Colors For Super Clear Water

[BrianSnat]

Most of my bassing waters are greenish with maybe 5-6 feet of visibility. There is a lake that I will be fishing this summer where the water is so clear you can see fish hugging the bottom in 25 feet of water.

Any advice on colors for water that is clear?

[ww2farmer]

Translucent greens and browns for plastics, and translucent baitfish colors for hard baits. Thats just my .02, I know guys who catch plenty of fish on outlandish colors in clear water. If the fish are biting, color is the least concern, IMHO the most important thing in clear water is not color but to NOT be seen an/or spook the fish, thats the real challange of clear water. If you can see them in 25 fow, guess what...............they can see you too. Clouds and wind are your best friend in those situations, as is heavy cover, or something that blocks the fish from seeing you.

[gobig]

The same colors you use in the stained water.

[A-Jay]

I fish allot of gin clear water. I think about trying to "hide" my bait but in clear water there's little chance of that. By choosing bait colors that match the color of the bottom or the cover I'm fishing in (weed, rocks or wood) often bring success. That goes for hard and soft baits. With the advent of "silent / no-rattle" lures, I've taken way more fish on these quieter baits. Lighter line, longer casts and as already mentioned, Stealth, plays a big role. You might want to turn off your electronics when you don't need them and be conscious of the shadow your boat casts as it could turn fish off. After arriving on a spot, I often anchor rather than holding position by cranking the trolling motor on and off a hundred times. Sometimes putting the boat in skinny water and casting to deeper fish helps, rather than sitting on top of them which is what a good majority do.

When the fish are in suicide mode, very little of this is necessary, but when the bite is tough, these things might help.

Good Luck

A-Jay

[Bluebasser86]

As others have said natural colors are usually best in clear water. I have seen times when bright chartruese or white colored baits get killed in clear water too though. Being stealthy helps a lot. Keep your noise to a minimum with help maximize the number of fish you catch.

[Flangler]

watermelon w/ black flake, or pumpkin w/black flake. I found those great or black.

[Jigfishn10]

I like transluscent baits as well. I like a little flash to start off with, and if that doesn't produce, I go no flash. I too, stay away from noisy baits. Long casts often work best and I like a little more speed if I'm fishing reaction type baits. With jigs and soft plastics, I like to keep the same colors I normally use. MY 2 cents.

[kms399]

go natural or clear and be sure to use a mono or flouro leader if you are using braid

[WRB]

Fish at night with your standard tackle or lures or low light periods.

Learn to finesse fish with smaller natural looking translucent soft plastics like Robo Worms, small poppers like a Splash-It or small jerk baits like Pointers 78 in gost colors, during the day light periods.

Stay off the fish and make longer casts.

Good luck.

Tom

[Raul]

Don´t care much about lure color, I´ve fished and caught a good bunch of fish in conditions where in theory X color or shades are what popular conception believe that color is the "right" one and I´m fishing with the "wrong" one, for example: chartreuse, fluorescent orange, firetiger in ultra clear water.

[Wayne P.]

Don´t care much about lure color, I´ve fished and caught a good bunch of fish in conditions where in theory X color or shades are what popular conception believe that color is the "right" one and I´m fishing with the "wrong" one, for example: chartreuse, fluorescent orange, firetiger in ultra clear water.

I've done and do the same. The fish don't care, it's the superstituous fishermen that it makes a difference to.

[Wayne P.]

Don´t care much about lure color, I´ve fished and caught a good bunch of fish in conditions where in theory X color or shades are what popular conception believe that color is the "right" one and I´m fishing with the "wrong" one, for example: chartreuse, fluorescent orange, firetiger in ultra clear water.

I've done and do the same. The fish don't care, it's the superstituous fishermen that it makes a difference to.

[RoLo]

Whenever the topic is about 'crystal-clear water', it reminds me of the legendary phosphate pits in Bartow and Mulberry, Florida.

In their heyday, the phosphate mines yielded countless double-digit bass, but the pits were super-clear and super-tough to fish,

Bass could easily see every flaw in your delivery, where getting skunked was cliche. The key was to make the lure

as difficult to see as possible, or resort to live wild shiners like the fabled Smith Brothers.

The reputation of the phosphate pits was bolstered by a small handful of pit savvy anglers, some still hold IGFA records today.

Needless to say, 'translucent' and 'transparent' lures are preferred to opaque lures. With respect to color,

during the hours of daylight most pit anglers favored light-colored lures with "pure white" being the clear favorite.

By the way, Doug Hannon was one of those early-day pit anglers.

Roger

[WRB]

KVD was a speaker at a local SoCal bass event a few years ago discussing the importance of casting accuracy and reel retrieve ratio's. When KVD was done he went to a Q & A session, the first question was; do you ever use a spinning finesse rod/reel combo? Some chuckles could be heard and KVD responded; I didn't before fishing with Kyle yesterday!

KVD fished with the son of the local dealer where he was speaking (Bass-A-Thon) and fished at DVL (Diamond Valley lake) a crystal clear deep structured lake. Kyle fishing with 5 lb FC line and DVL speacial 5" drop shot worm and caught 10 bass, KVD could not get bit, he begged Kyle for help. With the right tackle KVD learned quickly how to catch deep structured bass at DVL.

Moral; every lake and region has specific colors and presentations that work better than others, there isn't a panacea that works everywhere.

Tom

[Jaheff]

KVD was a speaker at a local SoCal bass event a few years ago discussing the importance of casting accuracy and reel retrieve ratio's. When KVD was done he went to a Q & A session, the first question was; do you ever use a spinning finesse rod/reel combo? Some chuckles could be heard and KVD responded; I didn't before fishing with Kyle yesterday!

KVD fished with the son of the local dealer where he was speaking (Bass-A-Thon) and fished at DVL (Diamond Valley lake) a crystal clear deep structured lake. Kyle fishing with 5 lb FC line and DVL speacial 5" drop shot worm and caught 10 bass, KVD could not get bit, he begged Kyle for help. With the right tackle KVD learned quickly how to catch deep structured bass at DVL.

Moral; every lake and region has specific colors and presentations that work better than others, there isn't a panacea that works everywhere.

Tom

Kyle also has the same story for Hank Parker, this episode was on his show. Hank was using 6#, and Kyle was using 5# the first day, Day two was a different story(Hank went to the tackle shop after day one).Hank kinda kept up with him after that.

Fished it today for 6 Dinkers, Dang lake can just shut off some day's...

[Locked]

I fish an extremely clear quarry, and if you throw something off colored the fish will literally run from the lure. Brown, green pumpkin, watermelon, and white are the only colors I've been bit on. With the exception of a SK bluegill colored spinnerbait.

[Nick]

Any advice on colors for water that is clear?