color will work, as long as it's purple" (royalty indeed).

Today of course, 60% of anglers fish 'green pumpkin' and 40% fish 'black-&-blue'. So what does that tell us?

It tells us that whenever green pumpkin catches 55% of the bass, green pumpkin is under-performing  

 

Roger

 

 

 

I remember that phrase!

 

I like your use of statistics there. Now we're putting our heads to it!

 

Alright, I don't want to be color bashing. Truly. I simply do not know, nor feel I have the power to discriminate at my disposal. I will say this: Like everyone, I have my favs. I just like to think that I know that it might just be mostly in my head. Did that make any sense?

[RoLo]

2 minutes ago, Paul Roberts said:

I dunno what to say about color... OK, I take that back. I could say a LOT about color. But in terms of conclusions around why bass bit or not, with all the possible variables and the general inefficiency of angling at shedding light on those variables, I tend to put color well down on the list. This is not an opinion as much as a decision. I've seen too many well thought out color theories crash.

 

I'll drink to that.

I think of color as the caboose 

[N Florida Mike]

I fish mostly shallow,fairly clear lakes.If fishing soft plastics like usual, a light purple ( like tequila ) seems to be best first thing in the morning.Maybe an hour or so after sunrise,I switch to watermelon if cloudy or watermelon red if sunny.I use these colors all day until about 1/2 hour before dark when I switch to June bug, black grape or black.This is based on many years of trial and error.For example,Ive used watermelon right up to dark and nearly every time they will not bite it anymore when the sun gets low.So I switch to the darker colors and they start biting again.

And I do catch fish outside of this color wheel but I generally go with what keeps producing.I usually would rather keep catching fish than experiment.

I wouldn't argue that fish sometimes eat the bait based on matching what color creature they're eating naturally.But the bait matching the creature.Not always.How can anyone explain why a bass would eat a colored stick bait or even a fluke? I mean,what do they really look like in nature? I think colors are important to at least allow the fish to see whatever you're throwing,but why they eat certain baits that don't look like anything they're used to seeing is hard to understand.

[flyingmonkie]

Bait monkey is telling me to go expand my color selection...