Dear Lure Manufacturers: 2024
POPRG reply :
WHY on earth do you put an orange belly on your "largemouth/baby bass" patterns?? I truly believe that you make them this way to attract fishermen,not for the intended quarry.
It really grinds my gears to see a beautiful bait in the package,with all intentions to mimic mother nature in its finest form,highly detailed to perfection,only to turn it on its side and reveal the citrus underbelly hell-fire-orange tone applied,why,WHY,dammit WHY?? This has been bothering me for decades now,and i had to let it out...
[i know it really is not that big of a deal,and they still fish just fine,................but WHY?????]
why?
aavery2 reply :
Since no one else has posted yet, I will offer some food for thought. My disclaimer is that this post is in no way meant to challenge the knowledge of anyone who may have more knowledge than myself on the way bass see underwater.
With that said, red and orange are long wavelength colors, what this means in common terms is that they are the first to lose their ability to reflect light when submersed in water. Water clarity and a host of other variables combine to determine at what depth these colors lose their light reflecting ability. It is generally thought that red and orange can lose this ability is as little as 3 to 4 foot of water, and then appear as shades of gray.
If you take a look at the baby bass scheme and think about it in terms of contrasting grays the orange color starts to matter less and the color it is paired with become more important.
Colors are believed to lose their ability to reflect light in this order, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Each lose their ability at a slightly different depth.
Next time you look at a bait, think about the depth that it is designed to run and which colors will actually display as color and which will display as a shade of gray. Makes for an interesting discussion if nothing else.
POPRG reply :
aavery2,i understand your reasoning,and i know it is a lame,trivial question.but why do it if it will lose contrast so quickly?..my only question is why?
i have never seen a bass w/ an orange belly,ever. The dark green back,maybe a few splatters of black for a lateral line,fading to a white belly.perfect....whats the deal w/ the orange belly....orange belly.....ORANGE BELLY!!!!
Your color scheme definitely holds true in the color selector charts,but in my crankbait/swimbait shopping this weekend,the fire has been ignited once again..just lose the d**n orange belly!!
i need sleep......
kLuo reply :
All I have to say is that "natural" looking baits are not always the best. It depends on how the bass perceive it. How many "natural" brush hogs do you see alive and swimming in the water? How many real animals look like a wiggling stick worm jumping off the bottom and swimming down again?
Have you tried that bait in smallmouth waters? They go crazy for orange belly. I would take an orange belly over natural on any day.
POPRG reply :
i do not fish for smallies..the bait is set to look like a bass,the brush hog is a creature bait,not made to duplicate a bass..i hate the orange belly still on a bass pattern......
POPRG reply :
i just want to know the reasoning behind it,makes no sense...and i do not like it...
POPRG reply :
at all...........
Packard reply :
If your bait looks like every other forage bass has seen, what would make them want to spend the time to chase it down and eat it. Maybe the orange belly is more appealing to them. Either way I don't get why you are making such a big deal over it, obviously it "makes sense" because it catchs fish and many companies use it.
Gatorbassman reply :
I had a few days last year where the crankbait had to have an orange belly in order to get bit. I have no clue why but it made a difference.
urp reply :
For that matter, what in the wild is chartreuse?
Trickerie reply :
One thing you are overlooking is that bass don't perceive the baits color by color as a human would. They see the bait as a whole, the colors blend and contrast with each other to appear as something else entirely. The orange combined with the green probably looks more brown, or even yellowish to a bass.
Also, lots of fish have chartreuse glints in their tails/scales that shine in the sunlight.
roadwarrior reply :
On 3/6/2012 at 2:46 PM, urp said:For that matter, what in the wild is chartreuse?
Threadfin shad, bluegill and various species of perch.
http://www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/freshwater/fish/shad/threadfin/picture.cfm
Ima Bass Ninja reply :
I gotta agree with you. Just about every crank bait or top water has the orange belly no matter what it is trying to mimic. I have been wondering the same thing so you are not alone in your aggravation. I actually just picked up a chug bug and selected one based solely on the fact that it was the only one without and orange belly.
LuckyHandsINC. reply :
I agree with you poprg. I hate seeing it. If I want an Orange belly ill buy a different pattern. If i want a bass i want it to look the way a real bass looks. Another one that bothers me is the red line at the gill or random red blotches.
senko_77 reply :
Maybe the lure manufacturers are trying to subtly hint that largemouth LOVE bluegill. You've been tricked all along. Bass don't eat shad or crawfish.....ever. Only bluegill. Hence, the orange bellies on every pattern.
WookieeJedi reply :
I don't pretend to understand why an orange belly works on an otherwise photorealistic lure, but it does work. I have a particular love for the Rapala Shad Rap in the natural shad color. I have been using them since they first came out in the 1980's. But every one I buy gets an orange stripe painted down the belly with a paint pen before it gets wet. I discovered this by fishing with a guy who had a Cordell shad bait similar to the shad rap, except for a little orange on the belly. I got spanked pretty hard, and bought some orange model paint at Wal-Mart that very day. Sure enough, I was catching them the next day. Since,I have fished with guys throwing the same bait as me with no orange, and the orange belly outperforms the plain-bellies every time.
J Francho reply :
On 3/6/2012 at 11:18 AM, POPRG said:i just want to know the reasoning behind it,makes no sense...and i do not like it...
Baby largemouth bass have orange both on their belly and a thin margin around the tail fin. The ventral (bottom paired) fins are sometimes also orange.
Flukeman reply :
If it bothers you so much, go buy some Rapala's, they have no orange. Mean while I will keep adding orange to my cranks and catching fish.
Marty reply :
On 3/6/2012 at 9:47 AM, POPRG said:WHY on earth do you put an orange belly on your "largemouth/baby bass" patterns?? I truly believe that you make them this way to attract fishermen,not for the intended quarry.
It really grinds my gears to see a beautiful bait in the package,with all intentions to mimic mother nature in its finest form,highly detailed to perfection,only to turn it on its side and reveal the citrus underbelly hell-fire-orange tone applied,why,WHY,dammit WHY?? This has been bothering me for decades now,and i had to let it out...
[i know it really is not that big of a deal,and they still fish just fine,................but WHY?????]
why?
I would urge you to write to the manufacturers for some answers. Too few of us do and that is why a number of products continue to have undesirable features. Why should they change if they're selling product and receiving no negative feedback?
POPRG reply :
Thanks for the great reply's everyone..just goes to show that we truly enjoy our sport to the extreme and i love the fact that i can post such a ridiculous topic and get some very straight forward answers.
Nice to see that some agree too! 
I shall heed marty's advice and contact several lure manufacturers as to why the devils belt of orange hell is embedded on the soft white under-belly of the hawg hunters tools...all of this said as an xcalibur XCS100 square-lip orange belly is staring me dead straight in the eye........but its o.k., for the crank is a craw pattern...........................................
POPRG reply :
Yeah MonteSS, the fire-belly still burns deep....perfect example of such a sweet swimbait put down & out with the hot vengeance of tangerine tummy once again..
wisconsin heat reply :
i hate it when i see "bluegill" colored baits, and they are white or grey??? confuses me as to what freakin bluegill theyre looking at.
Pantera61 reply :
I guess you don't have yellow perch in your area, which have orange caudal fins. Crawfish also have orange coloration.
J Francho reply :
Perch have orange anal and ventral fins, caudal are dark.
River Rat316 reply :
Female bluegills in clear water are almost all grey, with some blues, purples, greens, and very faint orange mixed in.On 3/7/2012 at 1:42 PM, wisconsin heat said:i hate it when i see "bluegill" colored baits, and they are white or grey??? confuses me as to what freakin bluegill theyre looking at.
And on a side note, I wouldn't worry so much about your "baby bass" colored bait having orange on it, there isn't a natural swimming crank bait out there, when have you seen a fat 3" baby bass wobbling through the water and making rattling noises. If fish were hitting your baits for their realism crank baits would never get bit, they are more than likely hitting that crank bait because it is stimulating some type of feeding response, or they are curious as to what the heck it is.
bigbassctchr101 reply :
And--- if you ever fish a crankbait like me. You would be digging the lip so far down in the rocks and mud that you'd never worry about a fish seeing the belly! lol
Blue Streak reply :
It makes a bait more visible and therefore easier to find thus it gets more strikes. I guess you can call it a triggering device. And the guys that make these are not dumb they know if that bait is going to sell well and make money for them it needs to be a bait that gets bit more often.
bigbassctchr101 reply :
On 3/8/2012 at 5:35 AM, Blue Streak said:It makes a bait more visible and therefore easier to find thus it gets more strikes. I guess you can call it a triggering device. And the guys that make these are not dumb they know if that bait is going to sell well and make money for them it needs to be a bait that gets bit more often.
Or looks pretty to fool big dumb guys like us =)
NCbassmaster4Life reply :
On 3/7/2012 at 8:31 AM, Marty said:I would urge you to write to the manufacturers for some answers. Too few of us do and that is why a number of products continue to have undesirable features. Why should they change if they're selling product and receiving no negative feedback?
My advice exactly, don't be scared to ask the manufactuer.
bigbill reply :
My orange bottom colored lures have more success on certain days over the non colored lures. I'm thinking there matching the main diet of the bigger bass which is the sunfish and bluegills and perch. If not than why do all my orange colored lures on the belly catch more fish??
Now why so many off the wall colors?? The sunlite and hues in the water changes the colors of our lures. The blue/white orginal rapala looks brown in the water to the fish.
Many years ago when i purchased the orginal Combo C Lector for picking a combination of colors for that moment i found out it really works. Its got me into color bigtime when bass fishing.
endless reply :
Speaking of Rapala here is DT6
Bandit must don't do orange either
POPRG reply :
Not saying i don't like orange undersided cranks,i love em!
Bluegill/perch/crawdad imitations should have a slice of hell-fire on em!! Just dont know why or when or how bait companys found the need to burn a bass's belly..?!?!
Pantera61 reply :
On 3/8/2012 at 12:55 AM, J Francho said:Perch have orange anal and ventral fins, caudal are dark.
I don't know why I wrote caudal. I know the caudal is the tail fin. That's what happens when you don't proofread.
Skeet22 reply :
- Here is Ott Defoes view on orange bellies in an interview after the classic.
> "That (custom color) is pretty similar to the root beer color that Bandit makes," he said of the crankbait. "This is going to sound crazy, but I think that orange belly is a difference-maker in the spring. I think the shad sit down on the bottom and they get a little bit of an orange coloration to their bellies. Where I'm from we have red clay and it's not uncommon to catch a bass with an orange belly because it's been sitting on the bottom. I think the baitfish do the same thing."
Big-O reply :
Bass often target one single prey species that is abundant at any given time but they are opportunistic predators when feeding. Baits that are close replicas in shape and color are necessary when a fisherman knows exactly which prey preference the majority of the bass in their waters have at any given time and in the various parts of the lake they're fishing (match the hatch).
Since bass eat just about everything that swims in their waters, many crankbait colors are intentionally painted to resemble a variety of possibe prey species at once. Orange is a natural color found on brim, perch and craws. To mimic a variety of the possible prey choices whether in shape, action and/or color is smart both for the manufacturer as well the fisherman. Also the flash of color is easier for a bass to notice from a distance in many different water conditions which causes them to investigate. When a bass investigates a quick moving presentation such as crankbaits, they'll normally commit to the bite if the bait resembles one of their prey choices.
Plus there are a multitude of colors that are attractive to bass because it either stands out or it is different than the norm... All to say "feed'em what they'll eat the most of - the fastest", and If you can figure that one out... don't tell anyone what it is or where you're fishing 
Hope that helps
Big O
www.ragetail.com
J Francho reply :
On 3/8/2012 at 10:57 AM, Pantera61 said:I don't know why I wrote caudal. I know the caudal is the tail fin. That's what happens when you don't proofread.
I was actually thinking, man he must know better. I let it sit, figuring you'd edit it - but after 20 mins, I couldn't contain myself.
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