Color Selection 2024
tcain38 reply :
Can someone post a link or tell me about color selection. I mean color with water clarity and also colors that should be used whith what sky conditions. I have a hard time with this. Some times when Im on the water I'm thinking, " I bet I dont even have the right color on for these fish no wonder I'm not catching anything." I wonder about this more than anything. Thanks.
Grey Wolf reply :
Stained water/overcast days/night fishing = dark colors.
Clear water/sunny days = light colored/natural baits.
BASSclary reply :
Well if you had a Color-C-Lector then you would know exactly which color YUM plastic to throw on your Roland Martin Signature rod 8-)
On a serious not though, I go natural in clear water, dark at night, and bright in stained/muddy water
Vinny Chase reply :
Don't over think it when it comes to color, it is a very small part of determining if you will get get bit or not. Like everyone else has said, in low light/darker water situation, use a color that will pop. If you are fishing clear water, use a color that is more natural to the fishes environment.
With that being said, I also throw a chartreuse/blue no matter what the conditions are. This color looks a lot like a bluegill when it flairs its colors, and I found it works equally in each almost every situation.
bassfisherjk reply :
Grey Wolf has it covered.Good Luck.
Marty reply :
QuoteSome times when Im on the water I'm thinking, " I bet I dont even have the right color on for these fish no wonder I'm not catching anything."
What makes you think that there is a right color? I think you'd be better served by thinking less about the color and more about location and presentation.
Good luck.
tcain38 reply :
QuoteQuoteSome times when Im on the water I'm thinking, " I bet I dont even have the right color on for these fish no wonder I'm not catching anything."What makes you think that there is a right color? I think you'd be better served by thinking less about the color and more about location and presentation.
Good luck.
Have you ever not been geetin bit and make a color change and start catching fish with the same presentation. Thats what I mean. I want to try and catch them right off the bat not fish for five hours them start to catch them.
Fish Chris reply :
QuoteDon't over think it when it comes to color, it is a very small part of determining if you will get get bit or not.
Couldn't have said it better myself. The biggest reason for lures having so many color choices, is marketing. I believe that sometimes, even when it seems like the only change you made was color, their very possibly could have been other subtle changes taking place... not only changes made by you, but changes with the fish.
One other thing; If all a guy ever throws is purple worms with blue flakes, or firetiger crankbaits, then every fish he ever catches, will be caught on purple worms with blue flakes, and firetiger crankbaits.
Peace,
Fish
WRB reply :
Big difference between lures that move fast and slow; bright flashy colors with contrast work well moving fast, slow moving lures need to look like what the bass are feeding on and only the bass know for sure.
Size/profile, movement , depth and speed are just as important as color....maybe more.
Tom
Catt reply :
QuoteStained water/overcast days/night fishing = dark colors.Clear water/sunny days = light colored/natural baits.
Now if we could only get the bass to follow this 
I have to agree with Chris there are too many variables associated with what makes a bass bite than just Stained water/overcast days/night fishing = dark colors. Clear water/sunny days = light colored/natural baits.
Grey Wolf reply :
QuoteQuoteStained water/overcast days/night fishing = dark colors.Clear water/sunny days = light colored/natural baits.
Now if we could only get the bass to follow this
Dumb bass !!!!!!
Raul reply :
I 'm a sucker for colors, I like to have a big bunch of colors in everything I fish with and .... I end up fishing with the same colors I always fish which btw are the colors I like:
Cranks: any color is fine as long as it is silver/black back, gold/black back, silver/blue back and shad(ish)
Topwaters: any color is fine as long as it is black for Jitterbugs, bass for Spooks and Torpedoes
Spinnerbaits: any color is fine as long as it is white/chartreuse skirt with either silver or gold blades
Worms/creatures: any color is fine as long as it is watermelon ( ish ), green pumkin ( ish ), red shad, black shad & tequila shad
Jerkbaits: any color is fine as long as it is pearl or shad ( ish )
Jigs: any color is fine as long as it is black or brown.
ww2farmer reply :
Bass don't care what color your bait is, you do, and tackle mfgs pump you full of nonsense about color to keep you buying more and more. I am not saying color dosen't matter at all, you will catch more fish on the green pumpkins, watermelons, black and ble etc... than you will on bright yellow (most of the time), but you don't need 382 variations of green pumpkin, or watermelon, or black, or insert color hear to catch fish. Pick a couple YOU have faith in, and that have worked for you before and get bust finding fish. Too many people blame color first, I would say most of the time if your not catching them it is because your not on them. If your on them and still not catching them, your presentation is off, and you have to figure that out. Do that want it moving? Do that want it deadsticked? Are they hitting on the fall or on the bottom? Fast or slow fall? Will they come up and hit a top water? And there are still more that come into play well before I consider color a factor. I haven't even mentioned seasonal patterns, water temp, weather............
SENKOSAM reply :
what WW2 said.....!
Expressed differently:
QuoteEvery life form has a food image locked into its DNA no matter how simple the life form. A lure may taste like a rubber balloon or may look like the color of bird droppings, but if it fits a basic criteria as regards to size, shape, motion and maybe chemical reception, a fish will eat it! The predator response always matters as much to a lure maker or angler as is finding lure elements and presentations that get that response.
The nicest thing about bass lure color selection is the variety, but too much variety is also a curse. I've kept fishing logs for years and I can tell you many colors work year after year. There are no simple or universal answers to your question - experiment and report back to us. That's the only way you'll develop a feel for colors under certain conditions and during different seasons, with the goal of limiting your color choices to those you'll always have confidence in.
Catt reply :
One of my deadliest colors at night is a worm make by Ringed Rascal called Starry Night; it is dark smoke on top and light smoke on the bottom with tons of silver glitter in both. Held up in the sunlight you can see through and through this worm which goes totally against the Stained water/overcast days/night fishing = dark colors theory. What I think this color does very well is it mimics the coloration of a shad.
One of the deadliest colors in the last 10 years is Watermelon Neon (red glitter) yet it blends in very well in Hydrilla but the bass find it anyway.
I also have seen times when color made the difference between catching and skunked but its an oddity.
Raul reply :
QuoteI also have seen times when color made the difference between catching and skunked but its an oddity.
Ok Catt, so tell us in your experience, out of 100 trips how many times have you experienced that event, color making a marked difference ?
In my experience, if I think really hard ----> 1 trip in every 100 trips color has made a difference, heck, that ain 't much ! :-? , 1 % of the times color has made a difference.
So, if you fish 365 days a year then ohhhh, be very scared cuz 3 times you 'll have to worry about color making a difference.
Did I mention that white spinnerbaits with silver blades work very well in muddy water ( where, in theory, they shouldn 't work well at all ).
Jigfishn10 reply :
Like most anglers on here have mentioned, color isn't one of my top of priorities when it comes to selecting a lure. What I do look for is visibility in the water and I use the rule of thumb that Grey Wolf mentioned previously as a start. I also keep in mind that certain colors disappear at certain depths. For example: Red and white will disappear in 10' of water in very clear lakes with clear sunny skies and less in stained to muddy waters. So basically, I want the fish to see my lure and attack it because it's presented well.
Just my 2 cents.
WRB reply :
Let me toss out this tidbit; bass are color blind as we know it. Now before you start telling me I'm crazy and bass eyes are constructed to see colors (cones & rods), considered this; bass live under water with poor light and see very well.
We don't know how fish see colors, we know they react to different colors.
My belief is predator fish like bass see in a very different spectrum then animals that live above the water; ultra violet, infra red or whatever it maybe it's different then our eye sight.
The one thing about colors that I believe is important is contrast. Almost everything that lives underwater has contrasting coloring; light undersides with darker top sides or light bellies and dark backs. Contrast helps creatures to blend into the background.
Nearly every lure I use has contrasting colors to help the bass find it easily. Each lake has a slightly different color of preference the bass seem to prefer.
I tend to stay with known colors that work for that lake and change size, depth, speed or cadence before changing to another color for a specific type of lure.
Years ago I would trap crawdads and baitfish out of the lake being fished and use similar colors as the prey looked when in the water. After years it became obvious that size was just as important as color and lures with more contrast worked better than the more natural colors. At one point I would dye crawdads brighter colors with food coloring; purple crawdads worked better than the natural earth color. The light came on; the bass could find the unnatural color crawdad easier. Purple coloring in jigs combined with the natural colors became one my favorites and has worked very well the past 30 years. I haven't seen a natural purple crawdad where I fish, there could be a reason.
Tom
PondBoss reply :
QuoteQuoteDon't over think it when it comes to color, it is a very small part of determining if you will get get bit or not.One other thing; If all a guy ever throws is purple worms with blue flakes, or firetiger crankbaits, then every fish he ever catches, will be caught on purple worms with blue flakes, and firetiger crankbaits.
Peace,
Fish
Funny how that works out.
Catt reply :
Raul I would say 5 out of 100
Raul reply :
QuoteRaul I would say 5 out of 100
That ain 't much either. ;D
RoLo reply :
Even that 1 to 5% of the time when color SEEMS to be the deciding factor,
it's probably due to one or more of the other 843 variables ;D
Realistically, it's not likely than any color will cause a sedentary bass to eat,
or that any color would suppress the appetite of an aggressively feeding bass.
On the other hand, in order to accept or reject an offering, the bass must first see the lure,
and in a timely fashion. Depending on the current lighting conditions and water color,
certain colors help to expand the bass's strike window, while others shrink the strike window.
In my view anyway, lure color is important, but only insofar as it lends to lure visibility.
Roger
piscicidal reply :
I'm gonna disagree somewhat with the general sentiment here. I think color is fairly important.
Let me give one recent instance...1/30/2011. I was fishing with my Dad on Lake Okeechobee. We were drifting a large open grass flat and were both throwing the exact same bait. I gave him the "favored" color to start out with, while I experimented with 3-4 different colors. After about two drifts he had me down 10 fish to 4. At that point I switched to the same "favored" color and the rest of the trip we caught fish equally.
Now this is just one example, but one I have reproduced many times. Virtually any time I am drifting (not applicable if boat is moving forward, as the front person always has an advantage), I perform this experiment...I will mimic my boat partner, altering only the lure color. Invariably, I can "dial in" the lure color to the optimum pattern for a particular day. In fact, I can go to several prominent bass lakes around here, and know with near certainty what the best color is before I've even wet a line, because I've performed this experiment so many times.
I think only under a controlled scenario like this (both casting to same targets, identical rods/reels/baits/etc) circumstances can one determine whether color made a difference or not...all other variables must be controlled except color. A person fishing by themselves (unless he is changing his lures every cast) or two people fishing different lures/speeds/techniques cannot determine whether color made a difference in his catching. Maybe he caught fish with the color he was using...but he does not have a frame of reference to determine whether he could have caught more (or less) using another color. If that person caught fish, and he doesn't have that fixed frame of reference, to him color didn't matter.
There's no doubt that certain colors will be more visible to bass under low clarity/low-light conditions. And bass being primarily sight/ambush predators...being able to see the bait better HAS to have some positive effect on catching. Under high clarity/bright conditions, the more lifelike presentations will certainly get bit more. So in each scenario, it seems that color does indeed matter.
Catt reply :
piscicidal, you're saying the same thing we said, there are times color is important and there are times it aint.
I've had trip where after catching 2-3 bass we would not get another bite until we changed colors, we would go through 5 or 6 different colors in one day. The worms were Gene Larew 7 ½ Ringworms and while the color changed the worm stayed the same.
piscicidal reply :
Yes, in general I think we agree. Where I differ is as to the degree that color matters. I think color matters far more often than the 1 in 100 or 5 in 100 (1-5%) numbers being discussed. In fact, I would almost flip those percentages for the reasons I mentioned earlier.
Raul reply :
Ok, I agree, sometimes color is a deciding factor, but you can 't always go out thinking that if you don 't have color X you won 't catch a cold. Your story is an example, I have another few others where color mattered everything, but you don 't have to go around purchasing every color available, you only need a few. Sure, you can purchase a rainbow of colors if that 's what you like and you can go even further, you can purchase a particular color from a particular brand that nobody else has, for ex, when it comes to cotton candy for me it 's Culprit 's cotton candy and no other, and what 's so special about it ? well, I like that milky strawberry yougurt like cotton candy, but let me tell you, I can 't even remember when was the last time I fished with it.
Color preference and variation can change and it 's ruled by a bunch of factors like hour the day, cloud cover, light penetration, water color, right now you are murdering them with X color, in a couple of hours you might or not need to change to color Y. So for general purposes with only a handful of colors you are safe, you don 't need every color in the rainbow.
RoLo reply :
The ole Color-C-Lector was based on the intensity of incident light at fish level.
In my view, maximizing contrast is the most plausible approach to color selection.
I believe the demise of the Color-C-Lector underscores the benign importance of lure color.
I'm all ears when the man at the tackle shop informs me of the hottest color
on the lake. What he doesn't realize however, is that the hottest color
will probably be the only color I never use. Take a moment to recall the best
angling days of your entire life. I'm willing to bet you were NOT following the crowd
on any one of those days.
One day last fall we found ourselves in a whitewater jump.
About every 5 minutes of so, schoolies were balling bait on the surface.
The baitfish were silvery 3 to 4 shiners, but oddly enough,
the most productive lure that day was a 7.5 junebug' worm (clashing the hatch).
Roger
WRB reply :
A classic example of color importance was the Eppinger lure company changing paint suppliers several years ago. The red paint they used was discontinued due to the EPA . The new red that looked the same as the old used their spoons; red with white stripe and yellow with red diamonds was the best sellers. After changing paint suppliers the sales dropped off the next few years and anglers were complaining for the first time ever that something was wrong with the new spoons.
Eppinger had a spectrum analysis under infra red and the new red was very different. They matched the old red and sales picked up. The fish could see the difference, the human eye could not.
Some bass anglers hunt for certain lot numbers of plastic worms knowing a specific lot out fished other lots they use. Sometimes it's a slight shift like slightly amber smoke color verses a grey smoke that can make a big difference.
Every bass angler who fishes with soft plastics has or will experienced a time when one bag of the same worms out fishes others, everything else being equal.
Someday we may know how bass see colors and solve that mistery.
Tom
piscicidal reply :
I have an old Field and Stream article at home...it's entitled "What bass see".
In it, they detail some testing they did trying to characterize the frequency that different colored baits get hit by bass in a testing tank. I don't remember all the details of the testing, but there was a definate hierarchy as to which colors which got hit more.
In the article there is also a chart where they show a bunch of crankbaits of different colors on one column on the left (the baseline)...to the right were columns of that same crankbait showing "how it looks to a bass" in different light/clarity conditions. I'll leave it to the biologists to determine the validity of trying to determine what a bass actually sees, but there was definately some science put to the test.
I will try and scan the article tonight and post it here tomorrow (providing that is in compliance with forum rules)
piscicidal reply :
QuoteOk, I agree, sometimes color is a deciding factor, but you can 't always go out thinking that if you don 't have color X you won 't catch a cold. Your story is an example, I have another few others where color mattered everything, but you don 't have to go around purchasing every color available, you only need a few. Sure, you can purchase a rainbow of colors if that 's what you like and you can go even further, you can purchase a particular color from a particular brand that nobody else has, for ex, when it comes to cotton candy for me it 's Culprit 's cotton candy and no other, and what 's so special about it ? well, I like that milky strawberry yougurt like cotton candy, but let me tell you, I can 't even remember when was the last time I fished with it.Color preference and variation can change and it 's ruled by a bunch of factors like hour the day, cloud cover, light penetration, water color, right now you are murdering them with X color, in a couple of hours you might or not need to change to color Y. So for general purposes with only a handful of colors you are safe, you don 't need every color in the rainbow.
I'm with you on that 100%. I try and max my color selections to 4 or 5 for each lure. Any more than that and it's just too many permutations to try and effectively dial in. I think it becomes self defeating at that point...
farmpond1 reply :
I don't think we see things quite like a bass does so the issue may lie on a different plain than we can reasonably debate. It may not always be that one color works better than another so much as the intensity or "luminisity" of that color. But I've seen too many times where color (using the word generically) has had a strong impact on my success to dismiss the issue wholesale.
SENKOSAM reply :
I still maintain that color enhances action and profile and the more it does so the better.
Who hasn't caught bass on basic black jig and trailers in stained water? Where's the contrast? If color contrast was always important why not always use white, florescent colors or silver plate? If natural color is important, how come Creme's natural earthworm color doesn't sell ? How come super realistic color schemes and colors don't do better than more abstract colors, but can hold their own much of the time?
Maybe it's because color can be a turnoff when it comes to certain baits or not matter at all for other lures. I have rarely done well on a bubblegum skirted spinnerbaits; I don't like emerald green soft plastics and neither do bass - even in clear water! Drop shotting black finesse worms don't produce for me and isn't preferred by most anglers I know. Solid bright white swimbaits may have their place, but I prefer more muted colors and so do bass in the waters I fish. In fact solid bright white doesn't seem to sell in any lure design except spinnerbait skirts.
Lure color is too subjective as it lure design and consensus is near impossible except for the most widely used colors for certain lure designs. The ColorC Lector and pH fad hooked gullible anglers like me when they first came out, promoted by Hannon. Man, have my opinions changed!
WRB reply :
There are lots of scientific studies regarding fish ability to see colors and they contradict each other.
The facts that are known is fish that can see colors have 4 color cones; red, blue green and ultraviolet. The human eye has 3; red, blue and green. The wild card is ultraviolet and goes a long way to explain why bass for example prefer some colors and avoid others and have very low light vision.
As bass anglers we want to avoid using colors that bass dislike for whatever reason. We tend to use what works for us and stop using what doesn't.
Tom
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