Crankbait colors

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

I’m replacing all my crankbaits, and I’m wondering about colors. I live in an area where the water is pretty clear and the bass eat pretty much only crawfish and bluegill. Would it be dumb of me to only get the same crawfish and bluegill patters for crankbaits from a diving depth of 4ft all the way to 20ft? Should I mix up the colors more?

[casts_by_fly]

I find that if the fish are on a crankbait pattern, then you don't need a vast array of colors.  I'm in a similar position as you.  My water generally has 2-8' of visibility, so pretty clear, and lots of bluegill as forage.  I settled on a set of DTs and OGs with basically the same colors going through it.  In the 4-10 I've got something light for a shad pattern, a bluegill/pumpkinseed pattern, a chartreuse black back for lower visibility, and a craw of some type.  If I think the fish are on a crankbait day, I'm not worried about having the right or wrong color.

[Huckfinn38]

If thats their forage then that is what I would primarily Focus on.  At my lake in Central NC primary forage is shad and bluegill so that is the majority of my cranks.  I still would buy a couple shad patterns to try or have in case you hit a lake that has shad.

 

[MediumMouthBass]

All the lakes and ponds i fish the main source of food for bass is either bluegills or trout.

For the river its crawfish.

 

Ive spent more than i shouldve on bluegill imitator crankbaits, and so far not as many bites as i thought they would have gotten, but ridiculously bright and unnatural colors work great.

From anywhere between 1-5 feet of clarity.

But ill fish them anywhere from 4' to 25' deep divers.

I also bought some shad ones (even tho the bass in the places im fishing never even heard of it) and they work too.

 

Not all lakes and ponds are the same, some want natural looking baits and some dont,

id suggest just getting a few bluegill, shad, and browns and red/orange crawfish ones, and also try a few unnatural cranks (think chartreuse and other odd colors).

 

If theres 30 bluegill roaming the edge of a sunken tree, the bass will more than likely go for the one that either looks injured or looks different. Just some advice.

[king fisher]

When it come to crankbaits, I have every color imaginable, but I don't really need any exact colors.  I could easily get by with a color with Chartreuse, 

one with Red- Orange, one with purple, one  with brown, and something with green, or common pattern names of  craw pattern, a shad pattern,( resembles multiple baitfish besides shad) a bluegill pattern, and chartreuse  with black back.

 

[Mbirdsley]

if the water is clear i would get a couple translucent colors in what ever you decide.  colors like green, olive, shad, blue gill, and perch if you have them. 

[WRB]

For whatever reason bluegill green colored crankbaits haven’t been a good color for me even when the bass will strike green pumpkin soft plastics.

Shad and reddish brown crankbaits have always worked everywhere.

Tom

[scaleface]

When I get past say 8 foot all the way down to 22 foot , Chartreuse or Fire Tiger have been my best colors. More natural colors shallower.  I like the gold foil and perch that Rapala uses.

[Pat Brown]

I just use transparent shad patterns for the most part.  Black chartreuse is my favorite for when the water is dirty.

[OkobojiEagle]

As Scaleface mentioned, include firetiger in the mix...

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

 I mainly fish lakes with water clarity from 6ft to 18ft if that changes anything. Also in my area there are no shad at all.

[MediumMouthBass]

@August water clarity like that might make them want maybe something more natural, but bass are very opportunistic. If they think a bright chartreuse/orange/firetiger/even pink piece of food comes in front of them most of the time they will bite it. Just get a few colors to start and see what they prefer and go from there.

Also i have no shad in the places i fish, doesnt keep the bass from eating stuff that look like them.

In fact the only bass ive caught this year came off a white 6" swimbait that is very close to looking like a shad, even tho theres none in the lake i caught it.

Alot of big swimbait guys throwing 3-10oz lures across the country are mainly using rainbow trout painted ones, they catch huge bass even in places that dont have trout. Any chance to get a meal they will take it (if conditions are right)

[Pat Brown]

I'm going to use the same colors regardless of water clarity or forage on a lake or pond - what's more important is that I generally like dirtier water or wind or low light conditions or some combination of all three if I'm going to be throwing a crankbait!

 

You ever see the size of the sunfish or crappie or perch that big big bass like to eat?  They don't eat the big pretty reproductively mature sunfish or crappie very often because they would die if they did.  They typically opt for the bite sized juveniles when these are the preferred forage.  Shad are totally different and if there are gizzards, big big baits work great because bass will eat a 14" gizzard without dying.

 

The non shad species that bass prefer to feed on are generally not very 'developed' looking and I find that for the most part all of them are sort of transparent with a darker back and lighter belly.

 

I think you're mimicking the food as good as one can with a piece of plastic with hooks on it if you stick to transparent baitfish patterns regardless of fish on your lake or water clarity.

 

Again crankbaits are more about targeting fish at a depth and in cover that they target efficiently when good conditions for a crankbait present themselves.  Being that they are sort of aggressive presentations that displace a lot of water and make a lot of noise, typically I go for them when there's a lot of disturbance or water clarity is poor for some reason (strong winds or heavy rains are good examples).

[Bankbeater]

Shad, fire tiger, baby bass, and crawfish are my best colors. 

[OkobojiEagle]

6 hours ago, August said:

  Also in my area there are no shad at all.

Shiners, white bass, crappie, drum, carp... a shad pattern crankbait could look a little like many juvenile bait fish species.

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

This is getting away from the main topic I started, but I’m wondering about how many diving depths I need. I’m planning on using the DT line and they have 4ft 6ft 8ft 10ft 14ft 16ft and 20ft diving DTs. Should I get some of each depth, or would I be fine with skipping some and just getting like 4ft 8ft 14ft and 20ft? I’ll probably end up with multiple colors of each depth at one point but I guess I’m just asking what depth I should go with first

Edited April 24, 2024 by August

[Catt]

Do not under any circumstance throw black...ya might get your arm broke!

[Pat Brown]

14 hours ago, August said:

This is getting away from the main topic I started, but I’m wondering about how many diving depths I need. I’m planning on using the DT line and they have 4ft 6ft 8ft 10ft 14ft 16ft and 20ft diving DTs. Should I get some of each depth, or would I be fine with skipping some and just getting like 4ft 8ft 14ft and 20ft? I’ll probably end up with multiple colors of each depth at one point but I guess I’m just asking what depth I should go with first

 

This question is something only you can answer for yourself. 

 

How deep do you want the bait to dive? 

 

Do you want it banging into the cover or just above the cover?

 

Do you want it just under the surface?

 

Are you planning on fishing it very deep or very shallow for the most part? 

 

I personally have some crank baits that could pass as top Waters and I have some crank baits that seem to find something to dig into no matter how deep the lake is and then I've got lots of stuff in between.

 

My home lakes usually average somewhere between 3 and 10 ft deep, at least where bass like to be most of the year I find that something that dives about 6 to 8 ft or a medium diving crankbait is pretty okay as a catch-all solution but I don't like doing it that way. 

 

Because crankbaits are kind of a reaction bite and I really like to be able to burn them and kill them and burn them and kill them and do stuff like that I really do like to select the diving depth pretty exactly.

 

Sometimes when I really want to go very, very slow. I use a very deep diving crankbait in shallow water so that it's very easy to keep it in contact with the bottom and move my reel very slowly. 

 

As you can see -  just as with any technique in fishing, there are many levels to mastery and there is tons of nuance and tons of scenarios where you might want to be using one thing or another thing. 

 

Profile and action and size matter more than color for what it's worth. 

 

I'd be more concerned with having some very compact / small ones, some medium sized ones and a few larger ones than having the colors match my forage.

 

You're going to probably want some that move a lot of water and wobble a lot with kind of fatter bodies and you're going to want some that wiggle very subtly and don't move a lot of water with flatter bodies.  There are times of year and even situations where the fish just don't want one or the other. 

 

Crankbaits can definitely be a lot of fun, but they can also be a headache and as a result I don't fish them a lot. 

 

Typically go for a lipless crankbait because then I can do whatever I want with it basically.

 

The times I still opt for a crankbait with a lip on it are when the fish are loaded up on steep bluff walls and riprap. Hard to beat something with a bill ticking those rocks or tops of trees and digging in and diving.  Sometimes the tops of the trees is maybe 4 ft higher than the bottom of the lake and that's when the diving depth of the crankbait becomes very critical. Sometimes they want the bait to tick the cover. Sometimes they want it burying in the cover.  Sometimes they want it whooshing above the cover without touching it at all.

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

4 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

 

This question is something only you can answer for yourself. 

 

How deep do you want the bait to dive? 

 

Do you want it banging into the cover or just above the cover?

 

Do you want it just under the surface?

 

Are you planning on fishing it very deep or very shallow for the most part? 

 

I personally have some crank baits that could pass as top Waters and I have some crank baits that seem to find something to dig into no matter how deep the lake is and then I've got lots of stuff in between.

 

My home lakes usually average somewhere between 3 and 10 ft deep, at least where bass like to be most of the year I find that something that dives about 6 to 8 ft or a medium diving crankbait is pretty okay as a catch-all solution but I don't like doing it that way. 

 

Because crankbaits are kind of a reaction bite and I really like to be able to burn them and kill them and burn them and kill them and do stuff like that I really do like to select the diving depth pretty exactly.

 

Sometimes when I really want to go very, very slow. I use a very deep diving crankbait in shallow water so that it's very easy to keep it in contact with the bottom and move my reel very slowly. 

 

As you can see -  just as with any technique in fishing, there are many levels to mastery and there is tons of nuance and tons of scenarios where you might want to be using one thing or another thing. 

 

Profile and action and size matter more than color for what it's worth. 

 

I'd be more concerned with having some very compact / small ones, some medium sized ones and a few larger ones than having the colors match my forage.

 

You're going to probably want some that move a lot of water and wobble a lot with kind of fatter bodies and you're going to want some that wiggle very subtly and don't move a lot of water with flatter bodies.  There are times of year and even situations where the fish just don't want one or the other. 

 

Crankbaits can definitely be a lot of fun, but they can also be a headache and as a result I don't fish them a lot. 

 

Typically go for a lipless crankbait because then I can do whatever I want with it basically.

 

The times I still opt for a crankbait with a lip on it are when the fish are loaded up on steep bluff walls and riprap. Hard to beat something with a bill ticking those rocks or tops of trees and digging in and diving.  Sometimes the tops of the trees is maybe 4 ft higher than the bottom of the lake and that's when the diving depth of the crankbait becomes very critical. Sometimes they want the bait to tick the cover. Sometimes they want it burying in the cover.  Sometimes they want it whooshing above the cover without touching it at all.

Thank you. Can you give me some examples of some fatter, and flatter bodied crankbaits? Also what is your recommendation for lipless cranks?

[Pat Brown]

Tackle Warehouse does a pretty good job splitting them up by flat side and non-flat side and lipless and I use mostly a variety of popular choices at different sizes and depths. But I use pretty much transparent shad patterns or black chartreuse because I don't want to buy 800 crankbaits.

[fishballer06]

7 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I don't want to buy 800 crankbaits.

 

Why the heck not?

 

-The Bait Monkey

[Pat Brown]

I only got room in my life for 80-100 or so and that seems to be more than I can use in one lifetime despite all my best efforts to lose them.

[papajoe222]

I've found that with clear water, I do much better with silent cranks. Even though there are no shad in the clear lakes I fish, my two best producing colors are some version of sexy shad and red crayfish. I do have plenty of bluegill and firetiger baits, but like someone else mentioned, if the crankbait bite is on, action and vibration are much more important than color.

[king fisher]

9 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

I only got room in my life for 80-100 or so and that seems to be more than I can use in one lifetime despite all my best efforts to lose them.

It doesn't matter if you have time to use them all.  What matters is the next one you buy could be the magic one.  I have 100 old crankbaits that sit in my old lures box that doesn't ever leave the house.  That doesn't stop me from buying more crankbaits.  It's not about what you have but about what you will have that matters.

[KP Duty]

6 minutes ago, king fisher said:

It doesn't matter if you have time to use them all.  What matters is the next one you buy could be the magic one.  I have 100 old crankbaits that sit in my old lures box that doesn't ever leave the house.  That doesn't stop me from buying more crankbaits.  It's not about what you have but about what you will have that matters.

My man!

 

"How's my driving?"  "I think we're parked, man."  -Cheech & Chong