Early spring jig colors

[TriStateBassin106]

What's everyone's favorite early spring (early March - April) jig/jig trailer colors? Do you guys use traditional colors during this time like black n blues and green pumpkins or do you try to go for colors like spring craw/PB&J or Redish colors? 

[Born 2 fish]

Black and black or green pumpkin for me. All year. 

[padon]

1 hour ago, Born 2 fish said:

Black and black or green pumpkin for me. All year. 

yes. dont complicate it. you can always change colors on the trailer if you wanna throw some different colors in there

[T-Billy]

Green pumpkin and black and blue year round. I've tried lots of stuff over the years and don't feel the need to go beyond these anymore. 

[Log Catcher]

I use PB&J and Black and Blue. Never had much luck with a Green Pumpkin jig.

[DitchPanda]

I pretty much throw green pumpkin 95% of the time all year for flipping jigs...swim jigs and bladed jigs are a different story.

[MIbassyaker]

With an understanding that there probably is not a wrong answer, I like my jig colors to approximate the colors I see when I look in the water. Craws, baitfish, and other critters tend to adopt the hues present in their environment.  I look at the colors of the predominant substrate (sand, mud, clay, rock), cover elements (weeds, wood, concrete walls and pilings), and stain (tannic brown, algae green, muddy, clear), and try to pick a jig that "fits" with the palette I see.  

 

A pretty-clear lake with light sandy loam bottom (common in my area) might suggest a brown with muted highlights that aren't too gaudy -- PBJ, or Amber/brown, or a light "pumpkin craw" pattern.  Darker water might call for a darker base, like black; I like orange and red highlights in brown-ish water, chartreuse highlights in algae-stained water.  Maybe green pumpkin or watermelon around weeds.  Plain black never seems to be a bad choice anywhere.

 

I don't quite understand why black and blue is so popular. Nothing wrong with it, I've just never experienced it outperforming anything else.  I'd probably rather use plain black, or a black/brown.

 

Reds and oranges are popular early spring colors for crankbaits and chatterbaits. Why? Maybe red contrasts well against spring background environments, like early weedgrowth? Maybe bass are looking for any snack they can find, and greater contrast makes red/orange baits easier to find?  And is this true of bottom baits like jigs as well as moving baits? This is something I need to try more systematically.

[EWREX]

i like to green pumpkin/black with orange in the spring time

 

[tholmes]

20 hours ago, Born 2 fish said:

Black and black or green pumpkin for me. All year. 

I've found that I can do just fine with these colors. I've substituted watermelon/red flake for green pumpkin because I got a really good deal on a bunch of skirts and found that it works just as well.

 

Tom

[WRB]

Not familiar with crayfish common to New Jersey area you are located?

Craws burrow into clay banks in cold water below 55 and emerge in mass as the water warms. Color in contrasting tones similar to molting crawdads are ideal.

Where I fish the craws are dark red/black before molting and light green tan after molting and bass prefer molting colors. Mixture of cinnamon/ light green skirts with cinnamon w/ green flake (GYCB #140 or 221) is a spring craw color works for me. 
Tom

[Bankbeater]

Black, black/blue, or green pumpkin depending on the water clarity and cloud cover.

[TriStateBassin106]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Not familiar with crayfish common to New Jersey area you are located?

Craws burrow into clay banks in cold water below 55 and emerge in mass as the water warms. Color in contrasting tones similar to molting crawdads are ideal.

Where I fish the craws are dark red/black before molting and light green tan after molting and bass prefer molting colors. Mixture of cinnamon/ light green skirts with cinnamon w/ green flake (GYCB #140 or 221) is a spring craw color works for me. 
Tom

The crawfish in our area are the Rusty Crawfish I believe. Here is a pic of one I got on video during the summertime on my lake. They have like a blueish red hue to them 

[WRB]

Rusty Crayfish I would go with Dark green and dark wine red skirts w/  962 Cowboy color trail trailer.

Tom

 

[scaleface]

Here the water in spring is often muddy  with just an inch or two of visibility . I have caught some nice  bass on black chartreuse and black orange .

[TriStateBassin106]

23 minutes ago, WRB said:

Rusty Crayfish I would go with Dark green and dark wine red skirts w/  962 Cowboy color trail trailer.

Tom

 

Where can I find those skirts/trailer? 

[WRB]

1 hour ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

Where can I find those skirts/trailer? 

Skirts Seibert Outdoors sponsor, Bama Bug and Falcon Lake Craw.

Yamamoto, GYCB Twin tail grub colors; 140 cinnamon brown w/green flake, 296 Root beer w/black & green flake.

Cowboy twin tail craw 926 Okeechobee craw.

Strike King Rage series Okeechobee Craw color.

Tom

PS, BR member TOXIC can help with GYCB colors, send a PM.

[Columbia Craw]

Water clarity drives the color.  You can see trend of dark and light patterns.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

Keep it simple. Black, GP and brown covers most situations.  

If I could only have 1 color early in the year it would be straight black.  It's good in muddy water and just as if not more effective in clear water.  

 

[papajoe222]

Here, in the spring, the water is super clear and the bottom is mostly sand and stone. I go with light brown/green and dip the tips of a chunk trailer in chartreuse dye. As the water darkens, I lean more toward brown and black/blue

[Catt]

Black-n-blue & Okeechobee Craw 

[Munkin]

Only difference for spring is I will add some orange.

 

Allen

[LonnieP]

PB&J with a green pumpkin craw

[TriStateBassin106]

9 hours ago, LonnieP said:

PB&J with a green pumpkin craw

I also heard PB&J works well with purple or junebug trailers, I'll have to give it a try 

[txchaser]

I read about a pro that would drop a crawfish trap in practice, so he could see exactly what was there and what it looked like. I thought to myself, that sounds fun. Traps are like $10 on amazon so not a high risk bet. 

 

Anyway, craws here are mostly a dark GP. But in the spring, it is GP/Red, kind of like the rage falcon craw color. Catt has a pic floating around here somewhere. I had some days on the water last year in spring and early summer that pretty much went like this: red cues, many bites. No red, no bite... or at least like 5x fewer bites. 

 

Anyway, put some cat food in a craw trap and see what you can find out. 

 

Or just use GP, brown, or black and blue... it'll probably work just fine. Except when it doesn't