Hard bait colors and Natural Selection

[TOXIC]

I think we give far too much credit to a fish with a brain the size of a pea.  

[Catt]

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I've done well on a homemade bladed jig in pink and chartreuse, specifically on one local lake that has pretty clear water.

 

Won a tournament on Toledo Bend on a spinnerbait with Chartreuse double Colorado blades & a pink skirt. For about a month everyone was scavenging every nook & cranny for pink skirts!

[TOXIC]

Lake St Clair Killer.........Saved a trip for us one year.  It was the bait of choice and by far the most productive. We went through over 40 bags.  

 

 

 

 

[Heartland]

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I've done well on a homemade bladed jig in pink and chartreuse, specifically on one local lake that has pretty clear water.

I have seen some of the work you do with chatterbaits, nice stuff.   My pictures make it look horrible, it actually looks pretty good when your not all zoomed in on it.

 

[ww2farmer]

I saw a you tube video, or read some where (I don't remember the exact place)..that basically said this:

 

Guy was fishing an A-rig with 4 natural colored baits, and one wild bright colored one. It didn't matter on what arm of the rig he put the brightly colored one on, but that one got bit way more than the natural ones. 

 

I have experimented with this myself this past fall, simply by dipping the tail of one bait in chart. dye. That one gets bit almost exclusively.

[Mobasser]

Colors in bass lures is one of the oldest and most debated topics. While most of the custom baits look good to the fisherman, are they the best? We may never know. Keep a couple of different natural colors and try them against old stanbys of chrome, crawfish, chartreuse etc. I'm not sold on them being the best yet. A lot of research has gone in to this, but we're still learning here

[Deleted account]

5 hours ago, Heartland said:

And just like that the Killer Flamingo 1.5 was born.  Just need someone to fish it now.

I want one! Love the White Walker eyes.

[scaleface]

13 minutes ago, reason said:

I want one! Love the White Walker eyes.

I do to . looks like it has cataracts .

[Dens228]

I think lure color has more to due with shade and contrast than it does actual specific color.

 

[Carolina Rig]

I think sometimes they bite because they’re hungry and sometimes they bite because they’re ticked off.  I’m not sure lure color has much to do with either of those situations, to be honest.  I think it’s fun to consider that the way a lure looks might influence a desired response - and lure companies have made fortunes off of our desire to get it all sorted out.

 

However, nearly every angler I know has some story about having thrown everything he/she thought would work only to give up, either change the targeted species for the day OR try something completely off the wall, and then hook one up.

 

For me, it happened towards the end of a tournament day and we’d literally had no bites all day long.  We decided to skip the weigh-in since it’d be a waste of time and start fishing for catfish so maybe we could have a little fish fry later that evening.  First cast and my buddy is hung up in some vegetation on the bottom and starts reeling in a circle hook with some bread and a mess of weeds on it, about 6” long with about a 1.5” diameter - you know how they look when the hook is covered in weeds.  He got hit by a bass about 15’ from the boat and landed it.

 

So, while I’ll admit that I enjoy the heck out of trying to figure out what they want on a given day, and if you’ve seen my photos in the bait monkey thread, I’ll buy/try nearly anything, at the end of the day, I have to agree with the sentiment above that we’re giving a fish with a brain the size of a pea a little too much credit.  Won’t stop me from trying, though!

[Heartland]

1 hour ago, reason said:

I want one! Love the White Walker eyes.

PM me your address and I will send you one

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

I do to . looks like it has cataracts .

I paint the eyes myself, I found some kind of white plastic flat backed jewel and then I just spray what ever color I want on top of it.  Works out pretty good as long as you put a solid base coat on the eyes first.

[RHuff]

19 hours ago, stepup said:

I'm not the smartest fisherman on here by any means. Nor am I really qualified to put my .02 in on this but I am going to anyways. I think that what you are saying is kind of a natural thought but what I try to do is match the hatch. That is huge in fly fishing and it is why Green Pumpkin is such a great color. You are matching a color to the natural forage of a bass. If the conditions are tough sometimes you can add some chartreuse to the tail and get bit and I think that kind of leads into you line of thinking to an extent. I don't think you can just make a bait bright pink and get bit because it is bright pink. These are strictly my opinions so value them for what you payed for them.

 

 I think bass mostly bite for one of two ways. They strike to eat and they strike out of reaction. You have to decide are you trying to imitate forage that bass are actively feeding on or are you trying to cause an inactive bass to bite your lure in reaction to it?  If you are fishing for active feeding bass then you want to "match the hatch" and imitate the food. If your fishing for reaction fish then you want to throw something that looks enticing to the fish as it first sees it. I may be different than a lot of other fisherman but that is what I try to decide when I first hit the water. 

 

1) Active Fish in Low light conditions in a feeding area = Natural Food or Match the Hatch for Presentation

 

2) Inactive Fish in Clear High Pressure Sunny Days holding tight to cover = Reaction Bites - Bright Colors - Unique Looks

 

 

Granted - there are times when the two may overlap. For example burning a chartreuse and black squarebill over a grass flat. Bass are there feeding and the bright colors doesn't really look like a baitfish but the "shock" color just looks to good for bass to let go by without eating it. 

 

You may flip a natural looking craw down a tree stump, but the bass is inactive and strikes the lure because it almost hits it on top of the head, not because it is feeding = reaction bite. 

 

 

The game in it all is what makes bass fishing the best sport on earth. 

[Dens228]

1 hour ago, Carolina Rig said:

I think sometimes they bite because they’re hungry and sometimes they bite because they’re ticked off.  I’m not sure lure color has much to do with either of those situations, to be honest.  I think it’s fun to consider that the way a lure looks might influence a desired response - and lure companies have made fortunes off of our desire to get it all sorted out.

 

However, nearly every angler I know has some story about having thrown everything he/she thought would work only to give up, either change the targeted species for the day OR try something completely off the wall, and then hook one up.

 

For me, it happened towards the end of a tournament day and we’d literally had no bites all day long.  We decided to skip the weigh-in since it’d be a waste of time and start fishing for catfish so maybe we could have a little fish fry later that evening.  First cast and my buddy is hung up in some vegetation on the bottom and starts reeling in a circle hook with some bread and a mess of weeds on it, about 6” long with about a 1.5” diameter - you know how they look when the hook is covered in weeds.  He got hit by a bass about 15’ from the boat and landed it.

 

So, while I’ll admit that I enjoy the heck out of trying to figure out what they want on a given day, and if you’ve seen my photos in the bait monkey thread, I’ll buy/try nearly anything, at the end of the day, I have to agree with the sentiment above that we’re giving a fish with a brain the size of a pea a little too much credit.  Won’t stop me from trying, though!

Agreed.  This past summer I was fishing a swimjig/paddletail in very clear water.....I was using a light shad color in both no bites at all.  Changed to black jig with a purple paddletail, supposedly for dark water.........I lit it up with catch after catch.  I had no intention of working my way through the spectrum from light to dark with different variations along the way.............light or dark is generally my choice process.........

[MIbassyaker]

5 hours ago, TOXIC said:

I think we give far too much credit to a fish with a brain the size of a pea.  

depends upon what you are crediting them for...

[WRB]

Hot Pink lures didn't sell until someone called it bubble gum, then it was OK.

Delta dawn (pink) is very popular color today, it doesn't matter why as long as it works.

Natural selection means the strongest survive, predators eat the weak.

Back in the early 70's I made my 1st 3 color hair jig with black back, purple center and brown belly not to look like anything natural. I did that combination to would match 1 of the color pork trailers I used, black or purple or brown. 1 jig and change trailer colors and it worked better then a jig with 1 color, why? I like to think it's the contrast but I don't know, never seen a crawdad that looks like my jigs, bass eat them anyway...anywhere, anytime.

Tom

 

[Deleted account]

6 hours ago, Heartland said:

looks pretty good when your not all zoomed in on it.

Pamela Anderson