When Color Matters?

[Mike L]

At a 2 day tournament last weekend both my boater and I  started throwing hard baits with minimal success. We went to a spot where he practiced at 2 days before and wanted to start there. 

My strength is all things plastic so after an hour I changed to a honey candy Cut R and had one within 5 minutes.

Because of the way it took it I decided to change size and color and went with a black and blue 7" ribbon tail and had a limit in 2 hours with better quality fish. I was running low so changed to the same bait but in a 2 tone light accent red and stayed with it most of the day. 

 

The 2nd day I started with the same red but was running low so I started alternating between them both but it didn't matter. I was culling by 10:00 and went big girl hunting the rest of the day. 

 

Maybe it was because they were both a darker hue compared to a light watermelon I don't know. 

What I do know is that color on both days with the same presentation useing the same weight, hook size and line didn't matter.

 

 

 

Mike

[ww2farmer]

I must have a wizard like 6th sense when it comes to color selection. EVERY color I choose, get's bit, and catches big fish in every body of water I fish.

 

OR................ color doesn't matter.

 

I really don't know, or don't care if it does.

 

I carry around different colors of stuff to basically satisfy my own tackle buying fetish, because having a box full of black jigs, black worms, and white crankbaits is boring.

 

I know right off the bat who's going to be a non-factor at a tournament when the first question out of their mouth is "what color are you using?" instead of 10 other things they could be asking that are way way more important.

[flatcreek]

I use a lot of the green pumpkin baits and when I think color is a factor I'll pull out the dye pencils and start tinkering.

[king fisher]

Ten years ago I was guiding two fly fishermen for Artic Grayling in Alaska.  The silver salmon run was late, and they chose to spend a couple days fishing for grayling.  There was a hatch going off at the first place we tried.  I tied on what looked to be  a similar color and size of dry fly.  Grayling are usually not picky, and I expected to get fish every cast.  After fifteen minuets without a fish, and watching a few perfect dead drifts go right over  nice fish I was getting frustrated and thinking of moving.  Then one of the hatching flies landed on the front of the boat.  It was brown like the flies we were fishing, but had a small amount of yellow on the body.  I looked through my box and found a fly with a yellow body.  Caught fish every cast for an hour after tying on the one with some yellow.  Tried a nymph below the surface with a bit of yellow, it worked too.  Then tried many different flies without any yellow on my rod while the   No bites. The clients continued catching fish every cast on the yellow flies.  There was no doubt the color was what made the difference.  The next day I went to the same place.  No hatch going, but the fish were still there.  Tied on a couple flies the same size as the day before.  Again no bites, from what many believe are the dumbest species of fish alive.  One of the clients failed to mend his line causing the fly to skitter across the surface.  I was about to tell him he had to mend his line in order to get a drag free drift when he got a bite.  That was the key.  Most of the time a dead drift is what works, but that day the fish wanted the fly skittering across the surface.  Changed our presentation, and landed fish every cast on many different colors, and sizes.  Color was not a factor that day.  Color may be at the bottom of the list most of the time, but some days it is at the top.

[Angry John]

I feel color always matters but what is best is changed by the conditions.  When the water is very clear then a natural presentation is critical.  If the water is stained or muddy then having something that can be seen is the ticket.  This means that one color is not always the answer.  Matching the current food item also helps.  It is just one piece of the puzzle like depth sound and action.  The time you get them all right will be the day you will always remember....

[bigbill]

Some days color matters, somedays size matters, somedays size and colors matters we must be flexible. Don't get stumped throwing one color for hours. Simple change colors. The sunlite influences the hues in the water along with the water conditions on what color the bass sees. Their eyes aren't like ours they don't see all the colors all the time.

 

when I purchased crankbaits I buy a red, a green, a brown, a  firetiger, a  black, a firecraw,  a silver. I prefer craw colors in the bomber cranks. Example. Then I go with the natural colors, sunfish, bluegill, perch, baby bass.

 

i feel bad I played god one day. The small pickerel were feeding on the bass fry. I put on the same size rapala in baby bass and I caught every pickerel there. My future generations of bass were saved. I did release the pickerel.

[FLcentral]

When I was a teenager fishing the local lake I noticed another guy fishing a mid lake eel grass flat catching a few bass. It was mid morning and the bite was slow so I moved on to the grass flat a good distance from the other guy. The water was about 5 feet deep with fair visibility to the bottom. I started throwing a red 6 inch plastic worm as I slowly drifted the flat. With no strikes I was watching the other angler who had boated a couple more bass and had also seen a couple bass swimming near the boat so I changed my worm to a blue color which also produced on this lake. Still no bites and bass swimming by the boat made me change colors again to a black worm. The black worm quickly produced a couple of 1lb bass and the likely answer to the fishes preferred color. While unhooking the fish I could see crawdads sticking out of their gullet so a dark colored worm was close enough to the craws they were eating to get a strike. I tried a chocolate colored worm which also produced but red or blue was ignored.

During the last month I have been fishing rattle baits in the local lake and have found that a bait with a good bit of chartreuse on it was getting regular bites while the metallic baits that produce consistently last summer were not getting hit. The water clarity was less than 2 feet, a little less than last summer. I threw several different brands of rattle baits and caught fish on all brands that had chartreuse in the paint job.

[thinkingredneck]

I spent an entire spring and summer using one color plastics, to prove a point to myself.  I would change shapes (i.e., trickworm, ribbon tail, ole monster, paddle tail, u-vibe) and speed. It was in a shallow lake with a lot of vegetation. once I figured out the shape, they would consistently bite.

I have noticed I seem to do better with glitter than with a plain worm.

[papajoe222]

Reviving an old thread that I revisited recently about the importance of lure color.

Some good observations, pro and con, were made. Two really struck me as important to consider.

#1 ”Now one day I used just about every color in my tackle box. Nothing hit. I threw everything again with different presentations. Nothing again. The bass are there, this is a hot spot. I put on a chartruece firetiger color and caught fish. This taught me we can have different water conditions in the water column too. As the conditions on top may look clear as we go deeper it could be stained to muddy depending how much sun lite it gets too.”  
What struck me as important about this quote is that my first thought, if it were me in that situation, would be that conditions had changed and the fish had become active. Interesting

#2 was the last post (above) where the focus was on the shape Moore so than the color of the bait. Although that falls into my way of thinking, that color is at or near the bottom of factors I consider when choosing a bait, it  brings to light a factor that I rarely consider.

[A-Jay]

Bait color for me is The Last choice I make, when selecting a presentation; especially with soft plastics.

The list of decisions I feel I need make correctly in advance of it, is pretty long. 

But when I finally get to it the "Now, what color do I throw?" - is always considered.

Bait Color for me seems to be more of a confidence deal.

When I have it, seems I use the net more.

When I do not, well, there's just more casting.

That may have less to do with the actual color choice and more to do with me. 

A-Jay

 

[scaleface]

But what changes  do you make when bass are just not commiting . They are nipping or slashing at a bait , maybe getting face hooked . This happened to me last fall while throwing a spinnerbait . The bass were not taking the lure very deep and I witnessed two bass just nip at the tail . I removed the skirt that was  chartreuse based  and replaced it with  one absent of  bright colors . Tada!  No more nipping , the bass took it deeper . The same thing has happened with other lures too . 

[Mike L]

8 minutes ago, scaleface said:

But what changes  do you make when bass are just not commiting . They are nipping or slashing at a bait , maybe getting face hooked . This happened to me last fall while throwing a spinnerbait . The bass were not taking the lure very deep and I witnesses two bass just nip at the tail . I removed the skirt that was  chartreuse based  and replaced it with  one absent of  bright colors . Tada!  No more nipping , the bass took it deeper . The same thing has happened with other lures too . 

@ajay last post could pretty much be mine also. 
Many more considerations are given to what, where and how I throw with color being last. 
 

However, to answer your question color then becomes the first consideration before I change completely. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

[lavbasser]

I strongly believe color does matter at times and sometimes it’s just a confidence thing.  It’s  just one variable and sometimes people overemphasize it to their detriment.  I do carry several colors with certain baits and have seen it pay off.  

[Will1248]

I was of the same train of thought. But then I bought like 15 colors of zoom super flukes on a sale for like $1 a few years back. I promise you the only colors worth anything are white pearl and green pumpkin. And surprisingly only white ice for super fluke jr, they hate white pearl when it is smaller. I fished each color multiple times a day for months. I'm an Analytical Chemist so I systematically recorded the results. Only thing other than those colors that produced was baby bass, but it wasnt much. I could spot fish by docks and believe me I tried everything. Those 4 colors were the only ones that worked. Even something as minor as green pump with chartreuse tail caused a decrease in bites or even interest. They avoided albino shad like the plague even though it looks like white pearl with a blue hue. They hated matte white too. It makes all the difference. But with other baits I've noticed and stuck with shad, bass(green back/white belly), red craw, and chartreuse. Those 4 base colors work for most diving hard baits. And white, green pumpkin, black, and pumpkin for most soft plastics. Not to well for drop shots though I'm finding out. That's my 2 cents but I only fish Lake Murray and Hartwell. 

[txchaser]

On 9/29/2017 at 10:38 AM, BassNJake said:

I've had days where they wont eat a senko until I dip it in Spike-it.

Anyone ever turned off a bite with a tail dip? I've had multiple times where a tail dip is important. At this point I mostly always dip the tails. But I wonder if I'm missing some fish because of it sometimes.

 

Regarding colors, I've seen orange vs red on craw presenations and gold vs silver on swimming presentations make a difference, as well as having some chart or orange somewhere in the bait when they are keyed on bluegill.

On 9/29/2017 at 10:38 AM, BassNJake said:

I've had days where they wont eat a senko until I dip it in Spike-it.

Anyone ever turned off a bite with a tail dip? I've had multiple times where a tail dip is important. At this point I mostly always dip the tails on a worm or a creature. But I wonder if I'm missing some fish because of it sometimes.

 

Regarding colors, I've seen orange vs red on craw presenations and gold vs silver on swimming presentations make a difference, as well as having some chart or orange somewhere in the bait when they are keyed on bluegill.

On 9/29/2017 at 10:38 AM, BassNJake said:

I've had days where they wont eat a senko until I dip it in Spike-it.

Anyone ever turned off a bite with a tail dip? I've had multiple times where a tail dip is important. At this point I mostly always dip the tails on a worm or a creature. But I wonder if I'm missing some fish because of it sometimes.

 

Regarding colors, I've seen orange vs red on craw presenations and gold vs silver on swimming presentations make a difference, as well as having some chart or orange somewhere in the bait when they are keyed on bluegill.

On 9/29/2017 at 10:38 AM, BassNJake said:

I've had days where they wont eat a senko until I dip it in Spike-it.

Anyone ever turned off a bite with a tail dip? I've had multiple times where a tail dip is important. At this point I mostly always dip the tails on a worm or a creature. But I wonder if I'm missing some fish because of it sometimes.

 

Regarding colors, I've seen orange vs red on craw presenations and gold vs silver on swimming presentations make a difference, as well as having some chart or orange somewhere in the bait when they are keyed on bluegill.