When to change colors

[Justbass11]

Today, as I was fishing, I switched over to a suspended jerk bait. As I was fishing this particular jerk bait I was thinking that since I was not having any luck with it, should I switch colors? My question to y’all is, when do you know when to change colors of a particular bait that you are using? I’m not talking about because the water is clear or cloudy, I’m talking about a color that just is not working. Does that make any sense? Anyway, thanks for the replies. Have a blessed day.
 

[Pat Brown]

I'll change speed or depth long before I change color.

 

The only time I worry about color is in very clear water or very muddy water.  The rest of the time its very low on the totem pole.

 

If I'm not getting bit on a bait I assume it's the action of the bait that isn't appealing, not the color.

 

Bass eat lots of different things that are lots of different colors and I think what causes them to hit a lure is the speed of the lure and the depth it's presented.

[Woody B]

I'm not one to care much about color but I had an interesting time back in June.  Mrs B and myself were on vacation.  In the previous weeks I had been catching a bunch of bass on DT6's.   My DT6 bite had died off a week or so before our vacation.  My "normal" DT6 color is Helsinki Shad.   DT6's are kinda fragile and I was running low on them.  I went to stock up but the local tackle shop where I buy them was out of that color.  I ended up getting some in Live River Shad color.   I ended up basically catching the heck out of them.  I switched back to a Helsinki Shad color and didn't get bit.   That's the only time I recall a small change in color making a difference.   Mrs B and myself caught well over 100 bass on our vacation.  Most of them were on live river shad DT6's.   

 

[thediscochef]

like all things bass fishing I think it's variable. I think there's times where it's everything and I think there's times where they'll eat a lively sock if you throw it. I think it's more likely to matter when the bite is tough. I know it absolutely makes a difference in my red eye shad fishing, and with the ol monsters I've been using

[casts_by_fly]

If I’m getting hits but just not quite hooking them or hooking them but just by the back hook then I’ll swap color. It tells me I had the right presentation and general lure to make them eat it but not ‘convincingly’. 

[Captain Phil]

Changing colors helps you maintain your confidence level and keeps your line in the water. That is 90% of bass fishing.

[ironbjorn]

Watch the fish run with your lure for 38 seconds to make sure it's in their mouth. When you swing and miss, that's when it's time to change colors. That will make all the difference.

 

I've been watching too much YouTube fishing.

[gim]

I recently had a color change moment the other day.  When I started, there was a cloud deck.  I was using a darker color red lure and catching fish.

 

Around 9:30am, I lost the clouds and the sun came out.  I kept using the dark colored lure, but the bites shut off.  So I switched to a white one in the same type of lure and the bites quickly returned.

 

I knew the fish were still there, and I knew what type of presentation was working because I had been on a consistent pattern for a couple weeks.  I just needed to change colors because of the local weather conditions.

[king fisher]

    One day last year I was catching big bass on a shelf in 15 feet of water on a Chart. and black deep diving crank bait.  The night before I had been catching them on the next shelf up in 5 feet of water on a chart. and black square bill.

     After about 10 bass all over 5 pounds the bite stopped.  All the bass had completely choked the crankbait so I assumed the area was beat up, and I was going to move, but decided to try another color of the same crankbait and see if I could pick up one more bass.  I put on a shad color crankbait and on the first cast I caught two 5 pound bass, then proceeded to catch another half dozen bass between 5 and 8 pounds on the shad colored crankbait.

     I don't think the shad color was as important as simply the bass were tired or chartreuse. I would suspect they would have hit any more natural color.  That day I learned it never hurts to switch colors for a cast or two just to see if the bass are tired of the color you are throwing. 

[greentrout]

I like to keep it simple. I use green pumpkin, watermelon red speck and june bug and keeping black and red shad close by. I won't hesitate to change colors often.

[txchaser]

Poor bites on a crank are a pretty good sign. Other than that, here's an example:

I saw some fish stacked up on a point, and was throwing my 'starting color' and they weren't biting it. The water was pretty clear, so I grabbed the same lure in very natural color and tried that. Nothing. So I went all the way to the other end of the spectrum and threw a blue back chart lure, and they ate it. Made no sense in that clear water, but I knew they were there and "should have" been biting it, so I thought it worth a color change. 

 

On soft plastics it's pretty rare that I change color (just start with water clarity and time of year choice) unless I get a clue like seeing specific colors on a craw claw or something like that. Although this summer, sticking it out in high percentage spots and messing around with color has been fruitful. 

 

I will say that flake/no flake has seemed like a more important soft plastics choice than color, up to a point. 

[BigAngus752]

I have identified the appropriate colors for the lakes that I fish.  Each lake has it's "preferred" colors.  I only change them:

1. Very early spring (the red cranks come out and the vibrating jigs have paddletail trailers and no skirts)

2. Extremely muddy/stained conditions (darker/louder/Fogy's with the bubble blade)

3. Very sunny (that's when chrome is the deal)

[TriStateBassin106]

I try to match my colors best to the water clarity and sky conditions, at least up here in the northeast we have some colors that always work like anything perch or golden shiner (for hardbaits) usually if I catch fish on a certain color that I know for sure works under certain conditions I don't change it unless the conditions change. Not because the fish aren't interested. Usually there's some other factor at play with that like fish movement and mood. 

[scaleface]

 If fish are just not committing to a lure , follows , short strikes... a color change has solved the problem a few times.

[WRB]

You can go nuts changing crank bait colors, almost as bad as soft plastics but more expensive!

If you are fishing along it becomes intuitive when to change colors. Fishing with a partner it’s easier, change when the partner is kicking you butt.

I try to use colors similar to what the primary prey the bass are eating is. Shad, then Shad colors, crawdads then crawdad colors, crappie or Bluegill then those colors. Depth and size are important imo.

Tom

 

[Bankc]

I know colors can make a difference.  But I'm not confident enough in any bait to stick with it long enough to cycle through colors if my first attempts weren't working.  Nor am I rich enough to own a whole bunch of different baits in a whole bunch of different colors.  So I usually pick colors based on conditions, and if that doesn't work, make big changes until I stumble across something that does.  

 

My order of things to change goes:

Depth -> Location -> Retrieve Speed -> Action or Rate of Fall -> Profile Size -> Sound -> Color.