What are your staple colors?

[teamfyss]

What colors make up the majority of your tackle?

 

I know there are a million different colors for specific presentations nowadays. But if you could only carry a handful of colors in any given bait, what would they be? I'm curious to see what everyone considers a staple in different water, and feel free to explain why!

[MIbassyaker]

Clear water: Anything with the words "pumpkin", "watermelon" or "grass" in the name (bright conditions), or Junebug (dark/cloudy conditions).

Algae-stained (green) water: chartreuses.

Tannin-stained or muddy (brown) water: oranges & reds.

Blacks and whites anywhere.

[WRB]

Colors for me are very important and my go to are shad colors when bass are targeting threadfin, crawdad colors with contrasting highlites, rainbow trout swimbaits.

Colors for soft plastic worms I prefer translucent smoke or cinnamon with purple or neon blue and silver/gold/black flakes for Shad colors. Black grape w/ blue neon, various brown and greens etc, I can get carried with soft plastics.

Tom

[IneedAnewScreenNae-5165165]

If I had to make it as simple as i possibly could:

• Anything that goes on a hook: Green pumpkin & Black and Blue 
• Skirt colors: Green Pumpkin, Black and Blue, Shad, White & Chartreuse
• Cranks: Red (craw), sexy shad, ghost shad, firetiger, bluegill
• Jerkbaits: Ghost Minnow, pearl, White & Chartreuse
• Any Topwater (belly color): white, black

Honorable mentions: Watermelon (red flake or seed), plum, junebug

[Ratherbfishing]

My STAPLE colors are almost always silver (do they come in any other color?)  My stapler color is candy apple red.  Unfortunately, my boss keeps trying to steal it.

 

But seriously, depending upon time of year and water clarity, the predominant colors are white or pearl, chartreuse, orange or red, chrome.  It doesn't mean I don't use other colors, though.

[lo n slo]

green pumpkin/chartreuse and june bug 

[The Maestro]

32 minutes ago, bassinwithburg said:

If I had to make it as simple as i possibly could:

• Anything that goes on a hook: Green pumpkin & Black and Blue 
• Skirt colors: Green Pumpkin, Black and Blue, Shad, White & Chartreuse
• Cranks: Red (craw), sexy shad, ghost shad, firetiger, bluegill
• Jerkbaits: Ghost Minnow, pearl, White & Chartreuse
• Any Topwater (belly color): white, black

Honorable mentions: Watermelon (red flake or seed), plum, junebug

Strong list. I would just add variations of brown to skirt colors for jigs.

[IneedAnewScreenNae-5165165]

1 minute ago, The Maestro said:

Strong list. I would just add variations of brown to skirt colors for jigs.

I've only every tied on a PB & J or an Alabama craw as far as brown jigs go and couldn't seem to get on a nice pattern with them. Got any recommendations ?

[Catt]

Cinnamon Pepper Neon Junebug Laminate! ?

 

Plastics: Watermelon Neon, South Africa Special, Falcon Lake Craw, Okeechobee Craw, Delta Red, Swampwater Blue, Black Blue Tail, & Junebug Blue Tail.

 

Spinnerbaits, white, white-n- chartreuse or any combination thereof.

 

Traps or Rogues, gold, black back, & orange belly 

 

Topwater hard baits, bone orange belly 

[Mobasser]

I like blk/blue, grape and purple shades, and watermelon/ red flake. Straight green pumpkin hasn't been that good for me

[Mike L]

Almost all plastics are June Bug or red/black except for bedding fish which are always white. 

 

Traps are chrome or gold with black and orange. 

 

Spinnerbaits and chatterbaits are mostly white/chartreuse

 

Frogs are black or green pepper

 

Walking or popping top waters are either bone or green/ chartuese 

 

 

 

 

Mike

 

[The Maestro]

35 minutes ago, bassinwithburg said:

I've only every tied on a PB & J or an Alabama craw as far as brown jigs go and couldn't seem to get on a nice pattern with them. Got any recommendations ?

I make jigs myself using the BOSS Gary Klein heads and skirts from Tackle Warehouse. I usually run a green pumpkin or brown trailer on jigs like these.

 

[Vilas15]

1. Perch

2. Chartreuse

3. Silver

[IneedAnewScreenNae-5165165]

12 minutes ago, The Maestro said:

I make jigs myself using the BOSS Gary Klein heads and skirts from Tackle Warehouse. I usually run a green pumpkin or brown trailer on jigs like these.

 

I have been exclusively fishing dirty jigs for about 2 years now, I might have to give this combo a try. I might be looking too far into minor details but is there any significance to the eyelet being horizontal as opposed to vertical? I've never seen it like that and I was just wondering if there was a method to the madness

[MN Fisher]

Soft Plastics: Black/Blue flake, Green Pumpkin, Canada Craw as main - other random colors as sides

Crankbaits: Baby Bass, Bluegill, Crawdad, Perch as main - several others as fill ins.

Jerkbaits: Silver, Blue, Orange/Gold

Spinners/Buzz/Chatters: Black, Bluegill, Craw

Inline Spinners (Mepps Comets): Shad, Rainbow

Jigs: Black/Blue, Craw, White

[The Maestro]

On 4/22/2019 at 5:50 PM, bassinwithburg said:

I have been exclusively fishing dirty jigs for about 2 years now, I might have to give this combo a try. I might be looking too far into minor details but is there any significance to the eyelet being horizontal as opposed to vertical? I've never seen it like that and I was just wondering if there was a method to the madness

There are many jigs with a horizontal line tie. Tackle Warehouse even breaks the jig section down according to vertical or horizontal line tie. Personally I don't believe there is any difference whatsoever.

If you have a particular jig style you really like and have confidence in you could always just buy the skirt material and re-skirt them as needed. You can save a ton of money doing this as the jig itself will last a long time, it's always the skirt that gets trashed first. You can also make your own custom patterns. Win win.

 

One tip I will give is to use a piece of mono to secure the skirt. I make them with the rubber band and then secure it with a pre-made slip knot (just a basic uni knot) and then cut the band off to leave room for the rattle band.  Your skirt won't budge. It's as solid as wire tying it for a fraction of the effort.

 

 

[Bluebasser86]

Green pumpkin and black and blue in soft plastics. 

White for spinnerbaits, black for buzzbaits

Bone or White for jerkbaits and topwaters

Shad or chartreuse black back for cranks

[roadwarrior]

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Green pumpkin and black and blue in soft plastics. 

White for spinnerbaits, black for buzzbaits

Bone or White for jerkbaits and topwaters

Shad or chartreuse black back for cranks

Great way to start!

 

I'll add Watermelon/ Red Flake to soft plastics, Red and Orange for lipless cranks and 

Redear (Norman Fat Boy) for your squarebill.

 

[the reel ess]

Used to be purple in plastic worms. I wouldn't buy any other colors. I even looked for hardbaits with purple accents. It was the color de rigueur for Lake Wateree, SC. It's a deepish lake that's mostly devoid of weeds with a little bit growing shallow around the edge. I still have a stockpile of purple. But I mostly fish off-color, weedy ponds and small lakes now. A couple places have water the color of tea.

 

I've mostly replaced the plastic worm with jigs and/or craws and they seem to like black/blue combinations best. I have some brown ones, but rarely use them. When I do, it's with a black/blue trailer.

Gold in spinnerbaits and lipless cranks. I'll use black/blue in really off-color or cold water. But they'll bite the gold if fished slowly enough.

For flukes and swimbaits, usually some kind of white, but houdini is a great color for me as well and bubble gum has worked.

Bubble gum, limetreuse, pumpkin, watermelon, black for Trick Worms, in that order.

Frog: Frog colors.

Topwaters: Depends on the type of bait I'm trying to imitate or light level. But that's the type bait that the color seems to mean the least.

 

But then, color doesn't matter, amiright? ?

 

[the reel ess]

The only difference I see is the vertical tie catches fewer weeds. It's very weedy in some places I fish and a cast is wasted if the jig gets fouled with weeds on the initial fall, so I look for grass or Arky style jigheads with vertical ties.

[The Maestro]

9 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

The only difference I see is the vertical tie catches fewer weeds. It's very weedy in some places I fish and a cast is wasted if the jig gets fouled with weeds on the initial fall, so I look for grass or Arky style jigheads with vertical ties.

I fish in heavy weeds as well. I'm not totally convinced that a hook eye with a profile that is 1-2mm wider will get anymore fouled than a vertical line tie but that's just my experience.

[I/MBasser]

I've simplified soft plastic colors as I found my need to have every color that could work drove my OCD into overtime and it was a bit overwhelming.  So I use:  Junebug or Black & Blue variant, Green Pumpkin or Watermelon variant and White.  With that said I have a few chartreuse colors as well.

[the reel ess]

18 minutes ago, The Maestro said:

I fish in heavy weeds as well. I'm not totally convinced that a hook eye with a profile that is 1-2mm wider will get anymore fouled than a vertical line tie but that's just my experience.

Every little bit helps. I actually see a difference between the grass and Arky heads, though I use both.

[The Maestro]

5 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

Every little bit helps. I actually see a difference between the grass and Arky heads, though I use both.

If it's working for you keep on keepin' on!

[scaleface]

I fish an awful lot of chartreuse . I dont use   a big chartreuse profile  a lot   but accents of it .