Color chart? 2025
James Hendrix reply :
Just curiosity. Been fishing since I was a teen. I go to new water Im always having to guess by trial and error on color lure to water color. Rolland Martin uses a meter to check to see the color jig or spinner bait or whatever. Is there a chart you can get that tell you the same thing?
Catt reply :
Bass don't read charts! ????
JasperP reply :
Found this awhile ago. Makes sense for the waters I fish. Hope it helps!
BassWhole! reply :
Watermelon, green pumpkin, blk/bl, something with a bit of chartreuse or orange, and/or something that resembles the forage, THE END
CroakHunter reply :
natural and black/blue.
Fishing_FF reply :
On 4/2/2018 at 2:59 AM, Catt said:Bass don't read charts! ????
^^This!
I've fished a lake that by Al Linder's water clarity chart would be deemed dirty/murky, but the fish were only hitting watermelon colors. Then on Friday, I fished a lake with some decent visibility, light stain with clear sunny skies. In the couple hours I was out there, I caught 11 and lost 4 more trying to flip them in (bank fish so don't carry a net). They were all caught on green pumpkin or junebug, which according to the color charts are cloudy or dirty.
As Catt said, "Bass don't read charts!"
Munkin reply :
You can always buy the ever popular color selector.
Allen
Catt reply :
One of my most productive night fishing worms is a color called Starry Night, the top is a translucent smoke, the bottom is clear, with tons of silver glitter.
I don't know how bass find that worm sitting on the bottom in 20' on a moonless night!
One of the most deadly Wacky Worms is Zoom Trick Worm in Merthiolate!
In which chart do those two fit?
snake95 reply :
Seems like the color discussion can go on forever, and maybe it should. It's always interesting to see what others have experienced. I'd guess the charts give you an idea about what is a reasonable place to start picking out lures.
I've been fishing in small, slightly stained (not tannic) Florida ponds and in a single trip yesterday we were nailing them on black trick worms, green/multiflake "honey candy" ocho's, and smoke black blue/gold flake senkos. Pretty sure we busted every chart out there.
I like to keep it simple like lots of guys, but I like good sale and we just used the baits I got cheap. Apparently the bass have not been reading the charts here either.
TOXIC reply :
I always go back to what an Elite Series angler who is a friend of mine has told me over and over.......Don't get too hung up on color, I separate my colors into 3 groups that get progressively darker.....1. Clear Water 2. Stained Water 3. Muddy water. After that there are some universal colors that work in more than one category.
Dens228 reply :
Fishing from I kayak I usually keep a couple of various color Ocho's under my seat to see what is working that day.
One day last summer in a small 6 acre pond that had a recent algae bloom and virtually no visibility I was catching large bass on just about every cast........The Ocho's would last a couple fish and I'd have to replace it. I was just grabbing whichever I touched first. I caught bass on every color from light to dark, flecks, solid, two tone........didn't matter. I stopped counting catches at about the 25th bass. What I'd give for another day like that!
scaleface reply :
On 4/2/2018 at 10:51 AM, Munkin said:You can always buy the ever popular color selector.
Allen
I would love to have one of those to play with . If nothing else it should give some clues regarding light penetration .
cgolf reply :
There chart makes some sense, except I have found clear water to be finicky. Sunny and flat lets more natural colors work best like smoke and some color flake works best while sunny with choppy water or overcast sees colors like water red work the best and the smoke colors shut off.
NorthernBasser reply :
Not sure how much stock to put into these charts, etc.
According to that chart, black is excellent for dirty water, and so is white (sugar). Those are on the opposite ends of the color spectrum. What gives?
Also for dirty water, I've always heard black is the best color. Yet, everyone recommends using fire tiger cranks in dirty water. Hmm.
ratherbfishin1 reply :
On 4/2/2018 at 11:51 PM, NorthernBasser said:Not sure how much stock to put into these charts, etc.
According to that chart, black is excellent for dirty water, and so is white (sugar). Those are on the opposite ends of the color spectrum. What gives?
Also for dirty water, I've always heard black is the best color. Yet, everyone recommends using fire tiger cranks in dirty water. Hmm
Yep, IMO it is impossible to make a completely accurate color chart. So much of colors is guess and check at times.
scaleface reply :
We got five inches of snow yesterday .So I restrung and lubed the five bait-casters that I usually fish with . These are the five lures that were tied on those combos from last years final trip . The waters I fished are stained . See a common theme . I like chartreuse in stained water .
WRB reply :
There isn't any scientific proof how the basses brain interprets what their eye sees underwater. Lots of speculation based on the eye ball construction that have both rods and cones the bass can see colors.
After over 60 years of bass fishing it's my conclusion we don't have a clue what bass see regarding colors. My favorite choice of colors based on lots of hours on the water that give me enough confidence to continue using them may in fact not be the best colors at that particular time and conditions.
For example crawdads where I fish are not black/purple/brown, my most successful jig colors, the crawdads appear to be redish brown with tan undersides the majority of the year. Black jigs work, green jigs work, white jigs works, we don't have crawdads in those colors where I fish.
Fast moving lures like crankbaits my favorite colors are pearl white with greenish/blue highlites and dark red with black backs, both work year around, day or night.
Everyone likes green pumpkin soft plastics, this a poor choice of color where I fish, purple works far better the majority of the time.
If everyone is only fishing a popular color, the majority of bass will be caught on that color, do to the odds, may not be the color the bass prefer.
Tom
All about da bass reply :
Here's a simple color chart that I go by when I'm fishing different water clarity and this is what helps me catch fish, my opinion guys:
Stained: black and blue, junebug, white, chartreuse. Depending on if it's a shad lake or what.
Clear: Watermelon seed, watermelon red, green pumpkin, bluegill colors, really anything natural. nothing wild.
The baits I would use in those conditions would be:
Stained: Rattletrap, spinnerbait, chatterbait, squarebill, Texas rig, Carolina rig, wacky rig.
Clear: Jerkbait, spinnerbait,chatterbait, squarebill, Texas rig, Carolina rig, wacky rig, ned rig, dropshot.
James Hendrix reply :
Ok dark color black blue. Clear watermelon. What you guess for water like Lake Panasofee. Cloudy brown rust color. Im thinking dark there to cause from my point of view there is little to no visability. Am I tight?
All about da bass reply :
Sounds great, I know from fishing in Florida that they love black and blue. Yeah just stick to that simple chart and you should catch, no you will. Good luck bro.
I'll do some looking at that lake and tell you what I think will work.
All about da bass reply :
From what it looks like, it looks shallow with the most abundant cover being grass. I would throw: swimbaits, punch rigs, Texas rigs, lipless cranks, frogs, and maybe even a jig. As far as colors go for those baits, I would go crawfish color for the spring, black and blue muddy, white shad colors. Watermelon seed or watermelon red. for semi clear to clear. I see two or three creeks running into it, maybe the fish are near those areas.
Tight lines!!!!
RUSS9999 reply :
On 4/2/2018 at 9:42 PM, scaleface said:I would love to have one of those to play with . If nothing else it should give some clues regarding light penetration .
I have a color selector. The only time I use it is when I can not get a bite. It has turned a day with no fish in to a day with lots of fish for me many times over the years. Me and a friend was on the water for 5 hours one day and had 1 bass. We sowed them just about everything in every color. I put it in the water, it said brown and orange. We both went to brown and orange cranks and it was a bass about every cast the rest of the day.
scaleface reply :
On 4/4/2018 at 11:15 PM, RUSS9999 said:I have a color selector. The only time I use it is when I can not get a bite. It has turned a day with no fish in to a day with lots of fish for me many times over the years. Me and a friend was on the water for 5 hours one day and had 1 bass. We sowed them just about everything in every color. I put it in the water, it said brown and orange. We both went to brown and orange cranks and it was a bass about every cast the rest of the day.
At Thomas Hill ?
RUSS9999 reply :
On 4/4/2018 at 11:41 PM, scaleface said:At Thomas Hill ?
Yes and Forest Lake at Thousand Hill State Park. The day it gave brown and orange was at Forest lake
scaleface reply :
On 4/5/2018 at 12:24 AM, RUSS9999 said:Yes and Forest Lake at Thousand Hill State Park. The day it gave brown and orange was at Forest lake
I've seen Thomas Hill bass get quite picky a couple of times .Once , I was fishing with a guy who was wearing them out on a Bomber Model A . I tried a bunch of other crankbaits and zilch . Finally tied on a Model A and got in the game . Color didnt matter this day but lure action did .
RUSS9999 reply :
On 4/5/2018 at 12:29 AM, scaleface said:I've seen Thomas Hill bass get quite picky a couple of times .Once , I was fishing with a guy who was wearing them out on a Bomber Model A . I tried a bunch of other crankbaits and zilch . Finally tied on a Model A and got in the game . Color didnt matter this day but lure action did .
Yes Thousand Hills is fished a lot harder then Thomas Hill . They see a lot of baits. Most of the time it seems like I can do the same thing every time at Thomas Hill and Thousand Hills is different every day. I am always looking for a bait they have not seen. Bomber Model A was the crankbait they wonted a lot of days last Spring in May.
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