Regional colors

[Mobasser]

Here in Missouri, for as long as I can remember, grape and purple have been the most popular colors in soft plastic baits with blue a close second. These shades, in glitter or non glitter, have worked the best for me for a long time. I always thought it was interesting how certain regions of the country developed favourites in colors over the years. A relative of my wife, who lives in Wisconson, loves a light brown pumpkin worm, with a chartruese tail, for both SM and LM bass. I'm not sure how these color preferences have developed over time, but it's true that certain areas of the country show a strong liking to one or two colors over others. I was recommended grape almost 40yrs ago, and that color or slight variations of it, have worked the best overall for my own fishing.Does your area have a color that seems to be dominant with soft plastic baits? Why do you think these certain colors have become so popular?

[Sam]

Colors become popular for two reasons:

1.  The pros say they used a specific color to win or do well in a tournament.

2.  Guys are catching bass with a specific color that then is leaked out into the community.

 

Now, what basic colors work best where?  Who knows? But in Virginia, as a sample, I offer the following;

 

Potomac River          Blue

Chickahominy River  Blue

Historic James          Green Pumpkin

Mattaponi River        Pink or Bubblegum

One Fish Anna          Watermelon

Everywhere in VA      Junebug

 

The guys will have their favorites which will add "color" to this thread. 

 

Why the colors above?

 

Potomac River          Salt water and crabs

Chickahominy River  Salt water and crabs

Historic James          Green Pumpkin due to water clarity

Mattaponi River        Pink or Bubblegum for no earthly idea

One Fish Anna          Clear Lake most of the time

Everywhere in VA      Junebug because it works

 

You can mix and match colors such as a blue/black Senko or a green pumpkin with a chartreuse tail. The combinations are endless and fun to try.

 

So take out a note pad and a pen and start making notes!!!! ? 

 

 

 

 

[scaleface]

5 hours ago, Mobasser said:

Here in Missouri, for as long as I can remember, grape and purple have been the most popular colors in soft plastic baits with blue a close second. These shades, in glitter or non glitter, have worked the best for me for a long time.  

 Agree . Purple rules in Mo. Maybe thats why I havent  caught any bass on a Texas rig this year , I've been using a brown lizard .Need to make that switch to grape .

[Tennessee Boy]

I fish my favorite colors the most.

I catch the most fish on the colors I fish the most.

My favorite colors are the ones I catch the most fish on.

 

So it could be more about my preferences than the preferences of the fish.

Maybe anglers in different regions have different color preferences just like people in different regions have different food preferences.

 

I'm just sayin....

[yosef]

Most of my soft plastics are green pumpkin , I fish crystal clear lakes and always do well with some type of green pumpkin pattern.  Also love throwing senkos in cinnamon have great luck with them 

[Sam]

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I fish my favorite colors the most.

I catch the most fish on the colors I fish the most.

My favorite colors are the ones I catch the most fish on.

 

So it could be more about my preferences than the preferences of the fish.

Maybe anglers in different regions have different color preferences just like people in different regions have different food preferences.

 

I just sayin....

I thought your favorite color was orange!!! 

[WRB]

The folks that sell soft plastics regionally know what is popular in each region.

Popularity however isn't always the best indicator of what color out performs catching bass. If 90% of the bass anglers are using green pumpkin with red flake the majority of bass being caught is on that color.

What I have learned over decades of bass fishing is a dominate color has a life span of about 5 years at a specific lake. Each lake where I fish has a different dominate color and those lakes are within a 50 mile radius. The forage base is the same, the water clarity about the same and species of bass the same. 

Watermelon green verses green pumpkin, dark green verses light green, red flake verses purple flake are variations of greens are very popular across the country and marginal choices in the SoCal lakes. Translucent smoke with blue or purple neon or combinations of silver/gold/black flakes are dominate in some lakes, cinnamon brown in lieu of smoke in other lakes and purple with brown having red/black flakes in another lake. Greens work occasionally along with darker shades of brown. Junebug is popular in NorCal for example, not in SoCal.

When spread this nationally a wide variety of color emerge.

Tom

[Bankbeater]

When I'm fishing plastic worms the first color I rig up is a 6" grape scoundrel. 

[PhishLI]

I have a stupid amount of plastic worms in a bunch of different colors. I've thrown them all to exhaustion. Watermelon Black Flake GY Senkos followed by a BPS Stick-O knock off in the same color followed by 10" Berkley Power worms in the same color out-catch any other color 100-1 here. That includes green pumpkin. Everybody throws green pumpkin. White: Nope. Morning Dawn: Zilch. Sungill: Nada. Junebug: Nein! etc, etc.

[basser27]

Black, black/blue and some sort of green pumpkin or watermelon is what I’m throwing 90% of the time 

[DitchPanda]

Around me locally there's been a secret color that some of us bass studs know...you guys probably never heard of it..think it's called green pumpkin? Seriously i don't know enough guys that bass fish to learn local secrets. If they are any. For me it's green pumpkin everything and instead of black n blue I like junebug. But black n blue does work just not as consistent for me. One thing I will say I've noticed is a bluegill swim jig is better than shad but a shad spinnerbait is better than bluegill. Bladed jig wise both seem equal.

[roadwarrior]

14 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I fish my favorite colors the most.

I catch the most fish on the colors I fish the most.

 

So it could be more about my preferences than the preferences of the fish.

 

[Sam]

Want to see the various colors one company offers us?

 

Here are the catalogs for Virginia Guide Bait Company, a local Zoom distributor.

 

Enjoy!

 

http://virginiaguidebaitco.com/vag_7_002.htm 

[Columbia Craw]

There are two colors that are must haves in my region for smallmouth.  

[primetime]

The reason they sell a 1000 colors of soft baits with slight variations, is because they catch our money in the store or online....Buying different colors is part of the process of Fishing, part of the fun.

 

I personally believe that favorite color is often related to confidence. If you believe a Blue worm will catch more fish than a watermelon worm, then it likely will in your mind. The only way to ever truly know what color was working best that day,is if you are fishing with someone who is fishing the same color, same depth, speed etc....

 

With that said....There are "Safe" colors that will always work. Then one day you may throw something outside your range, catch fish, and then it gives you confidence. Or watch someone else slay them on something that glows and it can quickly change your opinion.

 

I agree with what Tom said above, it does seem that colors have staying power for a certain amount of time, certain lakes get a reputation for a color etc...

 

I stick with the same Florida colors for the most part, then I have a few favorites like Houdini, Sprayed Grass, Watermelon/Orange laminate & red shad...Black with blue tail seems to be the new favorite.

[Mobasser]

WRB was the one who told me to try a brown worm, so I bought Roboworms in OxBlood- red flake. They've worked out good for me. I'd never thrown any brown colors before.

[DanielG]

I know this is anecdotal information but it's interesting. A relative, a research scientist, has nothing to do with fishing companies but she does have a large circle of colleagues and they are involved with a bunch of varies stuff all over the world. She once recounted the story of a friends data company that was hired by a very large fishing equipment conglomerate to do studies about what colors of lures were more attractive to people. The people were non fishermen. They supposedly used that data to color their lures for display. The idea is that people would purchase the lures on what looked good to them. The idea was that if people find a color attractive they would think that the fish would be of a like mind. Great minds think alike right?. People who fish and fish???

[Armtx77]

Black and blue, motor oil, watermelons and all the flakes that come with it. Pumpkins and all the flakes that come with it.

 

The only thing I go out if my way to get in specific colors are my Bizz Bait Killer Craws. I use these a bunch in the crawfish infested waters of South Mississippi and SE Louisiana.  I match the hatch with them and my Spotted Bass numbers exploded two years ago.

[scaleface]

I still say purple is king in Mo.  I replaced a  Texas rigged pumpkin lizard with a june bug Dinger [ not purple but close enough ] and caught  6 bass on it with 2 or over 15 inches . My first soft plastic bass of the year . 

[Mobasser]

9 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I still say purple is king in Mo.  I replaced a  Texas rigged pumpkin lizard with a june bug Dinger [ not purple but close enough ] and caught  6 bass on it with 2 or over 15 inches . My first soft plastic bass of the year . 

Purple  IS the Missouri color. It's been working for us too long.

[Cgolf]

Not sure if these are WI colors or not, but Water Red and Motor Red work in both dirty and clear water here. Do I successfully use a lot of other colors, sure but the other two flat out get it done.

[Hook2Jaw]

I try my best to keep it to four colors for worming, those colors being for different water charities and different conditions.

 

Clear and prefrontal gets watermelon with red flake.  Clear and post frontal gets green pumpkin.  Stained and prefrontal gets junebug, stained and post frontal gets black and blue.

 

When I was younger, I remember a Culprit color called Red Shad being the jam locally.

[Born 2 fish]

I catch a boat load on black power worms.

[Spankey]

I lack confidence in my mind about the color purple/grape. Same with the color red shad. I will not fish a worm with a red tail. I will not get a bite on an electric blue type color worm. I'm pretty sure it's in my head.

 

But the good new is there are plenty of other colors out there that I have the utmost confidence in.

[Teal]

This is all too confusing!  I just try to match what I can and sometimes, I'll let the bait monkey choose. 

 

Sometimes I dont think over exaggeration is a bad thing.  I've been in spots where I probably should have thrown a brown jig with right highlights in the spring, but the bait monkey egged me on to throw the bright red and brown jig that I bought, and it worked out pretty good.  Other times I think I didnt have the confidence to fish and over kill color or something different, correctly and subsequently gave up on it.

 

  I think the over kill on the colors works good in stained waters or over cast days.  When I say over exaggeration I mean, taking a simple watermelon jig and craw with purple and gold flakes and instead using a jig with that's pretty much bright purple with a few strands of green with gold flakes and the like.  

 

As for regional here, it think the standard is still watermelon / red, green pumpkin and anything, and sexy shad pattern.