Chatterbait colors

[detroit1]

I thought that fishing clear, natural lakes i should stick with whitish, bluegill , and brownish colors. My eyes were opened when i fished with a friend that makes his own. (not "assembled", but modifying a stock jig mold,etc.) Firecraw. It's a real thing even in clear water. Spring thru fall. In the spring i thought ok, that is supposed to work. But in the middle of summer? I wouldn't have thrown it, but i was hauling water in the back of his boat throwing a bluegill looking color. Meanwhile he was getting gooduns with his firecraw. I switched and started catching too. This happened a few more times throughout the season. I still throw white or bluegill first. (duh!) Firecraw next. Throwing a firecraw type color in clear water in summer goes against everything i thought i knew.

[EWREX]

95% of the time i throw some sort of green pumpkin color since main forage in my parts are mostly bluegill and perch. once in a while i'll throw a shad color, but i leave those to the spinnerbait. early spring i'll toss the fire craw jackhammer just because i feel obligated ?

[GetFishorDieTryin]

When the chatterbaits first started getting popular I pretty much only used black or black/blue.  I still use black and black/blue but it's either in dirty water or lower light conditions.  Primarily I'll use a GP or GP/brown if viz is more then 2.5' and the wind isn't howling.  White/pearl and shad colors work best for me earlier in the season.  I will use pearl or sexy shad in dirty water on cloudy/rainy days.  The white/shad colored baits are the only ones that I rarely black the blade out on.

I honestly think that the retrieve and profile more important than color the majority of the time.  So IMO keeping the skirt colors simple is the way to go.  You can change the color of the bait with just the trailer as well.  Get a couple dye pens and go to town 

[RB 77]

On 3/16/2022 at 4:04 PM, Bankbeater said:

White, and green pumpkin.  Those are the only two colors I fish with.  Most of the time it's white.

 

 

Yup. Me too. No need for anything else for me. I'm mostly throwing GP though. 

[txchaser]

Green Pumpkin/Red is different enough, and productive enough, that it is worth having...at least in TX.