I'm beginning to think that lure color doesn't matter.

[Pkfish49]

In my favorite lake, the Lily Pad action dries up in the midday heat.  Today when the time came, I decided to go trolling.  i randomly grabbed this deep diving Minnow Crankbait from my bag of never used lures.  Largemouth Bass, as well as Pickerel, were all over it!  The funny thing is that none of the natural bait in the lake is orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

 

While I'm composing this, I really need to praise the Matzuo Kinchou Minnow.  I have a lot of Crankbaits with good diving action, but the sideways, distressed action of this one is really pretty to watch and is surely responsible for the attraction.

 

 

 

[Mobasser]

It sounds like you were presenting your bait in the right area, at the right speed and depth. I'm not hung up on lure color, but, I do think it matters at times, and gives the fisherman confidence.

[Smells like fish]

Now what kinda talk is that? If that is true I have wasted many thousands of dollars pretty colors. 

Im with you on those flared gill lures I bought them just because of that unique design. I have maybe 4-5 of the crankbait and just found a lipless called an Ikari I had bought at some point. My inner bait hound has been barking non stop over these by looks only ?

[fin]

I wouldn’t say color is not important, but I would say color is more important to the fisherman than the fish.

 

It’s not easy to see color underwater most of the time, so you can get away with a lot. Lightness or darkness and amount of flash are more important, in my opinion. Really clear water is a different game.

[king fisher]

Maybe no bait fish in your lake had all those colors, in that exact combination, but I would bet there are bait in the lake that have a portion of one or two of those colors.  Just like a rainbow trout bait looks similar to many other species of bait and works very well in waters with no trout.  As has been said every time this topic comes up.  Color doesn't matter until it matters.  When it does, the Bait Monkey has made sure I am ready.

[Bird]

Say it isn't so.

 

What about all my pumpkin seed and watermelon red soft plastics?......my blue flake lizards and brush hogs?

 

My white and chartreuse spinnerbaits?

 

Color only matters if your catching fish. Lol

[ATA]

15 minutes ago, Smells like fish said:

If that is true I have wasted many thousands of dollars pretty colors

despite some colors are to hooking fisherman not the fish, COLOR still very important factor. just couple days ago I was sending SP jerk bait and no bite, I grabbed it and use sharpie and make some CHRT/RED on it9as you can see in the picture), And man same place same time same retrieve action, same lure start to get bites lost 3 landed 3, (15" the biggest)

[Smells like fish]

Chk out that flared gilled beauty!!

 

@ATA have you a way of taking the marker back off easily?

[Smells like fish]

And here are a few Kinchou Shad for @JediAmoeba to look at. My monkey wasn't sure if his monkey was aware of these flared gill lovelys. Not that I'm trying to influence you to spend money on lures ?

[DitchPanda]

The saying I've heard is color doesn't matter..until it does! I believe that color is more of a confidence thing. Just like black and blue for me..a lot of people's favorite but I don't have a lot of confidence in it. One thing I've noticed is matching colors in some baits to forage matters more in some baits than others. Meaning if bass are keying on gills then a bluegill swim jig will out perform a white one. But for me a shad imitating spinner bait always out performs a bluegill one no matter what they are feeding on.

[RoLo]

 

I've spent a few decades trying to justify the need for different colors of the same lure.

My subjective mind says 'maybe', but my objective mind says, 'stay focused on vital matters'.

You know...little stuff like boat location, type of lure, lure depth, lure speed, lure placement  ~ ~ ~ 

This much we know for sure, buying different colors of the same lure is good for the American economy.

 

Roger

 

[ATA]

44 minutes ago, Smells like fish said:

have you a way of taking the marker back off easily?

I never done that, but I am sure alcohol and acetone will do the job, ill go with rubbing alcohol to be safe. the sharpies and markers are alcohol base ink.

[soflabasser]

Most lure colors do a great job at catching fishermen. What matters more is how you fish the lure.

[king fisher]

I have seen small color variations matter, but not often.  Large differences more often make a difference.  If the only spinner bait you ever fish is black, you will catch fish both day and night but it sure wouldn't hurt to give a white one a try some time.  I have caught bass on a pink spinner bait with chartreuse blades, ( I made for silver salmon) but not as many as one with white skirt, and gold blades.  I do believe if the bass are eating crawfish with orange claws, it is a good idea to fish a crank bait with some orange on it, over a chrome colored one with chartreuse highlights.  Doesn't have to be a photo copy of a crawfish, just a similar over all color, with some orange somewhere.

[plawren53202]

My order of priority is location (cover/structure/etc.), then presentation (type of lure, retrieve), then color.  While I put color at the end of that list, it does still have some importance. Some days more than others.

 

This past weekend was a good example of that for me. Saturday evening was some of the best fishing of my life. Around 30 in about 2 1/2 hours of fishing, including multiple fish over 3 lbs. and a couple that topped 5 lbs. I happened to be throwing a weightless junebug colored 6th Sense Divine Shakey worm because it was muddy water, but the way they were biting I have the feeling I could have been throwing many, many other colors and done basically the same. Now, they were hitting in a very particular area, just on the deep water side of the bank weedline, and I likewise have no doubt that I would have caught very few if I had been fishing in a different area, or fishing a different presentation that, for instance, bogged down in the weeds rather than gliding over the top of them.

 

On Sunday, same lake, I started out fishing the same location, same presentation, same color. Very few bites. After about an hour I switched to a green pumpkin/blue version of the same worm. The fishing picked up noticeably. Not as good as the day before, but markedly better than on the junebug worm. For whatever reason color seemed to make a significant difference on Sunday whereas Saturday night I suspect that it didn't matter much. 

[JediAmoeba]

1 hour ago, Smells like fish said:

And here are a few Kinchou Shad for @JediAmoeba to look at. My monkey wasn't sure if his monkey was aware of these flared gill lovelys. Not that I'm trying to influence you to spend money on lures ?

I really like the flare on those gills.  I just added some to my watch list on ebay...

[Catt]

7 hours ago, RoLo said:

 

I've spent a few decades trying to justify the need for different colors of the same lure.

My subjective mind says 'maybe', but my objective mind says, 'stay focused on vital matters'.

You know...little stuff like boat location, type of lure, lure depth, lure speed, lure placement  ~ ~ ~ 

This much we know for sure, buying different colors of the same lure is good for the American economy.

 

Roger

 

 

My thought process has always been how do we prove it was color & not something else. 

 

Until we can sit down & interview a bass we will never know for sure.

[scaleface]

If I'm fishing a certain lure and nothing is happening then its time to do something different . If I'm getting bass that are face hooked , barely hooked,  just nipping or slashing at the bait , then I'll try to dial it in with changes to get the bass to hit better . Often a color change is all that is needed .

[Mike L]

25 minutes ago, scaleface said:

If I'm fishing a certain lure and nothing is happening then its time to do something different . If I'm getting bass that are face hooked , barely hooked,  just nipping or slashing at the bait , then I'll try to dial it in with changes to get the bass to hit better . Often a color change is all that is needed .

Ditto

 

 

 

 

Mike

[DanielG]

8 hours ago, ATA said:

I never done that, but I am sure alcohol and acetone will do the job, ill go with rubbing alcohol to be safe. the sharpies and markers are alcohol base ink.

I was a teacher. We used sharpies a lot on overhead plastic. Alcohol dissolves it instantly.

On a post in another thread I told of a kid in a college in Boston where my daughter went. He worked with a team, headed by a professor who was given a grant by a major fishing tackle company. Their task? To find which lure colors/patterns appealed most to ...... wait for it..... people. I'm thinking a lot of the styles, you see in those huge isles of lures in the stores, are designed for us to purchase. It's got to look like we would think the fish would like them.

---------------------------------

Anyway, lately I've loosened up a lot and begun painting lures somewhat as art objects instead of what the fish want, or to look like a real fish. A lot more fun that way too.

 

Watch Marling baits on youtube sometime. He makes some fantastic fish realistic lures. But he's also caught fish on a block of wood with hook added to it, a lure made like a light sabre, a realistic looking severed finger, and several other whimsical designs. Lately he turned a round ball on a lathe and added a hook to it. Voila. It didn't work that good though.

[galyonj]

1 hour ago, DanielG said:

[Marling Baits] … also caught fish on a block of wood with hook added to it…

That was the first video I ever saw from him and I was – pardon the pun – hooked from then on. Love his videos.

[Tennessee Boy]

4 hours ago, Catt said:

 

My thought process has always been how do we prove it was color & not something else. 

 

Until we can sit down & interview a bass we will never know for sure.

Exactly.   People also greatly underestimate the roll that good old fashion luck plays in fishing.  If someone flips a coin 3 times and it comes up heads every time,  most people realize that was just luck.  If the guy in the back of the boat catches 3 fish in a row and the only difference is he's throwing a different color,  well it must be the color right?

[Mobasser]

It might also be a matter of how aggressive the fish are hitting? On the rare days that bass are really aggressive, they'll probably hit any color you throw. On slow days, lure color may make more of a difference. Color in bass lures is something were always trying to figure out. It's part of what makes bass fishing so much fun.

[Catt]

2 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

  If the guy in the back of the boat catches 3 fish in a row and the only difference is he's throwing a different color,  well it must be the color right?

 

How do we know it was color & not the rythm he was using?

 

The retrieval rate, dragging or hopping; everything would exact to say it's color only.

 

With the being said I've seen times in my opinion when color didn't matter, I've seen times when definitely mattered, & I've seen times where I had to constantly change colors to get bit.

 

So what do i made of these observations...throw what I have confidence in!

 

 

[scbassin]

To prove Catt's statement what happens when the person in the back of the boat using the same bait & color & catches 3 in a row. My guess is you throw them overboard!!