What's Up With Chartreuse Lures? 2025
JamesD reply :
Please forgive my lack of knowledge, experience, and all around know-how when it comes to this subject... I'm getting by being self-taught so to speak when it comes to Bass Fishing...
What's up with the Chartreuse lures? it seems like ever professional angler I see runs nothing but these bright neon cranks or spinners (unless they're casting swim-bait), with GREAT results.
I own mainly natural colored lures, and a few odd balls that I've found here & there. Is it a safer investment into Chartreuse lures over the other stuff?
I'm aware that light refraction changes as the water becomes deeper, but I mainly fish clear pond/lake water.
I just figured I'd ask, considering I've had varying experiences with a variety of patterns and colors. Most notably, a silver/blue spinner and a white popper catch most everything that ends up on my line...
Hi Salenity reply :
Tag
grimlin reply :
I don't know,you'll have to ask the Bass why they bite those chartreuse colored lures. 
But they do bite them. We can only speculate why they bite them.
Chartreuse color works really well in clear water for me. My favorite trick stick worm color is pumpkin/chartreuse tail
smalljaw67 reply :
No one can really say why bass bite anything, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits look nothing like anything the fish eat yet they hit them. I happen to think that there are a couple of different reasons chartreuse colors work, one of the reasons is sight, bass use sight more than any other sense so say biologists and chartreuse is very visible. I think another reason is certain forage fish like bluegills and pumpkinseeds have chartreuse hues in their fins and on the body, they aren't bright and bold but you can see it especially when they are in the water. The final reason I believe they bite not only chartreuse colored lures but lures that don't resemble anything specific, is the genetic programming to hit something that is different. Fish will look at a school or pod of baitfish and tthey will look for one that swims a little different or has a slightly different color, usually it is a sign of weakness and an easy meal and so you have lures that aren't the normal run of the mill forage fish and the fish will bite it, thats how I tend to look at it.
JamesD reply :
On 6/20/2012 at 11:25 PM, Hi Salenity said:Tag
Tag? ...I don't follow?
On 6/21/2012 at 12:02 AM, grimlin said:I don't know,you'll have to ask the Bass why they bite those chartreuse colored lures.
But they do bite them. We can only speculate why they bite them.
Chartreuse color works really well in clear water for me. My favorite trick stick worm color is pumpkin/chartreuse tail
I've decided to buy a few when I get my canoe on the water to fish deeper areas of my little honey-hole. At least that way I can make good use of a 6-8' crank without snagging on some underwater branch/limb.
Any other input?
Crestliner2008 reply :
Back in the late '70's, we caught an awful lot of smallies on 3" chartreuse curly tails behind a 1/8 oz. ball head jig. Seemed back then that if you weren't tossing that color, you didn't get bit half as much. Must be something in the gene pool!
Blue Streak reply :
They work for some reason. I think it might be visibility. I understand that chartreuse turns a bright white under water.
Hi Salenity reply :
I think this in an interesting topic and was simply "tagging" it to see the replies.
roadwarrior reply :
Threadfin shad are generally referred to as "yellowtail" around here.
This is the main forrage in the Tennesse River system. Yellowtail get
their name from the chartreuse coloration on their upper sides and back:
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=493
BassinNY reply :
My theory is similar to what others have stated. Some bass forage have Chartreuse type colors in them so that I believe is one factor. Like others have stated visibility is another. Chartreuse is bright and eye catching so to speak. In all water clarities I have found Blue Back Chartreuse to run neck and neck with bluegill as far as crankbaits catching goes. Chartreuse grubs always catch smallmouth for me. Another example is the black/chartreuse flake senko, throw it wherever you would throw a black/blue flake one. That senko color always produces for me when the bass want something slow.
Dave P reply :
Don't know why. Just know it works!!! Most of the stuff in my box has at least a little on it.
logan9209 reply :
Ah, so that explains why at my lake the bass will hit a chartreuse pumpkinseed lizard on a bright sunny day with clear water. That must mean that there's something wrong with my presentation with the chartreuse/blue back cranks....but that's for another post and another day.
bigbassctchr101 reply :
I think a lot of the times it may have to do with a reaction bite. The bass may have no idea what its actually inhaling, they just do it cuz its there. It'd be like swatting at a fly. They don't have hands, so they either use their tails (tail slap, which I have found they usually do this so they can stun prey then turn around to eat it) or they use their mouths. If I saw a big yellow bug across the room, I'd probably stay away, but if it was in front of me... I'd try my best to make sure it wasn't for long.
Chartruese under varying depths of water will turn to around a beige (yellow/white and get more "bland") coloration once it gets so much light refraction. So, at a deeper level, it doesn't look nearly as unnatural as it does to us above water.
Vinny Chase reply :
I typically only fish chartreause in deeper or dingier water so it POPS a little better. To answer your question, bluegill naturally have some bright blues and chartreause colors on their scales, but when they flare up is when those colors come to life and these cranks immitate a defensive bluegill.
tomustang reply :
As I said in another thread, chartreuse is a flashy color, one of the highly visible colors that gets the attention over all the regular colors seen
JamesD reply :
Well I'm going to have to pick some up then. Won't be much use to me until I get my canoe on the water, but I'm sure at that point I'll be able to make GOOD use of them!
Bassfishing375 reply :
You can fish it in all water clarities. In clear water it can act like a perch, many time in clear water bluegills have a tint of chartreuse in their fin. In stained the fish can see it which is keys. So maybe thats why.
hookset on 3 reply :
There are many good logical replies to this thread.
I just want to add that, bass do NOT see colors like humans do, in a lot of the color spectrum. We really don't know how chartruese looks from a bass point of view.
RobertBG reply :
I dont know nor do i claim to know,but the best day i remember fishing in my life was with a chartruse curly tail grub from mister twister and a plain ole jig head when i was a kid in MI.I was supposed to go fishing with my dad but a thunderstorm rolled through,as a angry kid I decided to go fish around the docks after the storm cleared instead of hearing why we couldnt fish.I caught fish after fish till my parrents yelled time for dinner that day...............ever since it has been my go to color
JamesD reply :
On 6/22/2012 at 12:54 PM, RobertBG said:I dont know nor do i claim to know,but the best day i remember fishing in my life was with a chartruse curly tail grub from mister twister and a plain ole jig head when i was a kid in MI.I was supposed to go fishing with my dad but a thunderstorm rolled through,as a angry kid I decided to go fish around the docks after the storm cleared instead of hearing why we couldnt fish.I caught fish after fish till my parrents yelled time for dinner that day...............ever since it has been my go to color
Dang! That's good-enough logic for me.... I will certainly buy a few this year!
James Hendrix reply :
Good question James. I like using those colors in freshwater and saltwater. Bass, redfish,snook,trout all like chartreuse. I like looking for baits that has that color on the tails cause alot of real bait fish has that color naturally. Like shad pilchard pogies fingure mullet. I use wakers in that color to cause I can see it as i retrieve it. Lol. Anything shiny with that color tail is dynamite lol.
Junger reply :
This is an old thread, but I'm fairly new to fishing and my novice observation is that, when a chartreuse bait is used in stained water, when it's jerked or jigged, it gives off a little "flash" because it's contrasting with the water color or background which can attract the attention of active fish.
sully420 reply :
I have fished many lake where the bass were conditioned to chartreuse and natural colors got the bites. So just be aware all colors have there place for many different reasons so be ready to mix it up to learn what they want.
soflabasser reply :
Chartreuse is a good color for a lure when fishing in locations with low water visibility.
burrows reply :
Bass and blue gill have a hint of chartuse color on them so a crank bait swimming by erratically will trigger a reaction strike before their able to really get a good look at it.
thinkingredneck reply :
Probably works a lot like pink does.
timsford reply :
On 6/21/2012 at 12:18 AM, JamesD said:Tag? ...I don't follow?
I've decided to buy a few when I get my canoe on the water to fish deeper areas of my little honey-hole. At least that way I can make good use of a 6-8' crank without snagging on some underwater branch/limb.
Any other input?
One of the hardest lessons to learn as a beginner is that if you aren't getting snagged or worried about getting snagged, you won't catch nearly as many fish. Most of the time fish hit crankbaits as a reaction when they make contact with cover or on the pause immediately after striking cover. I ALWAYS use cranks that run deeper than the water I'm fishing and I want them to contact the bottom and cover as much as possible on the retrieve. Most cranks will float away from the snag if you pause the retrieve, and balsa or wood baits are my favorites for this because they float quickly and rarely get snagged. Another trick is to use shorter shank trebled that hug the lure tighter on retrieve.
Chartreuse is a murky or muddy water color primarily for me, unless I'm fishing for smallmouth or the primary baitfish the bass are eating are sunfish.
I choose color based on the forage I'm imitating. White or silver mostly for baitfish imitating lures like jerkbaits or spinnerbaits. Craw, bream, or shad colors for cranks and swimbaits. And plastics and jigs are always either shades of green or brown in clear water and black and blue in muddy water. I not saying any color won't work, but these are the colors and baits I use the most
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