Choosing a color

[dolf]

How do you guys choose your color baits when buying and fishing? I am from central florida and am wondering what the best colors are for swimbaits, shallow cranks, topwater, and senkos.. These are what i usually go to to catch most of my bass. Is there a simple breakdown on how to choose colors? Does your color selection change with season as well as time of day? I need this broken down barney style so i can remember it. Thanks

[BassChaser57]

KVD says that for plastics he starts with a color somewhat similar with the bottom. This should narrow the starting point to pumpkin or watermelon in most areas.

According to "Knowing Bass" Dr. Jones studies indicate cranks with silver sides with black back is the number one color for bass.

Of course there are unlimited colors but this is always a good starting point as these guys are way smarter about bass than I am.

Good Luck

8-)

[jrhennecke]

I choose my colors based on water clarity and forage.

black/blue, chartruse, watermelon, chrome and red are basically the colors I throw for all my baits.

[Grey Wolf]

WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The water clarity and cloud cover should dictate what shade of color you throw.

[dolf]

So what is best for clear water and sky's? Should it be something very lifelike looking to the baitfish in the lake?  maybe something with some flash to it? What colors are best in overcast?

What are you florida guys using as your swimbaits?

[Nwfisher]

I am still learning color patterns, but generally I choose 4 colors.

1. color that matches the baitfish. silver/black, silver/blue, mini rainbow trout

2. color that matches the NW crawdads. red/orange, red/black, orange/purple

3. color that matches depth/clarity/and the color prism. Red shallow, Purple deep...watermelon and pumpkin for the inbetween.

4. colors that catch my eye. Hologram...this category usually hits the wallet more than it does the fish.

Overall, i have terrible luck with red, but great luck with purple. Chartreuse is the go-getter.

[jrhennecke]

So what is best for clear water and sky's? Should it be something very lifelike looking to the baitfish in the lake? maybe something with some flash to it? What colors are best in overcast?

What are you florida guys using as your swimbaits?

Natural colors.  As far as which swimbaits the Florida guys are using, that would be the ones we used in California last year.

[FD.]

Dolf

Stained water    Firetiger crankbaits, Junebug / Red Shad plastics, blue/black jigs

Clear water,  White/sexy shad cranks, motoroil, light purple, watermelon plastic.

This is all I use and almost always catch fish in fl

[Branuss04]

I choose my colors based on water clarity and forage.

+1.  But it's just a guidline, sometimes i'll throw a craw crank with waters that don't have craws.  Don't overthink it too much.

[Hookemdown.]

Since RW hasn't replied yet, I'll say it for him.

Use DARK colors

[Raul]

How do you guys choose your color baits when buying and fishing?

The BaitMonkey usually does the buying, I just pay the bill, he 's a sucker for pretty colored baits, me being a tackle junkie I just gotta get a big bunch of baits in the colors he chooses. Simple process.

I am from central florida and am wondering what the best colors are for swimbaits, shallow cranks, topwater, and senkos.. These are what i usually go to to catch most of my bass.

Which is the best color for swimbaits ? :-? .... now that 's a tough one :-/, ok now let 's see ..... in my neck of the woods bass have never seen a rainbow trout and rainbow trout patterned baits work well, there ain 't no shad either and those work too, guess what ? there ain 't no oikawa nor peacock bass either and those work too.

Is there a simple breakdown on how to choose colors?

Yup, there is a simple breakdown, right now I feel like fishing with a red shad worm or parrot crankbait, twenty minutes later I 'm bored and I change to let 's say chartreuse worm or a hot mustard crankbait

Does your color selection change with season as well as time of day?

Well it does change with the time of the day for the reasons I explained above, it was no rocket science, it was my mood.

Color is one of the things that has a place in my list when choosing a bait but there are a lot of more important things to me to choose before choosing color.

[roadwarrior]

Welcome aboard!

I have lures with most colors, but I generally fish "dark" or some

kind of white and/or silver regardless of the water or time of year.

Sometimes chartreuse, too!

8-)

[LCpointerKILLA]

For hadbaits my best colors are any bait fish color, and especially any lure that is a little translucent.

[Shadcranker]

I've written several posts to the same effect as I will discuss below, and most of the time the bait monkey's followers take issue with my opinion, but here it goes:

I try to keep color selection fairly simple. Most color variations are put out to market and sell more baits (i.e the sexy shad craze). How much of a sales increase do you think Strike King has seen in it's hard bait line with the success KVD had winning 2 Elites last year on the Sexy Shad color?

If I go out to buy a new soft plastic, I only buy two colors- one dark and one light or translucent. My basic go-to colors are watermelon Pepper for light, and Junebug for dark. Sometimes, I'll substitute balack n blue in dark or watermelon candy for light. But regardless, I usually just buy two bags.

The only excepetion to this rule in soft plastics is when trying to imitate a shad. For example, 90% of my fluke fishing is with Pearl White, b/c I'm fishing it as a shad imitation. Swimbaits, trick worms, and sometimes Senkos fall into theis category if it's a shad related bite. We have shad around here, both Threadfin and gizzard shad, and they are the main foreage base.

For hardbaits, I take a very similar approach. I but three basic patterns for crankbaits- shad, chartreuse / blue, and craw colors. I only buy the craw colors in 2-8 ft models. If I'm deep cranking, I either use shad or Chart / blue. For rattle baits, it's chrome n blue or red 90% of the time. For Topwaters, it's 70% shad and a few gold or chartreuse patterns.

For jigs, I use three basic colors- green / brown combo, green pumpkin / blue combo, and black n blue. Trailers to match.

By keeping it simple, I can cover 99% of fishing situations without having to have 15 colors in all 50 variations, sizes, shapes of baits I use.

I also carry a good selection of dipping dye in the boat in case I need to add a touch of chart, orange, or red.

Just my two cents worth, but it makes buying baits, tackle storeage, and on the water decisions much more simple.

Fight the bait monkey! You willnever win the war, but you can prevail in an occasional battle.

SC

[Bassnbrett101]

color isnt really that hard, just remember to mimick the baits that live in the lake your fishing.  If theres shad in the lake use white or silver.  Since your in florida i'm pretty sure there are golden shiners in alot of the lakes down there and if there is you'll want to use golden lure that mimicks those baitfish.  for baits on the bottom its really easy, junebug works well in florida but green pumpkin works everywhere.  use bait colors that look natural to you, and often it will look natural to the fish as well.

For off colored water use chartuese firetiger red or black though.  Use black in the darkest of water with chartuese red and firetiger in slightly stained water, for hard baits atleast

[Raul]

Fight the bait monkey! You willnever win the war, but you can prevail in an occasional battle.

BaitMonkey had Tsung Tsu & Macchiaveli as teachers, you ain 't.

[utahbasser]

MATCH THE HATCH, meaning choose the same color of the prey the fish eats. thats why you see a lot of california guys thrown rainbow trout colored swimbaits. the bass eat rainbow trout. so just match what the fish are eating

[Raul]

MATCH THE HATCH, meaning choose the same color of the prey the fish eats. thats why you see a lot of california guys thrown rainbow trout colored swimbaits. the bass eat rainbow trout. so just match what the fish are eating

Yeah like matching to rainbow trout where there are no trout and there will never be no trout and still catch fish with rainbow trout pattern.  :

[ww2farmer]

The only reason I have almost all the colors under the sun is because I am a tackle junkie.

I catch 99.9% of my fish on these colors of soft plastics or jigs:

Green Pumpkin

Black/Blue

Watermelon w/Red Flake

Red Shad

Junebug

For Spinnerbaits:

White

Chartruse and White

Cranks, Jerks and top waters:

Silver/black

Gold/Black

Firetiger

Red Craw

Perch

[ba7ss3in]

And when all else fell,  

[Catt]

I've seen times where I caught bass for 11 days straight on the same color worm & I've seen times where I had to change colors after every bass caught. I've caught bass on pink, bright yellow or methiolite trick worms, white skirted spinner baits with chartreuse blades, spinner baits with pink & chartreuse skirts, red skirted buzz baits at night & what about motor oil? Aint nothing swims that color.

When I look at bait I think to myself would I bite that & if the answer is yes I buy it  

[Handy]

My color choices are very simple. Cranks, dark back light belly. Some of my cranks are silver belly black back and some are yellow belly blue back. And some firetiger. As for plastic all are either watermelon green with red flake, smoke with some sort of flake, and pumpkinseed.

Paul