Hard bait colors

[GoneFishingLTN]

OK so I live in Iowa Most of our Lakes don’t  have shad. We have bluegill Crappie crawfish frogs. When buying hard-baits would you buy white,reflective and ghost so 3 colors 

 

or stick to the bluegill natural colors and craw dad’s?

[scaleface]

It should make  no difference if your lakes have shad or not . Shad patterned lures should still produce along with the others you mentioned .

[A-Jay]

6 hours ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

OK so I live in Iowa Most of our Lakes don’t  have shad. We have bluegill Crappie crawfish frogs. When buying hard-baits would you buy white,reflective and ghost so 3 colors 

 

or stick to the bluegill natural colors and craw dad’s?

 For me this decision comes down to water clarity and where in the water column I'm presenting the bait.  Any hard bait running mid-column, like a jerkbait, I like to mimic whatever the local forage is at the time.  Most every other hard bait that I'm running close to cover and or the bottom,

I like to select a color / pattern that comes sort of close to matching the color of the bottom and or the cover.  I want the bait to appear like it's 'trying to hide'.

Much like what's already happening down there with the real thing.

Finally, in the spring, wildly brilliant baits, or sometimes just a 'splash of color' on an otherwise subtle pattern, can really be the deal.

Either way, it's all about confidence.

A-Jay

[papajoe222]

My lakes also dont have shad. One color that I rely a lot on is Tenn. Shad. 
As mentioned, the lake doesn’t have to have shad for the pattern to work. Sexy shad is popular in my area of natural lakes. Another consistent producer for me is a red craw. Odly enough, for lipless cranks. 

[throttleplate]

Transparent light blue top with transparent bottom half. I took a kevin van dam gold and black jerk i never caught a fish with and with a knife i scrapped all the paint off it but a 1/4 strip on the top to make it bone white. It saved me  from buying a new one.

[king fisher]

Shad color crankbaits are close to the same color as many small fish in every lake.  Almost all small baitfish, are dark on top, and some shade of white and grey on the sides and bottom.  Just like rainbow trout baits can look like suckers and other minnows.  When fishing crankbaits, I usually start with chart. and black.   If that doesn't work I switch to a shad color.  If that doesn't work I fish some other kind of bait. 

[Aaron_H]

Like others said, shad patterns should still be effective on your fisheries, but if you want to stick with matching forage you know is present I would go with:

 

Bluegill

Red craw

Chrome for clearer water

Gold for stained water

[WRB]

Crank bait colors are like soft plastics they multiply over time.

Sexy Shad didn’t exist a decade ago and now everyone has it.

Each crank bait mfr has a hot color so I tended to use whatever that has been working where I fish. 

The basics are Shad colors with purple or green high lite backs. Pearl white with silver high lites. brown back with chartreuse. Reddish brown or red-black for crawdad deep crank baits made the majority of my  crank bait lures.

After selling 100’s of crank baits last year I kept only 4 lures, 2 custom Ghost (pearl white silver flake) 7A’s, Green back Shad Medium diver Megabass and crawdad Zoner Hunter. I fish these on my Splash-It rod minimizing my tackle.

Tom

 

[Mbirdsley]

I’d pick 4. Flashy for sunny and muddy water , sexy shad or chartreuse with blue back ( cloudy or sunny days , natural bait fish sunny day or cloudy days clear water  , and black for cloudy and muddy days 

[the reel ess]

On 11/16/2021 at 7:57 AM, scaleface said:

It should make  no difference if your lakes have shad or not . Shad patterned lures should still produce along with the others you mentioned .

While I totally agree with this statement, there's one place I fish where gold will outfish any other hardbait color. Darker gold will outfish lighter gold. I didn't think it made any difference until my buddy made a believer out of me with his dark gold Super Spot. this place has gold shiners. I've also caught some very nice crappie on the gold Spot. That's not to say you could never catch a bass on a shad or chrome bait. The place does have all manner of minnows. But I'm playing the odds. And I've caught bass on gold in places I know the forage is shad. 

[GoneFishingLTN]

so I’ve thought about this a lot. Why wouldn’t white work it matches crappie and there are tons of crappie in my lakes. Not to many minnows unless we count baby bass or baby bluegill still not a white color. Now I’ve heard that bass don’t like to feed in crappie to much because they are harder to catch or something I think wrb chart may have said this. 
 

also seems odd to buy a bluegill jerkbait idk why

[Bluebasser86]

Most of my cranks are separated by 3 colors; shad, chartreuse, and craw. 

[J Francho]

Most of my cranks are Lucky Craft MS American Shad, or whatever the company calls it.  For Spro, it's called Old Glory.  It seems to cover all the bases for me and simplifies my selection process.

 

[Hook2Jaw]

6 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Most of my cranks are separated by 3 colors; shad, chartreuse, and craw. 

I'm much more of a lipped plug fisherman than a lipless, so these are the three colors that I've started transitioning to.  I still have a lot of baits in ghost and reflective patterns, but when they're gone all I'll be stocking are shad, green, and red.

16 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Most of my cranks are Lucky Craft MS American Shad, or whatever the company calls it.  For Spro, it's called Old Glory.  It seems to cover all the bases for me and simplifies my selection process.

Since I don't throw lipless except during the spring and fall, American Shad speaks to me.  It's gold, silver, and it has a bold blue to it that seemingly works when it's bright, cloudy, or in stained water.  If the fish seem to be on crayfish or it's that special spring time of year, red.  American shad and red, I keep it simple but just a bit more complicated than you. 

[J Francho]

1 hour ago, Hook2Jaw said:

If the fish seem to be on crayfish or it's that special spring time of year, red.  American shad and red, I keep it simple but just a bit more complicated than you. 

Key word in my post: most.  I definitely have some red and craw colored baits.  They are the jam in spring.