Lure color will be debated as long as men/women fish

[joedog]

Here's some good quick reading that talks about the science behind what a fish actually sees.

http://makewoodenlures.com/color.html

Gives you a few more things to consider.
Hope you find just one thing to help your choosing a color of a lure.

[DVT Mike]

I can only see 1 of the 5 pages

[Rebbasser]

I think color matters on the 30,000 foot level but not that important on the ground level. What I mean is that while the overall color pattern is important I don't get too mired in the specific, detailed color. I think colors like crawfish, bluegill, and shad are important depending on the forage but the specific colors, i.e. sexy shad vs chartreuse sexy shad is not that big of a factor. We tend to get too caught up in color-I'm guilty of this, too-but I think size and shape are bigger factors. I say this as I but several different shades of the same bait.

Hey, bottom line is if you think you catch more fish because you use this color or that color you do. Why? Confidence, which is the name of the game.

It is easy to overthink it, but that is part of the fun!

[bassinbob]

Like Reb I think color matters as far as the forage in a particular body of water. Which could change in side by side lakes. I think it matters somewhat also when the sky is sunny or otherwise. When color doesn't matter could be when there is a reaction strike or a fish reacting to some other response-anger-playful, etc.
One thing that is interesting is how on some lakes I fish favorite colors of the fish change from year to year. I say this because I like to use Horny Toads a lot and the color preference has changed from year to year.

[Raul]

Color matters and doesn´t matter. There are days that if for wahtever reason you don´t have a particular colored bait you don´t catch a thing and there are days that whatever you throw catches them. Go figure.

On the other hand, I got this bait I love, it´s a Lucky Craft Moonasault crank, when I bought it the color was Aurora Craw, but as you now, LC´s finish usually finishes very fast, by the end of the year it was almost gone, does it catches fish without color ? -----> Oh Yeah ! . So go figure again.

Many many moons ago me and 3 pals were fishing at Lake San Lorenzo in Tamaulipas. fishing was slow, I rigged a 6" Mann´s Augertail worm, grape with firetail, it had barely touched the bottom when I caught a fish, made another cast and caught another, a couple more casts and another fish, had to cahnge the worm for another and continued to catch fish, the few worms in that color I had were evenly distributed between the four of us and pretty son they were gone, ok, so I had a few worms black grape with firetail, same worm, same size, same firetail, just different color, instead of being purple they were black. Guess what ? we didn´t catch a single fish with them !

[senkosam]

(From Joedog's site)

I'm not a great believer in lure color. In fact, color is the last thing I look at when I make wooden lures for my own use. To my mind, the size and shape, action, vibration and the diving depth of the lures I use are much more important considerations that color. But that doesn't mean lure color isn't important!

I won't get into the argument about whether lure color selection is an important factor determining your success or failure. It can be, sometimes.

I'm not a match the hatch kind of angler. I'd rather chose lure colors based on what bass will hit rather than what I think they think a color represents. Natural colors are always my first choice in certain lure types along with color brightness. Too much of a good thing, such as flash, can be a bad thing when bass are hung over. But when bass are hyped up as in spring, flash seems to get more aggressive reactions. I like pearl with a black back, not because it simulates prey, but because pearl reflects light naturally and a black back contrasts with the pearl as the bait wobbles. Bright silver blades with pearl skirts are the flashiest colors I'll ever use but not all year. We think of using finesse baits for their subtle action, but take for granted the finesse colors we tend to use most of the year.

Color brightness doesn't pertain to the soft plastic colors I normally use because color opacity or translucence is what I consider as important as hue. I pour many of my own baits and make sure certain colors allow enough light through for black flakes to stand out. For a bit of flash, I use metallic flakes with the black flakes. My all time favorite for example is translucent rootbeer with lime green and black flakes. Green pumpkin is another that has black and gold or lime colored flakes. (I sell glitter and have the luxury of choosing from five colors of gold, four colors of green, etc.) Pearl is another favorite of mine in that it is a more subtle reflector of light than bright white (which has a place and time).

Senkos are always opaque in color and I use them only for their action because when bass look up at the bait descending above them, all they see is black or grey depending on light intensity and when viewed laterally. The lure's action says it all!

Interesting that anecdotally some of us want to believe that certain colors or lure types that kicked a** will continue to do so forever from that day or week. Reality always puts a damper on that misconception and promptly re-educates the angler about the basics that caught those fish - time and place being number one! If active fish aren't concentrated in an area or on certain types of structure, odds are that I am targeting less active loners, which is 95% of the time. The majority of time, color choice is not the primary consideration as the lure characteristics mentioned in the above quotation.

Lastly, a few will do as illustrated by another quote from that site:

....(color physics) also give you a good laugh the next time some legend tells you why he always catches more fish on X, W or Z colored lures!

Just because a simplistic claim is made doesn't mean it holds water, which is why I am skeptical of the credibility of what seems incredible and too simplistic in BASSMASTER or on fishing shows. If the articles or show content stipulated what most of you stated as the reasons you use certain colors and lure types, that would make sense! Other than that, fishing related media is just another sophisticated advertisement for the easily impressed, uninformed angler to stock up on more tackle to buy and store.

[joedog]

Senko, GREAT insite!
Thanks for the share!

Now for the 'match the hatch'.

I grew up in trout country. Not 'STOCKED TROUT', wild natural trout.
BIG DIFFERENCE IN THIER EATING HABITS seeing raised trout are fed with sinking feed and hence they will feed off of the bottom when natural trout don't as much. Thats why Powerbait balls are so effective for stockers.
The trouters need /want to match the hatch because the water in streams and rivers has limited natural baits except whats breeding along the shore and in the water. They recognize what wasn't there the day before and they realize it may not be there tommorrow. (actually they really don't realize anything cause they can't think) They are aware though. The hatch that day/week maybe the only thing the trout see to eat hence are tuned into the color, shape of what is hatching. Are the hatchlings hatching on bottom and floating up or are they hatching in trees/vegitation and falling to the surface of water before moving on with life. Plus alot of crap blows into stream and small thin rivers like twigs, leaves ect. so trout seem to more throughly investigate before biting. So they match the hatch.

So the anglers 'match the hatch'. Frequently that match can actually change in the same stream/river less than a half a mile within the same body of water. Depends on whats along the shore line.
Trout also other than during spawn don't really move great distances. They find a current or homebase that frequently provides food. They then find cover to slow them from floating away and bring the food by with the current.
They hate direct sun because of where thier eyes are located and where they look for thier meal.

Trout fishing varies alot from bass fishing.

Now in finishing I also like two to three contrasting color schemes. Flakes/glitter being a color but not a base color. Two base colors with flakes is three colors to me.

Now with all that being said.
If the bass are feeding on craws in your area. How can matching the color to the natural feed HURT?

[senkosam]

If the bass are feeding on craws in your area. How can matching the color to the natural feed HURT?

It can't! nor does using many other drab colored lure alternatives. I don't fish for trout and don't have much experience on the water experimenting fishing for them with different colors and lure types. But my first thought is that a trout is fish and fish brains are very limited when it comes to deciding to strike or not strike based on color or the hatch. Stream trout I have caught, have been on small spoons, Rapalas and Sassy Shads in spring when the season opens in April before any hatch happens.

The other thing that I believe that applies to all fish is opportunism and prey vulnerability vs species or prey size. Are trout that selective that they won't go after baits that are unusual for the area or time of year? Again, I'm no trout expert, but smallmouth I've caught in the same rivers that hold trout eat many of the same lures I use for trout and largemouth, no questions asked! The only difference for stream trout is lure downsizing and no downsizing for large lakers I've caught on trolled shad simulations. Of all the fishing I've done in 55 years, trout account for less than 1/2 %.

[joedog]

Sam I think I maybe following you around.

I was just trying to explain the 'match the hatch' concept and where and why it came about.
I've caught stocked trout on lippless cranks even.
Natural trout on many a different lure.
And yes I've had fish hit the bobber and not the bait.

I believe in presentation being the biggest variable we(anglers) can change in the search of getting bit.

So action first.
Available forage next. (what they are in the habit of bitting)
Color third.

I'll change presentation WAY BEFORE color when I'm looking to convince any fish to bite.

[senkosam]

Sam I think I maybe following you around.

Joe, it's not hard to do considering the two sites we like sharing on are the best on the internet!

[Raul]

I´m a nay sayer when it comes to "match the hatch", in my neck of the woods where I fish most of the time the water is warm, there´s no trout and bass have never seen trout, there´s no shad either. Trout ( any trout species pattern for that matter ) works as well as any other pattern. Shad patterns pretty much the same.

Fish do not have eyes as evolved as ours, the level of definition their eyes can perceive is very far down in the definition scale add to it the fact that fish camouflage with their environment, the odds of you matching the exact same color pattern prey exhibit in a day are infinitesimal, it´s more you about puting your bets more in the shape and action of the bait than in how it looks.

[senkosam]

Raul, I agree with the first statement. I've used perch pattern Rapalas in a pond that has no yellow perch and caught bass as well as shad crankbaits in lakes that never held shad.

The second statement not so much after reading Keith Jones', Knowing Bass.
According to Jones bass not only see better underwater than humans but can see the finest details. What's more is that they can see a revolving spinner blade as if it were a slide show - seeing the blade like a human would in slow motion frames vs. a blur.

Visual acuity at night is more advanced than a human's even when no moon is out. Picture a large dark shape flying overhead under the stars on a moonless night. That's what a bass clearly sees as a lure passes overhead under a black starry sky. Its brightness detection at night can be compared to a cat's. That's not to say it's primary sense is vision, but it and the lateral line clearly define a moving object.

[joedog]

That spinning in slow mo will amaze me for ever. The spinners when burning move SO FAST.
Yet to a bass it can see every single change in angle like in extreme slow motion.
It sees everything that way.


I just hope/wish Jones would do an update or someone.
Can't help but feel with the advances in tech the last 10 years someone knows even more.

[senkosam]

I agree Joe - bass and fish in general are amazing creatures that research up til now has unlocked secrets that have never even been thought of or much cared about. The best anglers may know the how of bass fishing but not necessarily the why. Unless more scuba divers get involved in documenting underwater activity, lab results can only be thought of as the beginning.