Let's Talk Essential Colors 2025

Senko lover reply :

Today I had a discussion with an older man in my church who spent a lot of his life fishing tournament trails across the country, including co-angling for a long time in FLW. He was talking to me about not wasting money on buying lures and colors I didn't need. When he was younger, he bought every single lure and bait in every single color that caught his eye. He has over $15,000 of those lures, baits and colors that he never used and that sit in his garage gathering dust. Some of it is just that it's way too much for someone to use in their lifetime, (which is why I'm buying some of it!), but most of it is colors of baits that he found weren't as effective as others.

So, I figured that a discussion of basic, proven colors would help many members on here from buying tons of colors they don't need.

Here's his synopsis. He says that these colors are what 90% of the big names on the tours threw when he was fishing with them. no matter where they were fishing. These were the categories we discussed.

-Plastics and jigs:

No suprises here. Green Pumpkin and Black & Blue. (Excluding flukes/swimbaits/shad imitators and topwaters)

-Lipped Crankbaits: Blue with chartreuse sides (citrus shad), and some sort of plain shad imitator, such as sexy shad or the like.

-Lipless Crankbaits: Gold/Chrome, Blue/Chrome, and a Red/Orange.

-Spinnerbaits: Chatreuse/white, and white.

He didn't go through every category, but that sums a lot of baits up.

So, contribute your own thoughts, in particular if you've been fishing a long time.

If you had only two or three colors to fish for each category, which ones would see the water?

Soft Plastics (general)
Soft Plastics (shad imitators)
Soft Plastics (topwater)
Topwater
Lipless Cranks
Shallow/Medium Cranks
Deep Cranks
Jerkbaits
Jigs
Spinnerbaits
Buzzbaits
Chatterbaits
Frogs

Or, if you don't feel like going through the list, how 'bout a more general couple of colors or your favorite colors for a technique you've specialized in?

I'm not even going to pretend to know a lot in these categories-that's why I posted the thread. But, the more I fish, the more I find that the following colors work best:

-Plastics (general): Green Pumpkin, Black & Blue (or Junebug), and Black/Red

-Plastics (shad imitators): Pearl white, White/Blue back, and a bluegill imitator, such as Arkansas Shiner.

-Soft Plastics (topwater): Green Pumpkin, White

-Topwater: White, and a generic green. (Baby bass, Tennessee Shad)

-Lipless Cranks: Sexy Shad, Red

-Shallow/Medium Cranks: Sexy Shad, Bluegill, Chartreuse/Black Back

-Deep Cranks and Jerkbaits: I don't fish a lot.

-Jigs: Green Pumkin, Black/Blue, and Green Pumpkin/Chartreuse

-Spinnerbaits: Chartreuse/white

-Buzzbaits: Chartreuse/white

-Chatterbaits: Green Pumpkin (A lot of pros say this is the only color you need. I haven't tested out Black/Blue yet personally), chatreuse/white

-Frogs: White, Black, and Green

A discussion like this would have helped me back when I was starting my tackle collection, and I'm sure that if everybody pitches in, we can help beginners sort through color choices. Obviously, local colors have superstitious followers, like Margarita Mutilator in Cali, but let's focus on more general producers.

If ya'll decide to contribute, after the thread dies down, I'll synopsize the most voted colors for each category.

If I forgot a category, add it on lol .

Bruce424 reply :

The only thing I'll add is watermelon to plastics. I think they work better in clearer water. Chrome to lipless cranks.

deep reply :

I'm not a big color person, but I do have thoughts on this.

I like 3 or 4 certain colors on my hardbaits, but I'm not particular about how they are arranged to form the paintjob. I'll absolutely not buy a bait that doesn't have at least a few of my preferred shades- the rest I add with sharpies or nailpolish.

Jigs, I tie my own. 90% of them are in one specific color combination.

Plastic colors admittedly are more varied, but still no more than 3 or 4 patterns.

P.S. Every region has their own pet colors. You need to *find* your own. I've never had decent results with black and blue jigs. Switch to my preferred color, and I start catching fish again.

I only fish 3 or 4 reservoirs, so my few standbys work well. Still like to try out new things to see if the fish respond better.

P.P.S. In pursuit of giant bass- pgs 269-273, 184-196 (3rd ed). I don't know how ANYONE fishing structured reservoirs can afford to NOT have this book.

Weld's Largemouth reply :

uhh.

5" senko orange w/ black flake

1/2 oz black and blue jig with black and blue rage craw

Chartreuse squarebill

You're good to go.

kickerfish1 reply :

Wow nice post Senko lover!

There is always the debate on how much of a factor color plays in success fishing. I know it may not always be a top variable but to me it does. The reason is due to the fact that our lakes have varying levels of water clarity. It may be as clear as 5 feet, as bad as 2 inches of visibility and during most of the heat of the summer there are bad algae blooms that last weeks to months.

I have tried fishing natural colors like GP or Watermelon year round. They flat out don't work well when the water clarity if poor. Therefore I typically like to have a varying colors on hand of jigs, soft baits, etc...

Black/Blue Plum, Black/Neon and Junebug for the worst clarity

Okeechobee craw and Bamabug for the inbetween stuff

Black, Brown, GP, and Watermelon for the clear stuff

If I fished lakes that didn't vary as much I would probably shift my color choices one way or the other but sadly certain colors excel at certain times and thus the reason I like to have variety

Jon G reply :

Plastics: I have a lot of different colors because I use a lot of different companies that offer different colors. If I could only have a select few it would be green pumpkin, watermelon, black and blue ,junebug, plum apple, and white

Crankbaits: It really depends on the company. My favorites are American Shad (LC), Chartreuse (company doesn't matter), sexy shad (company doesn't matter), and gizzard shad (6th sense)

Jigs: Black and Blue, Green Pumpkin, and Brown.

Jerkbaits: Don't even get me started.........

Lipless Cranks: Blue Chrome and some sort of Red Craw color

Senko lover reply :

I didn't expect ya'll to go into great detail, I was just thinking through it in my head and decided to type up my ramblings.......

In the end, we're trying to imitate a basses' prey. Bass prey heavily on both bluegill and shad, two forage items that are pretty easy to imitate color-wise.

I heard KVD say in a video, "pick a soft plastic color that matches the bottom of your lake." The crawfish and worms aren't trying to stand out, they're actually trying to blend in and not be noticed. That is why I believe Green Pumpkin works so well. It also matches a lot of crawfish pretty closely.

More food for thought

HoosierHawgs reply :

Really depends on where you're fishing at and what those bass are eating, I think this is a huge part of fishing. I'm not gonna fish blue gill/red ear patterns on the lake I fish most of the time, because they are eating shad. Exception to that is immediately postspawn, where grinding a blue gill/ red ear pattern squarebill on shallow flats elicits vicious strikes, but this dies off after about a week. In the "Junebug" thread, we talked about with plastics how dark colors will absorb more light, and this can be important in off color water. I also don't think you need a ton of colors and could probably get by w/2 squarebills. I own so many Squarebills, different colors, brands, shapes, sizes because I like to try different things. I like to test the action of different baits and see what I like, and I have plenty of different colors, so I can figure out what I like best. In the end its a lot of trial and error. Figure out what works where you fish, and then go with it, until some drastic change in the ecosystem dictates otherwise.

deep reply :

On 7/13/2015 at 8:14 AM, Senko lover said:

In the end, we're trying to imitate a basses' prey. Bass prey heavily on both bluegill and shad, two forage items that are pretty easy to imitate color-wise.

No, yes, and no. (why?)

I try to be not a dick, but you seem to be willing to learn.

FishTank reply :

Maybe this will help

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/choosing-lure-colors.html

ABW reply :

As Andrew Zimmern once said... "if it looks good, eat it!"

Maxximus Redneckus reply :

Firetiger,chartreuse,black,white,pink,green.straight colors and mixed.

Senko lover reply :

On 7/13/2015 at 8:44 AM, deep said:

No, yes, and no. (why?)

I try to be not a dick, but you seem to be willing to learn.

I was trying to fodder discussion.....we throw a lot of things that don't seem to imitate prey at all. I guess I was trying to say that imitating the forage in your waters is a good place to start.

papajoe222 reply :

You really can't choose colors without discussing the water clarity they'll be used in. Green pumpkin is great in clear to moderately stained water while black/blue and Junebug may be better in stained to muddy water.

Natural colors will produce under most circumstances (after all, most forage doesn't change colors), but there are times when some other color will produce better. The only way to determine is to try them. PB&J just doesn't get it done on the waters I frequent, but something like a bumble bee swirl does and will out produce the natural colors at times.

Raul reply :

I like pretty colored baits so I try to purchase almost every color, you see, they are all "essential" ya know.

Flippin4Biggins reply :

I've said it so many times as I've learned a lot from here and Matt Allen. When it come to jigs, keep it simple you only need 4 base colors. Your Browns, green pumpkins, black, and watermelons. I used to have a billions colors and never caught a thing.... Now I went with that advice and say you want to get that green pumpkin watermelon flake you can use that jig trailer to do that. I'd rather spend 20 bucks for a couple of 6pks of trailers then 20 bucks on jigs and only get 4 jigs one each color.

I do the same in Plastics. In clear water I throw natural colors... Greens, Browns, junebug, watermelons. In stained I like to stand out a bit and throw a natural color but maybe a more dominant or just enough chartreuse color to grab their attention. In muddy water I like to throw a black based color but I also throw all chartreuse. Hey if it works for me at night, why not in muddy.

When it comes to hard baits..... Aged old saying match the hatch. I like my baitfish colors And imitate bluegill a lot.

And for frog fishing I use three colors.... Black, chartreuse, and white bottoms.

I keep it all simple and I've done good for someone who doesn't have a boat, new to tournaments and has legitimately bass exclusivley for the last year and a half... This makes two

HoosierHawgs reply :

On 7/13/2015 at 10:47 AM, papajoe222 said:

You really can't choose colors without discussing the water clarity they'll be used in. Green pumpkin is great in clear to moderately stained water while black/blue and Junebug may be better in stained to muddy water.

Natural colors will produce under most circumstances (after all, most forage doesn't change colors), but there are times when some other color will produce better. The only way to determine is to try them. PB&J just doesn't get it done on the waters I frequent, but something like a bumble bee swirl does and will out produce the natural colors at times.

Quoting RoLo from the Junebug Thread

Posted July 09 2015 - 05:36 PM

"Junebug is a dark color, and in my opinion that's the sum total of its amenities.

Any dark color would be the equivalent of Junebug; for instance Deep purple, Scuppernong, Black neon, Black & blue ~ ~ ~

What is a dark color?

The more light a pigment absorbs, the darker the color. White reflects all light, black absorbs all light, green reflects about 50%

The common thread between Murky water, Tannic-stained water and Muddy water is "reduced sunlight" (limited but not void).

The angler might tie on a bright flashy spinner, but there can be no flash, where there is no light

So a better option might be to move in the opposite direction, and throw a dark color that absorbs existing light.

By absorbing all existing light, a black object contrasts best against a background of low light

Roger"

I find that this is good info that RoLo posted in that thread. Probably one of the most informative post I have read this year. RoLo, I hope it's not a problem that I used this post, like I said, I just learned a lot from it, I want to thank you for posting it. Please recognize that the quote above is RoLo, and I don't take credit for any of the information in RoLo's post.

buzzed bait reply :

i used to buy everything i could get my hands on.... then realized i'd never use most of what i had. at that point in time i decided to get a little nicer stuff and pinpoint it to just the colors/types that i would use.

Plastics/jigs - greens, browns, black/blue

Hardbaits - White shad type color, bluegill color, red

Spinnerbait/Chatterbait/Buzzbait - any combination of blacks and whites

blckshirt98 reply :

For finesse baits I'll stick with your standard green pumpkins/watermelons with flake variants (red or gold preferably), blacks/purples, and since I've had success on them the Morning Dawn/pink colors. Those are the ones that give me the most confidence and I've had good success with them.

For reaction baits I'll try to stick with the "match the hatch" concept and get stuff that resembles the forage out here on the west coast - shad/bluegill/crappie/crawdad/rainbow trout, with color variants to take into account variance in water clarity (ghost colors, chartreuse highlights, flash finishes, etc).

I know some people will say color is one of the most overrated factors in catching fish, but confidence in what you're using is a big factor, so even if they say most lures catch fisherman not fish, get whatever colors give you the most confidence, just don't go crazy and buy so many things it overloads your choices and locks you up.

cgolf reply :

If I had to choose 3 colors of soft plastics to fish for the rest of my life I would do great with these.

Watermelon Red - great in dingy and clear water with overcast skies or a chop on the water breaking up the light.

Smoke purple - bass kill this color on clear water lakes when there is sun and the water is flat. Also have found water red doesn't work under these conditions.

Motor oil or Kalins Rons Craw (very similar to motor oil depending on brand) - great all around color for clear and stained water.

Of course I have lots of other colors, but these three dominate my boxes based on what the fish have told me over the years.

A color I did good with this year and many years ago is bluegill, if it keeps producing, I could end up with a fourth color on this list.

cgolf reply :

On 7/14/2015 at 1:18 AM, blckshirt98 said:

For finesse baits I'll stick with your standard green pumpkins/watermelons with flake variants (red or gold preferably), blacks/purples, and since I've had success on them the Morning Dawn/pink colors. Those are the ones that give me the most confidence and I've had good success with them.

For reaction baits I'll try to stick with the "match the hatch" concept and get stuff that resembles the forage out here on the west coast - shad/bluegill/crappie/crawdad/rainbow trout, with color variants to take into account variance in water clarity (ghost colors, chartreuse highlights, flash finishes, etc).

I know some people will say color is one of the most overrated factors in catching fish, but confidence in what you're using is a big factor, so even if they say most lures catch fisherman not fish, get whatever colors give you the most confidence, just don't go crazy and buy so many things it overloads your choices and locks you up.

Color choice with soft plastics on clear water can be huge. One lake i fish shifts between water red and smoke purple depending on light and surface chop/no chop. When one is working, you won't get zip on the other. It is amazing how picky they can get.

OkobojiEagle reply :

"Something dark, something light, something in-between", Cap'n Chuck Duggins

WRB reply :

Bass fishing would be simple if you could break it down to a few essential colors. Unfortunately the prey bass eat come in a wide variety of color combinations. If you look at 1 prey source found everywhere bass live it would be crawfish, there are hundreds of color combinations. Some time catch a live crawfish (crawdads) and look at the live wet shell colors under a magnifying glass. What you see as a solid color under magnification is like your TV screen, it's made up of a dot matrix of several colors and the shell changes coloration depending on it's environment and age. Selecting one solid color to represent a complex coloration limits your success in catching bass.

My soft plastic worms, craws, reapers, creatures, tubes, etc are sorted by size and predominate 8 base colors;

Smoke

Pearl

Brown, light and dark

Purple, wine, oxblood and violet

Green, light and dark

Blue

Red and red/orange

Black

All of these may or may not have laminates, blood lines of 1 or more of the 8 base colors plus flakes to high lite colors of silver, gold, copper, black, green, purple, red and blue.

I use everyone of these colors during the year.

I am not a believer in bluegill being primary baitfish year around. During the spawn and young of the year bluegill are a prey source and bass will prefer baitfish that are longer slimmer shape with less splines than bluegill if available. Crappie for example are a better prey source than bluegill, soften fins slimmer profile.

Tom

hawkoath reply :

Jig: Blue/Black, Brown

Worm: Green Watermelon, Black

Crankbaits/Spoons: Chartreuse

Frogs: White Belly

Glenn reply :

Here's how I choose lure colors:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/how-to-lure-colors.html

It's a very straightforward, simple approach.

WRB reply :

There is a reason custom color hand poured soft plastic worms got their start in SoCal...Florida strain LMB in clear deep structured lakes. FLMB out west are very difficult bass to catch using tactics common for NLMB.

It was thought for a few years FLMB could only be caught on live bait because we were use to catching NLMB that were easy to catch by comparison.

Tom

Nice_Bass reply :

For me- black and motoroil is all I use in softplastics...wait pbj as well!

anyhow, what I think is more interesting is the FLMB vs NLMB. I am not sure one is harder to catch than the other however: FLMB native to shallow vegetated lakes in FL with millions of years evolving then transplanted into deep lakes outside normal habitat. Shallow active bass will be more wary than deep and evolve so.

In one study however: To sum up the points below, FLMB preferred deeper water further from shore (even after evolving in shallow water), and they had smaller home ranges. Long story short, strain matters little to me, fish where the fish are. To me, color is overrated quite frankly and while there have been times it made a difference, presentation to the fish matters first and foremost.

Fish are opportunistic, we have to remember.

A study done in Lake Tawakoni, a 37,000-acre reservoir in Texas,

12 NLMB and 12 FLMB were obtained from a state hatchery and tagged with ultrasonic tags.

They were all released in the same area of the lake at the same time. Their movements were then checked with a radio receiver every two weeks for an entire year.

NLMB spent 75 percent of their time within a 54-acre area and 95 percent of their time within a 165-acre area.

FLMB spent 75 percent of their time within a 48-acre area and 95 percent of their time within a 110-acre area.

FLMB spent 83 percent of their time and NLMB spent 95 percent of their time in water shallower than 7 feet, even though water 40 feet deep was close by.

The deepest water that NLMB moved to was 18½ feet. The deepest water for a FLMB was 22 feet.

“FLMB showed a distinct movement pattern toward shallower water as surface water temperatures increased. No such pattern was seen for NLMB.

“FLMB were located significantly farther from shore than NLMB. FLMB averaged 44 yards (maximum 226 yards) and NLMB averaged 10 yards (maximum 101 yards) from shore.”

I will also say however, as a man of science, fishing is one of those things that sometimes experience trumps science for me at times. especially on the flmb vs nlmb issue. Color, to me is neither and more marketing these days though.

Also, jealousy since we don't have stocked flmb all that close to where I live.

Felix77 reply :

This one seems like fun ... Here goes my list.

Soft Plastics (general) - Green Pumpkin, Black/Blue
Soft Plastics (shad imitators) - white, or a perch pattern of some sort (yellow with flakes)
Soft Plastics (topwater) - Black, White
Topwater - Translucent white, white, chartreuse
Lipless Cranks - Sexy Shad, Chartreuse
Shallow/Medium Cranks - Sexy Shad, Chartreuse
Deep Cranks - Chartreuse (like citrus shad, cht blk back)
Jerkbaits - pink, chartreuse, white
Jigs - green pumpkin, black/blue
Spinnerbaits - white
Buzzbaits - white
Chatterbaits - white, black, green pumpkin
Frogs - white, black, chartreuse

9071

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