Color Selection

[5150bass]

How do you decided what color lure to use when you get out on the water?  I read in an In-Fisherman book that "Largemouths have rods and cones.  The rods are black-and-white sensors that are good in dim light.  Cones are color receptors.  Bass shift reliance as light levels change.  They see colors when light is adaquate, but only shades of black and white when light is dim."

That all makes sense to me, but how do I use it to my advantage to picking colors?  

Thanks,

5150bass

[Raul]

Keep it simple !

Listen to the advice of someone that has more money than brains and has hundreds of baits in a rainbow of colors ( oh well, I like to purchase tackle )

Colors that always work in CRANKBAITS:

Silver & Black back

Gold & Black back

Shad

Baby Bass

Silver & Blue Back

Firetiger

Colors that always work in SPINNERBAITS:

White

White & Chartreuse

Firetiger

Black

Colors that always work in SOFT PLASTICS:

Watermelon

Green Pumpkin

Chartreuse

Purple

Black

Pumpkinseed.

Colors that always work in JIGS:

Black

Brown

White

With those you have covered practically all situations.

[GobbleDog]

I generally use natural colors in clear water and everything else in stained water.

If it's really stained, I go EXTRA UGLY:

[Preston]

The general rule is natural in clear, such as shad, silver, and bluegill patterns. Then in off colored water you go with all the other stuff that looks like nothing that could possibly be real. BUT sometimes especially with smallmouth the colors you would use in off colored water such as chartreuse and firetiger work wonders in clear water. But the best advice I can give you is stick to the general rule and EXPEREMENT in the water you fish to see what works best for you. Good luck and Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.

[Siebert Outdoors]

Like said above I keep it simple.  muddy usually dark colors or very bright. clear natural.

Most of the time I fish clear to stained and really never change lures.  

Jig is brown purple

tube grn pumpkin

chart/wht spinnerbait

craw color crank

white w blk/gld glttr senko

I have confidence in all these and rarely stray from them.

[kbj3579]

I'm with Raul on this one.  Keep it simple.  It's really easy to get caught up in all these colors.  You fish long enough and you'll figure out that you keep throwing the same colors and that pink, flourescent green, macerechrome, orange flaked swirled worm looks pretty, but it doesn't do any better than your watermelon curly tail worm does.  I think that colors play a part but if you stick to the basics as Raul said, it has more to do with profiles and action of the bait.  

[KU_Bassmaster.]

This is something that I focused on this year.  I was really trying to limit the number of colors of soft plastics I carry in my ever growing tackle bag.  This whole season I basically used 3 colors.  Black, Blue, and dark shades of green.  It really saved me some headaches while on the water and there was a lot less mess in the baot at the end of the day.  I also carried a few whites for sight fishing.  Jigs were bascially the same thing, but add brown in there.  Then there is crankbaits .............. Still have every color under the rainbow. :

[Shad_Master]

A color that Raul left out when listing colors for soft plastic -- although it may be included under the category of "purple" is June Bug -- have found this to be an awsome color and probably caught more bass on this single color than any other last year.  I also notice the absence of red in the list of colors for any of the baits -- ??

[GobbleDog]

I've done very with June Bug color with my curly tail worms in all types of waters, but when I bought June Bug colored Trick Worms, I didn't do well at all.

Who knows? Maybe just coincidence, but once it gets in your head, you can't shake it.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

A color that Raul left out when listing colors for soft plastic -- although it may be included under the category of "purple" is June Bug -- have found this to be an awsome color and probably caught more bass on this single color than any other last year. I also notice the absence of red in the list of colors for any of the baits -- ??

I knid of consider Junebug in the "Blue" category.  That was the hot color for me two years ago and it will worl in any water color.  About red, I like soft plastics with red flakes.

[GobbleDog]

A color that Raul left out when listing colors for soft plastic -- although it may be included under the category of "purple" is June Bug -- have found this to be an awsome color and probably caught more bass on this single color than any other last year. I also notice the absence of red in the list of colors for any of the baits -- ??

I knid of consider Junebug in the "Blue" category. That was the hot color for me two years ago and it will worl in any water color. About red, I like soft plastics with red flakes.

I agree on both points. Junebug seems blue to me. And I my favorite Trick Worm color is Green Pumkin with red flakes.

[George Welcome]

What physical components are in the eye of a bass can be seen during an autopsy. What can't be told is how they function when the fish is in the water alive.

The principle that most are conveying is keep it simple. Dark stained or muddy water calls for dark colors and clear water calls for light colors, except for when the bass change the rules, which can occur anytime you are fishing. Have some dark and some light and you can't go wrong.

[SCarter]

A color that Raul left out when listing colors for soft plastic -- although it may be included under the category of "purple" is June Bug -- have found this to be an awsome color and probably caught more bass on this single color than any other last year. I also notice the absence of red in the list of colors for any of the baits -- ??

I knid of consider Junebug in the "Blue" category. That was the hot color for me two years ago and it will worl in any water color. About red, I like soft plastics with red flakes.

I agree on both points. Junebug seems blue to me. And I my favorite Trick Worm color is Green Pumkin with red flakes.

Have to agree with Raul. Most of my crasnks are of chrome, blue, black, and chartruese. Plastic have to go to green pumpkin with  or without red flakes and watermelon. Mostly orange and brown for jigs.

[Raul]

I mentioned only the primary color of the bait; what makes the "junebug" color is the addition of green flakes to a purple, we 've got plain watermelon, watermelon with black flakes, watermelon with green & copper flakes, watermelon with red flakes, watermelon with black and gold flakes, watermelon with green and pink flakes, watermelon with green flakes, but the bait is watermelon, if you add red flakes to a black worm you 've got Ruby, if you add blue flakes you 've got Sapphire.  

[George Welcome]

I do so like that watermelon!

[SENKOSAM]

There are two purples used by different soft plastics companies. One is blue grape, from which June Bug is made; the other is a closer to a deep fuscia and is brighter and more translucent.

A fuscia purple uses florescent dye to brighten it, blue grape doesn't. As seen in the chart below, grape falls between blue and violet.

Most bright, soft plastic colors use florescent dyes and it's tough to tell whether that's so to catch the eye of the shopping angler or to stand out in stained water. Probably both. But keep in mind the following underwater color chart:

The less available light (overcast sky, deep water, shade) the shallower colors turn into shades of gray. Even a florescent opaque chartreuse will only appear as bright white, 1 hour after sundown. I sometimes think that a fish thinks, "if this thing in front of my mouth is too dumb or arrogant to camoflage itself, it deserves to be a meal." >

I'm surprised no one went nuts on matching the hatch as far as using certain natural color patterns! That argument went on for a couple of years until anglers started using wild and crazy to catch fish. In fact, if you find a bass that can tell the difference between a spring or fall colored crawfish, I suggest you pitch a tent and sell tickets under a sign that says. " smartest bass in the world!

I believe color can be an attracter or a repellent, but is that more to do with being bright versus subdued? I don't know, but my soft plastic colors of watermelon with black and red flakes and rootbeer with black and kelly green flakes, are my goto combos for any water. Black, gray, bone, chartreuse or white spinnerbaits - what else does one need? Firetiger, shad, bass, pearl or Tenn. shad for cranks. Poppers - who cares?

Knowing whento throw various colors, seems to me as important as what color to cast. Sometimes it doesn't matter.

[Guest whittler]

AMEN, Frank, love that smartest bass comment. I often think that some folks truly beleive that a bass swims alongside a potential meal and does a scale count to see ifs it gizzard shad or threadfin shad before striking.

[SENKOSAM]

I do like the natural color scheme idea though, only because in my bass sized brain I think that bass accept natural colors as part of their genetic imprinting. What's natural? pearl, white and silver; brown, green (punpkin) and black. Scales are nice, but as you said, fish can't count.

If that doesn't impress you, "I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once!"

[Triton_Mike]

In my opinion Color is probably the MOST over rated aspect of bass fishing.  I break my colors down into 3 categories.  Dark, Lights and WILD.  Darks being your blacks/blues,  LIghts being your natural colors, greens, green pumpkins, pumpkinseed etc.  Wild being Chartreuse, White, Bubblegum, Neons etc.  I don't worry about green fleck, black fleck etc etc.  I lump all of my colors into those 3 spectrums.  If they don't hit darks I go to Lights,  No lights I go to wild. I normally use darks and wilds in muddy water.  I use lights and wilds in clear water.  Lets be realistic you cant' own every color available or can we?  I would concentrate my efforts more on finding active fish and putting that bait in the strike zone than color.  Finding the Strike zone is 90% of the game.  

T Mike Bucca

[Guest avid]

Color matters, It's the fancy paint jobs that are over-rated.  Let me give a recent example.  I have a lucky craft live pointer in chartruese shad that I never caught anything on.  My home water varies from stained to really stained, to downright murky.  So I decided to brighten this lure up a little with my trusty paint pens.  I enlarged the chartruese area with a bolder chartreuse and gave it an orange area under the head.  It improved the lure and I caught a few.  Yesterday I was out and my usual fare wasn't producing so I switched to a pearl colored senko and boom, they started to hit.  I put on a white topwater (an ancient boy howdy) and got bit on that but the action was still slow.  the bass have been hitting jerk baits well lately so I wanted to put one on that was white, only I didn't have any.  Not a problem.  Out came the already painted LC Live pointer and my white paint pen and I went to work.  Now, realize that this is being done on the water by someone who can't paint a wall let alone anything fancy.  In addition, the chartruese color was "bleeding" through the white paint in spots.  After  I was done I held up the lure and just started laughing.  Here is an expensive lure that I turned into a mess.  Well I guess you know that I'm going to tell you that it was killer.  I caught 4 bass with it all in the 3-4 lb class.  It outfished everything else including a white jig, grub, worm, spinnerbait, and crankbait.  I am the Picasso of Piscatoria  ;D ;D ;D

[5150bass]

Thanks guys.  I can see your ideas on picking colors vary quite a bit.  But all the info was helpful.

SENKOSAM

Where did you get that chart, could you please give me the link?

Thanks,

5150bass

[SENKOSAM]

I'll try to find the link, but it was from a skin diver's site that demonstrated color at various depths in clear water. Imagine how those colors change to shades of gray in lower light or stainded water! But here's an excellent tutorial on color:

http://www.tacklemaking.com/tacklemakers/default.php?content=knowledge/sb_color&title=Colors%20in%20Soft%20Plastic%20Fishing%20Lures

These are the rule of thumbs that I go by. Color choice doesn't have to be complex, like Triton Mike demonstrated so well.

[Matt Fly]

There has to be something to color, whether its the sun has moved from 11am to 2pm.   Some times its a water melon redflake, and nothing else, or watermelon candy.  But not both.    

Two chrome traps, one with blue, one black back,   One will out fish the other almost every time, yes, each may catch some, but the other will be the killer choice.  Whats the deal, most strikes are coming up to hit.    

Red trap, firetiger, and chrome trap on clear water, blue-bird day in the winter.  Why is the red so dominat in the winter?

My only answer to most is the time of the year, position of the sun in accordance with distance to the earth.   Spring brings warmth, bright days, longer daylight.    The spring brings the sun closer to earth, which at that time of the year, the sun gives off a blue spectrum of light which is not detectable with the human eye.  As the months progress, the sun gets the closeest to earth as the middle of summer comes.  This makes for intense brightness, but the spectrum is now bluish/green.  As fall approaches and days start to cool, because the sun is getting further from our hemisphere on earth, the light spectrum is now in an orange/yellow color.   These same spectrums are seen in the rainbows.   Clouds at 50,000 ft, the name I can't recall, sometimes are there, white and fluffy, act as a filter on the sunny days, not noticable to say its a cloud covered day, since it appears to be bright and sunny, it just acts like a filter not seen.

The amount of light penatration, where the sun is located, the time of the year are just a few items to mention, amount of wind the past few days that stirs up the plankton in the water, even though clear to us, the plankton is stacked up on wind blown points after 3 solid days of wind on the points filters some light penatration out.   There are days in the summer with high pressure systems the norm, that for weeks, watermelon redflake is the ticket, the next day, after catching 35 the day before, red won't get one bite, but gold flake is the one, and maybe for one day, or a week.  

All of this came from studing plant life, mainly aquatic plants.   Knowing what plant gives off the most oxygen in the heat of the summer is nice to know, not all plants are created equal.  Some provide better shade, but use more oxygen which is in competition with fish who hang out under some of these plants.

We all have a base color and go to bait, and yes we caught 7 on a tough day, tough maybe because of that subtle change in light that isn't noticed by the human eye and the subtle change from watermelon gold flake to orange flake would have put 20 in the boat.  

That is one good thing about 2 fishing buddies working as a team, one throws a variation slightly different to find the solid pattern.

[.ghoti.]

I tend to classify bait colors into three categories, like Triton Mike. I call 'em dark, natural and goofy. But, color is the last part of the equation. Location (depth) is the first and most important. Presentation; speed, horizontal vs vertical, fast vs slow, erratic vs steady, is the next piece. Where the fish are  relative to the structure / cover determines the presentation. Get the location and presentation right first and worry about the color last. It's the least important part of the puzzle. Having said that, I will go with more natural colors as the water becomes clearer and darker as the water becomes more stained, going goofy as a last resort. Hope this helps.

Good luck to all,

GK

[roadwarrior]

1) OXYMORON

n. A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined, as in [a deafening silence] and [a mornful optimist]

        Color is not important unless it is and then it's critical.

I tend to stay with natural colors all of the time unless I'm advised otherwise or if one of my buddies has found the magic color. My best example is fishing at night for walleye, but I think this applies to bass, too. I was fishing jerkbaits (Rogues) at night with two other guys. In years past Frog has been hot, one year it was Clown, last summer it was Black & Silver with a Orange belly. Well, I had Black & Silver, same action, same diameter line, same everything EXCEPT an Orange belly.

Believe me color mattered. After an hour or so, I borrowed the same lure I was using but with an ORANGE belly and WooHoo!

Yep, sometimes color is everything.