Finding the right color

[Raul]

I remember in the 70s when my ex-father-in-law took a trip to Lake Guerrero and returned with some Fire & Ice worms, we had never seen a worm with glitter in it so this was the most hilarious thing we have ever seen until he hit the lake and the bass when stupid for it.

Oh yeah, F&I ruled those Tamaulipas lakes during the 70 's and 80 's.

[The_Natural]

Some scoff at the general color 'guidelines',  but if you are an amature basser, it's hard to decipher which color to use amongst the 100's of colors available.  The old standard 'Natural colors in clearer water and dark colors in stained/muddy water' is sound advice. . Once you get going, you will develop favorites and style.

[cart7t]

Legendary BASS angler and lure manufacturer Tom Mann used to say something along the lines of this:

'Lures catch fish, lure colors catch fishermen.'

Despite the fact that Mann was one of the first lure manufacturers to introduce a myriad of colors through his famous Jelly worm line, he would also admit that the color itself was rarely more important that the action of the lure and how and where it was presented. He was one of the first to realize that colors (along with scents) were more of a marketing ploy to get anglers to buy his product when they were in the tackle store and if the lure was designed correctly, would usually catch fish regardless of which color was selected.

He's usually been right in my books.

[Triton_Mike]

My opinion?  Color is the most overated aspect in bass fishing.  Lets take Zoom for example.  Do you have enough $$$ to buy every color that zoom makes??  Even worst do you have the time in a day to fish all of those colors to see which one makes a difference under different circumstances?  Do you have PAGES of notes to record all this data?

I don't?  So I try to worry about what I can control and that is finding active fish and getting the bait into the strike zone of said fish.  The key here is strike zone, it's the cornerstone of bass fishing.

Mike

BTW why do bass eat pink trickworms and senkos?  Does it match a hatch?  Something to think about...  

[Mottfia]

BTW why do bass eat pink trickworms and senkos? Does it match a hatch? Something to think about...

I believe that it has alot to do with a bass's adaptibility. In order to be in such a wide variety of conditions they must have conditioning that tells them to feed experimentally. Cause I'm sure that there ain't the same forage everywhere   . This could be why Bass jump on some crazy stuff.

Imagine this, a bass has been transplanted to Japan. I'm about 99.9 % positive that Japan doesn't have the same baitfish or any fish that we do. So if that bass is to survive, he/she must eat and eat soon. What does that mean? Let's start sampling until it finds something that supplies it with enough energy to survive. So to a bass that pink trickworm may be a sampling effort.

But Bass have grown used to eating a few specific forages and will even key in on them at times. So why not throw something that resembles what they are keying on?

Mottfia

P.S. I agree that a billion lure colors is too much to deal with. Find a system or train of thought that you have confidence in and just go fishing.

[sammy1]

i find color to be extremely important, especially here in the west. a good example occurred last summer, i was float tubing the san diego river and was fishing a spot that i have caught fish before using a zoom trick worm in black w/ red flake. this time i decided to throw a 7 inch roboworm in grape color. i fished it for a few casts for nothing and switched to the trick worm and caught three fish in  10 minutes. from that day on i throw nothing but black with red flake in the river. the reason being is the water at the river is always a little dirtier and the black color i feel shows up better than most other colors.

[CatBassin]

I honestly believe in matching the hatch. The best way to do this is looking for a school of minnows and try your best to match color and size. You can even take a bass for a meal and while cleaning and gutting just check the stomach and sometimes you will find a clue there. And something with an orange belly will usually work if you can't find anything.

[Triton_Mike]

BTW why do bass eat pink trickworms and senkos? Does it match a hatch? Something to think about...

I believe that it has alot to do with a bass's adaptibility. In order to be in such a wide variety of conditions they must have conditioning that tells them to feed experimentally. Cause I'm sure that there ain't the same forage everywhere . This could be why Bass jump on some crazy stuff.

Imagine this, a bass has been transplanted to Japan. I'm about 99.9 % positive that Japan doesn't have the same baitfish or any fish that we do. So if that bass is to survive, he/she must eat and eat soon. What does that mean? Let's start sampling until it finds something that supplies it with enough energy to survive. So to a bass that pink trickworm may be a sampling effort.

But Bass have grown used to eating a few specific forages and will even key in on them at times. So why not throw something that resembles what they are keying on?

Mottfia

P.S. I agree that a billion lure colors is too much to deal with. Find a system or train of thought that you have confidence in and just go fishing.

Mottfia,  Thats one way to look at things.  The other way is bass are predators and opportunistic feeders.  They are at the top of the food chain in most lakes.  They eat because they can and they react to baits within their strike zone.  So if a bass hits a pink trick worm and learns that pink trick worms gets his jaw yanked on your saying he won't hit a pink trickworm again??  Think of all the pond bass that have gotten caught over and over again on the same type of lure.  

I personally think bass are dumb as rocks.  It's the anglers that need to understand the fish better.  

Mike

[Triton_Mike]

I honestly believe in matching the hatch. The best way to do this is looking for a school of minnows and try your best to match color and size. You can even take a bass for a meal and while cleaning and gutting just check the stomach and sometimes you will find a clue there. And something with an orange belly will usually work if you can't find anything.

Should lure manufacturers do away with chartreuse and white spinnerbaits since they don't match any forage?  What about Sexy shad???   You see where I am going with this....  

[Catt]

I honestly believe in matching the hatch. The best way to do this is looking for a school of minnows and try your best to match color and size. You can even take a bass for a meal and while cleaning and gutting just check the stomach and sometimes you will find a clue there. And something with an orange belly will usually work if you can't find anything.

If one truly matched the hatch then your bait would only be 1/16-1/8 in length and translucent in color.

[CatBassin]

I was messing around and came across an article that said if you looked inside a bass eye you would notice that it looked like a humans eye. Apparently not only can they see colors but also see shades of colors. It also talked about how different colored water changes the color of everything underneath. It said in clear water things appeared blue so natural colors were best to use, in green water stained from ale things appeared a green color so greens were the best, brown water stained from mud things appeared red so reds were the best, and extremely stained water color wasnt much of a factor that vibration and sound were your best bet. It also said to remember this, lighter the day the lighter the lure and the darker the lure.

[CatBassin]

I see what you're saying Triton, there are some great colors that do not match anything in a body of water but I seem to have good luck with this when I fish a new area and I'm not getting bit.

[CableGuy]

I was messing around and came across an article that said if you looked inside a bass eye you would notice that it looked like a humans eye. Apparently not only can they see colors but also see shades of colors. It also talked about how different colored water changes the color of everything underneath. It said in clear water things appeared blue so natural colors were best to use, in green water stained from ale things appeared a green color so greens were the best, brown water stained from mud things appeared red so reds were the best, and extremely stained water color wasnt much of a factor that vibration and sound were your best bet. It also said to remember this, lighter the day the lighter the lure and the darker the lure.

can you post a link for that article?

[cart7t]

Just go buy a Color-C-Lektor and end this already.    

[CableGuy]

Just go buy a Color-C-Lektor and end this already.

i've been looking at those on ebay and i thought about posting about them on this thread, but from the sounds of the way this thread has been going, i didn't think anyone would be a fan of the color c lector, so i didn't bother posting about it. i plan on buying one when i can spare 100 dollars.