lure and bait colors?

[slipperychicken]

Is color selection really as complicated as it seems?  Which colors for clear water?  Stained? Murky?  What about sunny days? Overcast?  I'm Confused!

[Rattlinrogue]

Darker colors on dark,overcast days.Lighter,more natural colors on sunny days and/or clear water.Bright colors in murky water.

[roadwarrior]

What Ratlinrogue said, it doesn't have to be complicated.

I generally use dark or natural colors for most lures and dark only for soft plastics, but here are always exceptions!

[Nick B]

I prefer natural colors, its easier to fool fish that think they are going after something natural

[Nick B]

But you could use my wife's theory on color selection, the prettier the better

[Marty]

But you could use my wife's theory on color selection, the prettier the better

It's probably as good as anything. I try to follow some general guidelines, but it hardly seems to matter. I've caught too many on natural colors in murky water and unnatural colors in clear water.

[7Lbass]

Guido Hibdon said it once.....There are 2 colors....

Black and Blue, and

Blue and Black...LOL

I agree with the Rogue on clear water Natural greens and browns...Unless I'm fishing below 15' then I'll stick with a black Jig....

Black in dirty water....Sometimes chartreuse...

Tommorow morn I'll have a Pink Floating worm tied on and a Natural colored Zara Spook for the morning bite...I to use a freaky color now and again...

[Chris]

You can make color selection as complex as you want or as simple as you want. It like this how many colors is a shad. Maybe white with a gray or bluish back. Then why is there a ton of different color crankbaits if a shad never really changes colors? Under different conditions certain colors are seen better. If a bass can see all colors all the time then shad and other bait items wouldn't have a chance. In clear water most people try to match their colors with natural colors. The match the hatch theory. Well, in clear water any color would work because fish can see all of them. The more stained the water is the less light can penetrate it and some colors are harder to see or they fade to gray. Even in clear water after 20 ft of water most all of the colors appear gray. Sunlight is not able to penetrate that far deep and light reflected off a color is what makes color. Blue is the only color that even at 20+ ft of depth still appears blue. There is the easy answer or you can dig at some of my other post if you want to get more indepth.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

For soft plastics I am starting to believe that you only NEED a few colors.  Black and blue, blue and black, and some shade of green.  That's about all I have used this year, except for sight fishing, and have had good sucess.  I have been trying to cut down on the amount of tackle I carry.  If I carry all my tackle with me the floor of the boat looks like a disaster area at the end of the day.  I still carry  every crankbait and spinnerbait color under the rainbow though.

[Gatorbassman]

Just last week I was fishing a tourney. I almost always throw a green pumpkin worm. After the first half hour of not getting a bite I noticed that the green pumpkin worm was almost the exact color as the stained water and was very difficult for me to see any deeper than 6 inches. I didn't switch to any specific color. I just grabbed the first dark color I saw (june bug) and on the second cast I landed a fish. I ended up placing 5th. I stayed with a natural looking color but made sure it could be seen well. I have about 60 pounds of plastics in a duffle bag in my office and you can put most of them into 3 color groups. Something with black, something with blue, and some type of green.

Exception; as my general rule these colors are great if you are fishing on or near the bottom. If I am fishing near the surface. Say, with a trick worm I try something in a lighter or brighter color first. (White, pink, methiolade, yellow)

My Motto: KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

[Guest avid]

I like fishing different lures.  A different color qualifies as different in my book.  I can tell you after bass fishing for allot of years that there are very few colors I think are poor fish getters.  Most of the colors seem to work well at one time or another.  There is no color called "confidence" but their should be.  It is really true that you fish much better when you truly believe your bait will catch fish.