Lure colors

[CrashVector]

I know it's maybe controversial, but it seems like a few lure companies, especially zoom and yum, have 75+ colors in their lineup.

 

Ive always been of the school of thought that mostly, it doesn't matter.  I have dark colored lures and light/translucent colored lures.

 

For dark, I always go either bama bug or junebug or black with blue flake.

 

Light colors, I go green pumpkin or watermelon seed.

 

My swimbaits, etc are always shad colored.

 

 

That's pretty much it.

 

I don't see the need for 35 different shades of blue.

 

[GRiver]

2 hours ago, CrashVector said:

 

For dark, I always go either bama bug or junebug or black with blue flake.

 

Light colors, I go green pumpkin or watermelon seed.

 

My swimbaits, etc are always shad colored.

Throw bubblegum in there and you got most of the colors I have 

[Hammer 4]

Different colors, and color combos seem to work better in some fisheries than others. I never had any success with junebug, or black in any baits, but in Fl. for example those colors are a staple. Do we need 75 colors, probably not. But then you know the old saying, some baits are meant to catch fisherman more so than fish.

I stick with no more than 3 or 4 colors.

[MN Fisher]

4 minutes ago, Hammer 4 said:

I stick with no more than 3 or 4 colors.

Same here - a light, a dark, a 'natural' and in some baits - an off the wall like merthiolate or bubblegum.

[WRB]

You can get by with 1 color until you learn the hot color is something you don’t have and everyone is catching bass on but your aren’t.

Tom

[Tennessee Boy]

I can't imagine why anyone would need 75 different colors.  I can understand why someone would buy 75 different colors.

[Munkin]

YoYears ago I decided to only carry 6 colors of any soft plastic. The 5 that work the best for me and a new one to tryout that gets rotated.  Some baits I even carry less colors as there is no need for 6.

 

Allen 

[KP Duty]

I agree with your appproach, but I also like to throw a color I think the fish don't see often.  Maybe motor oil/gold mf instead of watermelon seed and south african special instead of black/blue. .  

[jimmyjoe]

   I experiment with color/contrast; sometimes you'd be surprised which ones catch fish. 75 colors would let me experiment for a long, long time.  ?               jj

[thediscochef]

I usually carry about 10-15 plastics in my belt that vary in color and also presentation. Only two plastics have multiple colors: bass pro split tail stik-o, and zman finesse shadz. Everything else is generally quite different. Sometimes it's a roboworm 4.5" fat straight, sometimes it's the yum 4" dinger, sometimes it's bruiser mcminnow. But I just like the ability to completely change how I'm working the water if my preferred items aren't cutting it. Gonna try some variations on the inurig and chicken rigs next week with some of the stuff I have already and see what happens. 

[Bluebasser86]

Color doesn't matter, until it does. I keep my color selections pretty simple, but I've seen times when a slight difference in color makes a huge difference. I just assume those times are few and far between and accept they're going to happen. 

[CrashVector]

I throw in an oddball color here and there just to have something new, but I honestly don't think bass care much other than light or dark.

 

I think we give bass WAY too much credit for their level of intelligence 

[Catt]

At a fishing seminar back in the late 70s someone asked Tom Mann why he made plastics in so many different colors. He answered to catch the angler!

 

I've seen times where color made all the difference.

I've seen times where color made no difference at all.

I've seen times where I had to constantly change colors.

 

Early in the year my "hot" color was white Senkos, Speed Craws, & Ultra Vibe Speed Worms with the tail dipped in chartreuse. 

[scaleface]

I really like to throw dark purple , june bug , bama bug , tequilla sunrise , elec. grape... Those purple hues just catch them . I'll try others at times but the violets are  my bread and butter .

[moguy1973]

Lure companies catch fishermen more than they catch fish.

[the reel ess]

They have all those colors, but they mostly sell 3 or 4.

[Mobasser]

Purple and grape shades are my top two. Blue a close second. I think confidence plays a big part here. These colors have worked for me for a long time, so that's what I use most often.

[Scott804]

I used to be of the mindset that you could probably get by with only green pumpkin & black n blue. However I have fished a lot of tiny ponds, like the kind where you can nearly cast all the way to the other side, and have watched how MY fishing pressure singlehandedly effected the fish in the pond and eventually they wouldn't give green pumpkin the time of day. Until I switched to gold flake. So on so forth. I think there are some days where they will refuse you for the tiniest detail and then others where you could throw a rock with a treblehook attached and they would eat it. I will say though, as far as applicability goes, it is pretty much impossible to know what to throw in that regard. So I just try to buy the colors that I think look effective and different enough from the basics to try to stand out. 

[Luke Barnes]

Anymore when I buy something new I buy two packs and that's the only colors I'll use. Junebug and a green pumpkin blue swirl type that I can get from Berkley and Strike King. I used to be color crazy but now its just those two. Junebug unless the water is clear enough to use the green pumpkin blue. Its seemed to help me not obsess about color and just fish and worry about presentation and feeling the bite. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

I’ll stick to my usual.  for zoom flukes white number one but own a couple of different colors cuz you never know, 

Texas rig , tubes or jig trailers soft plastics  I stick to blacks, green pumpkin and watermelon.  Couple of different variants of it. 

[SpinLight]

Agree with all above who use just a few tried and true colors in soft plastics (and with those who throw an occasional bubblegum colored trick worms). And sometimes when your are not catching them on one color, you change colors and locations and start catching them.  A change in locations usually trumps the lure color change you made if you start catching them on the new color, after you move to a different spot.  Changing colors at the same location may make a difference occasionally, but not as frequently as some people think, IMO.

[WRB]

Bass are Bass but not all bass react to the same colors equally.

Spotted bass seem to prefer greens with chartreuse over other colors.

Smallmouth bass prefer brighter colors then Florida strain Largemouth that react better to more natural colors and Northern strain Largemouth react too all of the above.

Feeding Bass react differently then spawn cycle bass that will strike nearly anything.

More to color then meets the eye,

Tom

[QED]

I prefer to maintain a small set of colors for any particular lure that has empirically demonstrated utility.  Not a philosophical choice but rather a pragmatic one.  Once you factor in lure size, type, and color, the combinatorial explosion makes it impossible to explore all the options.

[N Florida Mike]

Im pretty sure the goal of the  excess colors is to catch fishermen, not just fish.?

[Munkin]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Bass are Bass but not all bass react to the same colors equally.

Spotted bass seem to prefer greens with chartreuse over other colors.

Smallmouth bass prefer brighter colors then Florida strain Largemouth that react better to more natural colors and Northern strain Largemouth react too all of the above.

Feeding Bass react differently then spawn cycle bass that will strike nearly anything.

More to color then meets the eye,

Tom

 

When I was in Missouri for the Army it seemed like the wilder the color the more the spots liked it. SM keyed on more natural colors as well as the LM but they liked purples as well. If I threw a carolina rig I could pick which fish I wanted to catch buy the color. Tequila sunrise I was catching LM, Pumkin or GP SM, something crazy like blue silver glitter with chart. tail was all spots from the same lake.

 

Allen