Red Bug color

[Rodney Smith]

What makes this particular color always a hot one in the summer time?

[Captain Phil]

An old bass guide friend of mine told me there are red bait fish during the summer.  I have heard this from a number of different sources.  I don't know if the bait fish are red or if parts of them turn red, but it's been around for a long time.  I do know that red flake makes some soft plastic baits more effective.  Watermelon Red is a great bait color here in Florida. It's my favorite fluke color.  The most popular soft plastic bait color in Florida is June Bug (purple with green flake).  I use Christmas which is Purple with green and red flakes.  Zoom calls this June Bug Red and it's a killer color.  Our bass waters are fairly turbid, so red may make the bait easier to see. 

[Catt]

Red Bug, Plum, Plum Apple, Plum Crazy, different shades & metal flake.

 

All deadly down here pretty much year round, day or night.

 

A lot of sunfish have dark orange to red on their belly. 

[lo n slo]

Culprit fire and ice gets an honorable mention here ?

[813basstard]

For sure.

Don’t forget the ol Red Shad. 

[Bass_Fanatic]

Redbug is a favorite of mine in the summer months.  It outfishes all other red colors in my boat.  I’m not sure why, I just know that it works.

[Bluebasser86]

Just in summer time though.

[thediscochef]

I've been debating ordering some ned ocho red bug but had hesitated cause I have stuff that works fine already. Guess I have to pull the trigger now ?

[The Bassman]

2 hours ago, thediscochef said:

I've been debating ordering some ned ocho red bug but had hesitated cause I have stuff that works fine already. Guess I have to pull the trigger now ?

I'm still trying to reconcile in my mind after many years if color is all that important. I have to believe that I do well with certain colors because I like them and fish them more.

[ChrisD46]

So , many feel that Red Bug would be less effective to use outside of Summer months ?

[GRiver]

I use culprit, watermelon red flake core, I bought I first pack on a whim because they were on clearance at Walmart. I keep a couple packs on hand now. 

[Ski]

FROM BERKLY BAITS.......     If you're like me, your tacklebox is a color kaleidoscope. With a endless assortment of soft plastics sporting colors never seen in nature, it's enough to make my head spin.

A reasonable angler might sit back and ask, Why all these colors? Wouldn't we do just as well to focus on a small handful of colors? Do bass really even care about lure colors? The answer appears to be a definite yes and an equally definite no.

Bass apparently do see color. Their vision is strongest in the areas of medium-red to green. It fails rapidly moving into the blues and purples, as it does towards the far reds. If our picture of bass color vision is accurate, then color is meaningful to bass in some cases but not others.

Fussing over minor shade differences on the blue back of a crankbait is pointless. A bass sees all shades of blue as essentially the same (provided, of course, the colors have the same brightness). The same is true for subtle variations in dark purple or dark red lures.

For mid-range colors where bass discriminate best, it makes perfect sense to offer a wide variety of bait colors when even small variations can make a big difference. 

For example, a variety of midrange colors may keep heavily pressured bass from generalizing bad experiences across baits. Bass subjected to heavy pressure on dark purple plastic worms might shy away from all dark purple worms equally because they will view all dark purple worms as the same. But bass that have learned to shy away from pumpkinseed worms might see pumpkinseed-with-a-splash-of-red worms as distinctly different and therefore safe to attack.

Beyond color discrimination, however, is the issue of whether some colors act as visual signals. In theory, some color patterns might excite bass. A splash of red on the throat of a crankbait might signify blood and hence a wounded, easy meal. On the other hand, red on a lure might be more like waving a red flag in the face of a bull, instinctively driving the bass crazy.

Evidence from the field and lab suggests not. For one thing, if a color or color pattern evoked strong instinctive aggression, those lures would consistently yield higher-than-average catch rates. Yet despite the myriad of anglers pounding the water day after day, no such color has been discovered.

Bass anglers typically have individual favorites. But there is no consensus among bass anglers that any one color is reliably better than all others all the time. If bass have a favorite color, they're keeping it a secret.

[LrgmouthShad]

14 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

An old bass guide friend of mine told me there are red bait fish during the summer.  I have heard this from a number of different sources.  I don't know if the bait fish are red or if parts of them turn red, but it's been around for a long time.  I do know that red flake makes some soft plastic baits more effective.  Watermelon Red is a great bait color here in Florida. It's my favorite fluke color.  The most popular soft plastic bait color in Florida is June Bug (purple with green flake).  I use Christmas which is Purple with green and red flakes.  Zoom calls this June Bug Red and it's a killer color.  Our bass waters are fairly turbid, so red may make the bait easier to see. 

Could you elaborate on how red flake makes soft plastics more effective? Thank you for the other info

[Ski]

18 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Could you elaborate on how red flake makes soft plastics more effective? Thank you for the other info

They see RED and Green very well.

 

[Captain Phil]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Could you elaborate on how red flake makes soft plastics more effective? Thank you for the other info

 

I do not know why any particular color works better than another, I only know that it does.  After years of tournament fishing, I can tell you with confidence that certain colors at certain times produce better results.   I have fished in boats with two skilled anglers fishing the exact same bait in different colors and one would catch more fish than the other.  I have driven 30 miles before a tournament to buy a particular bag of worms that have been sold out locally with the only difference being the color.   Some fish will bite any color.  What I am talking about is weighing more fish than the other competitors.   If you don't fish tournaments, you have nothing to compare your results to.   What I like about tournament fishing is you can't weigh stories.  

 

Personally, I believe red on a lure signals a wounded or crippled bait.   Years ago I started carrying a red permanent marker in my tackle box.  I often mark red lines and dots on my Rattle Traps and it makes a difference in my catch rate.  If you look at many successful lures you will find they have small red areas for this reason. 

 

 

[Catt]

3 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

I do not know why any particular color works better than another, I only know that it does

 

16 hours ago, Bass_Fanatic said:

I’m not sure why, I just know that it works

 

I've always believed there are times color makes a difference, there are times when color doesn't matter, & there are times I have to switch colors to get bit.

 

Watermelon Seed (black flake) is highly effective but Watermelon Neon (red flake) will out produce it hands down.

 

Cotton Cordell's Hot Spot in Rayburn Red showed the world the effectiveness of red on bass & big bass.

[Bass Rutten]

On 8/2/2021 at 6:48 AM, Ski said:

They see RED and Green very well.

 

That’s only part of the equation, tests have shown that red and green are the only two colors they can distinguish, but that does not at all imply they are attracted to those colors. I’ve always been of the belief that how dark or light (contrast) a lure is plays a much bigger factor than color.

[WRB]

I remember not long ago the red craze in hooks and line because bass couldn’t see the color red.

At the same time water melon red flake was the hottest color soft plastics by the same anglers thinking red hooks were invisible. 

I have liked red flake soft plastics for decades in particular combined with cinnamon and purple; Oxblood w/ light red flake for example.

Tom

[thediscochef]

I think the condition of the water and the sediments dissolved in it also affects how colors work in soft plastics, as I've noticed my local pond is more brown gray than my local lake which is more green. The blue claw and June bug seem to better in the brown gray water whereas the California craw and coppertreuse seem to do better in the greener water. Not sure what it really means but I have fished these two spots enough to notice