another epic "colors" discussion

[Thefishy1]

Of course color matters. The last tournament that out club had on santee two of our anglers were fishing the same cove with the same weight and type pf zoom worm and one caught 8lbs and won and the other caught 2lbs and did horribly. The difference the 8lbs was caught on Watermelon Red, and the 2lbs were caught on a junebug.

Another tournament last month on Russell I was fishing a bold bluegill curl tail Roboworm and I was not catching anything. And about 2hours into using my roboworm/dropshot my boater catches on a purple smoke finesse worm. And he says that I could use one of the worms if I want because at least he had caught a fish on it. So I put one on and two casts later BAM I catch one "what a coincidence I'm thinking" and a couple more castd after that BAM I catch another one. Ha and some people say that color does not matter.

[earthworm77]

                                                           A Question of Color

Historically, bass anglers have gravitated to either of the two ends of the spectrum of beliefs towards fishing soft plastics: those who feel that brown, black and purple are the only ones necessary, and those who spend more time searching through boxes of different colors than they do fishing. Today the majority of us will fall some place between the extremes, often wondering whether we carry too few or too many choices.

Does color really matter? You can look to the waters you fish for the answer.

Let's consider that each species of fish, or at least various parts of their bodies, come in a rainbow of colors. Bass are shades of green, with some species having fins approaching red. Sunfish run the gamut of greens, reds, blues, yellows, purples and oranges. Most catfish are gray, brown or black. Salmon range from silver to bright red. If color hadn't been important to their survival, countless years of evolution would have resulted in all species looking roughly the same and certainly they would be all colored the similarly.

In addition, scientists have found, the eyes of fishes have rods, cones and a pigment called melanin, which means that fish can see color. Bass even have a mechanism built into their eyes giving them the ability to detect differences in contrast (dark versus light) - an asset when water clarity is poor.

I believe the bass can differentiate between colors and at times can be locked into specific colors. When this occurs, you might experience good action on a particular hue while a different color gets ignored. Generally I try to imitate natural forage when I'm selecting a color. I have found that this is often the most efficient way to go. I've seen first hand how fickle bass can be if you are not throwing the right color so I truly feel that it does matter. Call me a purist but those trout anglers who match the hatch streamside are dead on. It can't hurt to try to mimic nature as best as you can. The alternative is to plug away with reckless abandon. I just feel that you should make an educated decision when it comes to picking the color of the bait on the end of your line.

As I stated, bass can absolutely lock onto one color. Science has proven that bass can see color better than humans. Consider a trip I took about 5 years ago to the deep woods. I had just been introduced to the Senko and was given a sleeve of 200 pearl blue shad baits in 4 inch size. My partner and I managed to use the whole sleeve up in an afternoon of fishing. To say that these fish were keying in on this particular color is an understatement. We switched colors several times but the action slowed until we put that pearl color back on. In this instance, the bass were locked on to the natural shad color we were throwing. Switching up provided us with little activity.

I've noticed within the last few years that a few colors in particular have been the most consistent producers for me. Green Pumpkin, Black Red Flake, Road Kill and Watermelon have all been deadly for me. While none of these is a dead ringer for an exact replica in nature, they are subtle hues that produce just about anywhere I've thrown them.

I certainly will not argue about what colors bass see best. I've heard so many ideas about which color disappears as depth increases. Consider that a bass has very good vision and perhaps just because a human can't see red in the depths, maybe a bass can. That might explain why baits with red gills that imitate blood trails work so well.

The amount of colors one can fill his tackle box with is staggering. When I started fishing in the 70's, there were only a handful of selections and they still catch fish today. If I was asked what my favorite colors are, I would likely list a half dozen or so that would likely take fish anywhere in the country.

Color changes in water

So, as far as I have stated, color is important, but which specific color or colors will matter most? When selecting soft plastics to throw, it's important to know which colors are actually visible to bass in their underwater world.

Sunlight is composed of different wavelengths of light, each corresponding to a specific color. If you want bass to see your bait, the wavelengths of the colors in it must be present in the light. This isn't a problem when looking at your baits out of the water; there, unfiltered sunlight makes your soft plastics look vibrant. Unfortunately, that's usually not the case below the surface, where light gets filtered.

This interesting color is called copper melon. Essentially watermelon but when the light hits it, the color reveals its copper accents

Water is transparent, but it's never pure or absolutely clear; it always contains suspended and dissolved particles that filter and absorb light passing through it. In most bodies of water, this effect blocks the majority of the light, and thus color, in the first 5 feet. So the deeper your bait penetrates, the less color it will reflect or hold.

To complicate things, water itself absorbs different wavelengths of light at different rates, so some parts of the spectrum penetrate deeper than do others - a critical factor to consider when choosing a bait color. The depth and order in which colors disappear will depend on the amount and type of suspended and dissolved materials, and no two bodies of water are alike. That's why different lakes, even those in the same region, can have entirely different colors producing fish at the same time.

There has to be some degree of truth to this. While some anglers may disagree that color is not important, I've seen the Color-C-Lector, which is a device that measures light penetration and can pinpoint what color is most visible at a certain depth. Coincidentally, it has been demonstrated to me that the colors this device chooses are usually the ones that work best in that depth.

Early on I realized that bass fishing is a game of variables. It all depends how you approach it and from what angle you start at. There may be no wrong way to go about it but there definitely are more consistent ways. Regarding color, I've long heard that dirty water baits should be bright and clear water baits should be subtle and natural. This is a mere generality; it certainly is not a golden rule. I've caught bass on clear worms in a mud flow and taken fish on gaudy colored baits in gin clear water. I really don't think that many of the old fishing adages are really consistent enough to be considered fact. I think that as these rules of lore were passed on through generations they gained momentum and formed a grasp on what we as anglers look back and associate the good old days of early angling to be like.

It takes time on the water to learn what baits are most visible in every situation, but there are general guidelines that will help you pick colors.

Match the hatch? Maybe not.

So now you understand that color matters, and you have a selection of hues to meet every situation. How do you pick a color to use in a particular situation or even for the first cast of the day?

I feel that matching the hatch is the way to go. Ultimately, we're trying to trick bass into eating something they think is real and the main thing I take into consideration is the forage bass are eating. Casting shrimp patterns when bass are chasing schools of shad will only reduce your odds of success.

After you figure out what the bass are feeding on, choose a soft-plastic bait that approximates the size and color of the forage. Try light-colored plastics when bass are eating baitfish and darker colors when crawdads are their fare.

Unnatural-looking soft plastics will in certain situations out produce baits that look realistic. Sometimes that's due to conditions that are obvious, while at other times there seems to be no logical reason for the behavior of your quarry.

If water clarity prohibits you from using a natural shad pattern, even when you know the bass primarily feeding on shad you need to use common sense and adjust

There are no sure things in bass fishing, but having confidence in your baits is a big step toward success. You're more likely to catch fish by giving your confidence color choice a chance. Even when fishing unfamiliar waters, the basic colors are likely the ones that will point you in the right direction.

There are several schools of thought regarding bass and bait color. Some anglers will argue that a bass isn't at all interested in the color of a bait and is instead focused on the action or vibration of the bait. Others will argue that bass definitely tune in on color and will strike a bait based on its accuracy. Still others will say that you must match the hatch to consistently draw strikes.

Effective Colors For Bass Fishing-my top 7

Black, Black or any variation of black is likely my favorite color. Black Red Flake, Black Blue Flake, Black Blue Purple Flake

[earthworm77]

Black Grape-This dark, deep grape has been my number two favorite. It is so versatile and effective. Add some green flake and you have Junebug.

Green Pumpkin-This dark watermelon green with black flake has become a standard among bass anglers everywhere.

Watermelon-This clear wine bottle green color is a great natural hue.

Pumpkinseed-Perhaps few other colors have received so much attention. This cloudy brown with black flake is another must have.

Red Shad      Laminating black and cloudy red into one package produced one of the most popular soft plastic bait colors of all time. This on is a killer.

Roadkill Camo-This color is a hybrid changeable color that appears green in the light but brown to the eye. It features a copper highlight that makes it deadly.

Of course there are tons of other effective colors but you would be hard pressed to start with any colors but these.

I'm a firm believer of throwing colors that other guys do not have or can't get access to. This is one of the reasons I started hand pouring my own baits. I've developed a strong arsenal of custom colors that really have paid off for me. It is amazing to check out a color palette from a hand pour company to see just how many unique colors there are.

The amount of combinations is endless. You can add bloodlines and glitter to several simple colors to form an entirely different color that fish may have never seen. If the fish are not biting, you may be in the right spot, you just may be throwing the wrong color.

The effectiveness of some colors can vary by region. In the North East where I grew up, there are some old stand bys that guys down South or out West may not ever fish, let alone know exist. Colors like Erie Green, New England Craw, Road Kill Camo and Pond Scum are a few of the more well known colors that are deadly in my part of the country. Erie Green is a mustard color that features chartreuse or pale green or gold micro flake, as you can guess, it is deadly on Lake Erie. New England craw or blue craw as the locals call it is a brown green pumpkin with a solid blue tail. This color is popular for tubes and jig n pigs. Road kill has been tremendously popular among tube fishing smallmouth fanatics. This color is a copper brown and green pumpkin mix that features a pearl copper/gold finish. I've been making this color in a soft stick bait and it is super deadly. Pond Scum is a subdued watermelon that features multiple flake colors and is deadly as a jig or chunk. Other colors I've seen in different regions of the country are Florida June Bug, Florida Red shad, San Juan River Craw and Table Rock Shad. There are likely countless others and they don't just work on those specific areas from which they are named.

Roadkill Camo

What do you look for when you page through the endless supply of plastics from the major catalog houses? Do you flock towards the wacky colored soft plastics like a moth to a porch light? Colors are available in almost endless combinations. There are combinations of colors with solids, translucent hues, laminates, and of course all of these colors with an endless amount of glitter flecks. But, does color catch the eye of the fish or is color only for anglers' satisfaction? Why do manufacturers bank concentrate on producing colors rather than revolutionary baits. Shouldn't their baits have other features that make them attractive to fish and anglers alike?

Think back about any really successful day you ever had on the water. Likely you can remember much about the specific day and likely you know the exact color you were throwing.  I would guess that more anglers forget the bait they used but remember the color. I got em on a red shad worm that day. Scuppernong was the color that nailed all of those bass.

I'm not sure if color is as important to bass as we think. I feel it grabs the anglers' attention first. Of course there are some colors that work better than others in certain situations but there are outside factors that determine that. Does a bass smack a bait because it is black or because the angler dropped the bait right on top of the fish? I can't answer that either with a definitive answer but it may be the combination of both.

I'll go on record as stating I prefer natural colors to abrasive bright ones. Subdued baitfish and crawfish colors seem to work most of the time and you can generally find a hue to match any water condition. If you think about it, it doesn't matter what the water clarity is, there is always some type of forage present and they are not pink! I stick with the match the prevalent forage theory

There are your ordinary colors that match the bottom of the lakes or streams such as rock bottoms and forage, where blacks, browns, greens dominate. There are colors that match baits such as, clear colors like shad. There are colors that match sunfish, bluegill. What about un natural colors? Do they have their place in nature too? Red could mean blood, injured and dying prey or gills. There are also gaudy colors like yellow, pink, orange and chartreuse. These really duplicate nothing in nature yet at times they are extremely successful.

There is no doubt in my mind that color can absolutely influence the bite. I try to keep my choices and selection in check and manageable. You really can get caught up the vast amount of options.

[earthworm77]

Anyone up for discussion?

[Raul]

Any color is fine as long as it is black.

[roadwarrior]

Okay, earthworm77,

If there were only five colors to pick, watermelon with black flake & black neon for soft plastics. White, black and silver, alone or together for all hard baits. Oh! and green, too. That is still only a total of five: green, red, black, silver and white.

Still, I like blue and sometimes red or yellow, brown and of course chartreuse. Hmm...it seems there are a lot of choices and sometimes it is important. (Oops! I left out a touch of orange.)

Well, anyhow, color is not the most important factor unless it is.

Just fish green, it usually works...Or, like Raul said, black.

[earthworm77]

color is not the most important factor unless it is

exactly, it only matters when it matters

[RoLo]

color is not the most important factor unless it is

I believe that color definitely does matter, because it can directly enhance or degrade the bass's ability to see the lure.

In my opinion at least, once the bass sees the lure, the importance of color falls through the cracks.

To put it differently, certain colors will always be more visible to bass under certain lighting conditions.

It might be presumptuous to think that those are the colors that bass prefer, because lighting conditions

can change from hour-to-hour, creating the illusion that thier color preference has changed.

Roger

[Catt]

Explain why pink, yellow, merthiolate, & orange work?

I use a lot of blues and purples because they a visiable at deeper depths

I agree with Rolo once the bass sees the lure, the importance of color falls through the cracks

[earthworm77]

Those loud colors can trigger strikes at times, no doubt. On a regular basis, natural colors will be far more productive.

I guess my answer to your inquiry is that despite the fact that we think we know a ton about bass, we do not know everything but the percentages heavily favor throwing more natural or less agressive colors. There are times however, ie: the fall where bass especially smallmouth wil anhilate chart or orange. I had a day where pink sherbert was the only thing they wanted. Perhaps these colors do well when the area is saturated with anglers using the old standby's.

[Guest avid]

I'm pretty sure that the elusive pinksherbertmerthiolatebubblegum hornytricksenkocreature is a primary food source for the Largemouth bass.  

[Matt Fly]

I'm a firm believer, at times, color is very important.     Just like watching bass following your buzz bait and turns away.     The bass saw something that wasn't right, whether its boat position, your clothes standing out above the water or something amiss from the lure.    Subtle changes in the presentations can unlock the door.

Summer gives us the most stable pattern of all in Texas, we have blue bird days and High Pressure all summer.

There are days that watermelon red flake anything in correct size works, and the next day, watermelon gold flake is the ticket.   Could be just plain watermelon seed, or can be candy.    Can be a combination of all the above on some days.   I think that popular worm holes are beaten to death and bass aren't as apt to hit that color as hard the next day, so minor tweaking is needed, and also shows they see some difference because of they aren't willing to hit what worke yesterday as good until you tweeked the color.

I am a firm believer in watching the suns postition in the sky.     As Chris eluded to, the suns angle on the water changes throughout the day, and how a bait is seen at noon is not the same as its seen at 3 o'clock due to the change in position of the sun.

We also know that when bass are schooling or just in aggressive moods, sometimes color doesn't matter.

Its the days that should be the same as yesterday that you may be required to tweak your colors slightly to get bit.

Subtle changes can be as small as biting an inch off a seven inch worm, copper blade to a silver blade, white skirt to a translucent white, or down sizing from 3/8 oz spinner to a 1/4 0z spinner.

Matt

[RoLo]

I frequently hear mention of "natural colors", but in actuality any color that our optic nerve can perceive

is a color produced by Mother Nature. As a result, ALL colors are "natural colors" there are no exceptions.

Very often, the natural colors that Nature chooses for her creatures are deliberately gaudy and intense,

to serve as a warning flag to predators. For instance, many of Earth's most toxic insects, plants, reptiles and amphibians

are vividly colored by design. Among the many examples are the poisonous Monarch Butterfly, colored orange & black,

Coral Snakes with vivid bands of red, yellow & black, and poisonous frogs and salamanders (called lizards by fishermen)

which typically sport color schemes that include fluorescent chartreuse, loud reds and bright yellows. In most cases

the predator that ingests a toxic animal will not die, but will become violently ill or at the least, it will leave a bad taste in its mouth.

In the future, that animal is likely to fall into line, and demonstrate a reluctance to seize forage with intense showy colors.

The Plot Thickens

Mother Nature has intentionally and cleverly created imposters.

Several non-toxic organisms exhibit the same color scheme displayed by some toxic creature. The Monarch Butterfly

dines exclusively on a poisonous larval plant that will kill most caterpillars. When they transform to butterflies,

their toxin-laden bodies are conspicuously advertised with a showy Orange and Black pattern (trick or treat).

Monarch butterflies are judiciously avoided by birds, reptiles and amphibians. However, Big Mama has also concocted the Viceroy,

another butterfly with a gaudy black & orange color scheme. Like most butterflies, the viceroy is unable to consume

poisonous milkweed and therefore causes no harm to its captor. All the same, the viceroy is avoided by a high-percentage

of predators that practice safety first.

Enter The Fisherman

The angler is faced with a huge dilemma because all the most visible colors have already been chosen by Mother Nature

to serve as toxicity warnings! Chartreuse for example, wasn't discovered in a laboratory, but was concocted by Mother Nature

during the beginning of time. Chartreuse is the most visible color under the broadest range of lighting conditions.

Unhappily, chartreuse is commonly used as a warning flag!

      All that said, "lure visibility" is paramount to the angler, because a bass cannot sieze a lure that it does not see,

or a lure that is sees too late to bother chasing. Furthermore, only a certain percentage of any species

is conditioned to avoid gaudy color patterns. Last but not least, when rising water temperatures work their magic

on the metabolism of a cold-blooded organism, reflex will often supercede design.

Roger

[FIN-S-R]

COLOR DOES MATTER...even though I played it down in an earlier post. I got schooled by a black back w/ dark green scale pattern that worked when the EXACT same lure with black back only wouldnt catch a fish...how can they tell the difference. The difference was so subtle that I didnt even realize I wasnt throwing the same thing as my partner until I pulled his lure out of the carpet after netting a fish. Then BAM 1st throw= Fish. All I can say is what the f###? Also, this weekend a certain color crank was only good for dredging paths through the hydrilla when the exact same crank with just a hint of blue to it was almost impossible to dislodge from the mouths of the fish which were inhaling it.

I will not claim to be an expert on anything ..especially fishing, but I will claim to be a student of everything nature. It seems there are a few folks that frequent this forum that could garner expert status as far as fishing goes, and what they have to say I soak up like a semi dry sponge. I am as stated before a student, or an observer of nature...this includes people and the "human condition". I have observed my butt get handed to me by guys who fish "their" color religiously. Is this because of persistance or science. I think we all have alittle scientist in us wether we know it or not, if you do something and dont get the desired results you change. That is scientific method 101. But how in the world does a person explain or predict what color will work or why a color has worked and then use that info in application toward producing a desired result? Is it just a persistance and replication issue...try try again, or can we take this info and other info, throw it in a pot mix thoroughly, bake at 350 and boom...big fish on the end of your line on every trip. It ussually doesnt happen that way, but could it, and what would you need to figure it out?

Lots and lots of information or "data". We all store data in our brains every day and during every fishing trip, some of us even go to the extreme of actually recording and analyzing this data in a hard copy form. In doing this myself, I have "observed" that the only rule in nature is that there are trends and exceptions to the trends. Jelly shoes, Pet rocks, and many of bill dance's and Roland martins lures are trends, but they are human induced trends better characterized as FADS. Subsequently for the human mind to begin to understand a truely natural trend is a very unnatural thing. Largely because it (trend observation) is many times much more simple than we are willing to accept. Lure Colors and color variations are fads, if you notice, although there are new names, there are really as someone stated earlier in this thread no new colors. Colors follow trends ie. most colors "trend" toward a green or a red or a blue or a purple color, and so on. In nature colors trend toward only a few in any particular area, with a few exceptions...we just did a trend analysis..sort of.

Most of nature is dominated by what we percieve as green or brown or white. Its a pretty safe bet that the food a green or brown fish is after will have as a major color constituent one of the aformentioned tones with some exceptional accents of brighter or darker colors. So now we have a baseline for lure colors, but as anyone who has spent much time on the water will tell you, those colors dont always work the best. Why not? Is it a visibility issue, or is it a reaction key. It can be both, and both circumstances can be dealt with with the introduction of a couple more colors, those being blueish hues (june bug to plum) and orange hues (yellow to red). All off the colors mentioed so far are relatively frequently occuring natural colors, so there is nothing new or complex about the colors we are dealing with and probably everyone has all of these colors in some fashion in their fishing arsenal.

To recap: Trends teach you what you want to know about fishing, and the trend in nature is a group of roughly 5 colors

There are mono tone lures out there, and they work..for instance the chrome on chrome on chrome rattle trap, or the white and silver spinner bait, or black worm. No argumant that these are good sound color options for many conditions and fish activity levels, but can you cover more ground (or water) with a few lures having a combination of key tones? I would say yes! How do you go about accumulating the correct tones, and subsequent combination of those tones?

#1 Visability- as it has been said so many times, if a bass cant see it, it probably aint gonna eat it.

A combination of black and blue is THE MOST visible color to anything in water...any water.

As soon as light comes in contact with water it begins to be refracted and diffused. All light waves are not created equally, and some can penetrate with less diffusion than others. Black objects absorb every possible wavelength of visible light (400-700nm), and "violet" (400nm) penetrates water more efficiently due to the shorter distance between wave peaks. This means that objects that more readily absorb these wavelengths will be more prominently visible. So a good starting point is always a medium to dark purple color. If the fish will eat what they can see w/o differentiation you will catch fish on this color. Try it on deep spawning fish. They dont want to eat it, but they can see it really well= since they dont have hands they pick it up with their mouth. Shades of green have lots of blue in them, and since bass have a sort of yellowish greenish tint to their vision, greens will stand out as blue. Put on some shooting glasses and take a look at a watermelon senko.

#2 Match the Forage- If fish are keying on a particular critter, try to emmulate that critter.

First of all name 1 critter that bass eat that doesnt have a green or blue hue to it. I cant, but then again Im in OK, and not all the critters that all bass eat live in the sooner state, but as a general TREND this holds up pretty well. Now take the general pattern of natural colors (brown, green, white) and punctuate them with less commonly occuring colors like red, yellow or orange...now you have a blue gill, or a shad, or a crawfish with red pinchers.

#3 Forget color and look at presentation.

The right color in the wrong presentation will only frustrate you, or it does me. Try different techniques of the same colors. You cant ever go wrong with a senko presentation. It may not catch all the fish in the quickest manner, but it will give you an idea of what direction to go in.

So how do you pick up on the subtle color differences that can make all the difference? Start out with Primary natural colors, and work lighter and darker as well as combinations of less frequently occuring colors, and get to know the forage.

Junebug and blue flec are my starting point for soft plastics (cover relating blueish greenish critters), and Chrome/ White (white light reflectors) are my starting point for hard baits (Transient Baitfish). Keep in mind that the extent "chrome" can cover ranges from lowrider rim shiny to nearly black to irredescent, and purple can range from nearly black to nearly white.

General frequently occuring color trends punctuated by exceptions

[scott000]

i read this article on using plastic crayfish and jigs and it said crayfish colors are things like watermelon seed, black, black red flake, pumpkin, and green pumpkin. I also hear red shad is a hot color.

[senile1]

There's a lot of interesting stuff here, but how many of us own every possible color combination there is, and if we did, how long would it take switching out these myriad color combinations  to determine which one it is we "think" the bass are telling us they want?  This is why it is more important to concentrate on location and presentation as stated by a few already.  An angler could drive themselves crazy if they allow color to become the dominant issue in trying to catch fish.  If you don't think this is so, just look at the many "favorite" colors already mentioned in this thread.  Does any of us have all of these colors in every bait category that we own?  It's doubtful.  I say pick a few colors that are light, a few that are dark, and a few that are bright for muddy water, and then concentrate on where they are and how they want the bait delivered.  I'm not saying color isn't important.  I'm just saying there are so many colors to choose from the probability of anyone of us finding the exact, perfect color is slim.  

[Guest avid]

Very often, the natural colors that Nature chooses for her creatures are deliberately gaudy and intense,

Did y'all get the implications of this oft overlooked fact?

Those merthiolate, bubblegum, etc. lures look gaudy to us because who would paint their living room such a hideous color (My stoner nephew doesn't count),  but in nature these loud, bright, intense colors are not at all uncommon.

Look  anywhere, an aquarium, an aviary, terrarium, and with moths and other insects......fuggedaboudit.

Very astute observation Mr. Roger.

[Raul]

God 's creatures defy human imagination:

And those pictures are a pale image on how they look in the reality.