Truthfully...how important is color??

[flabasspond]

Hey DaveH ...sure, Producto Lures are still around, check BPS... I belive Jake sold his worm business around '81-'82 and until then all of his worms were hand-poured, and they were bass magnets!! The first really super-soft worm we had. His son. Mark (another great fisherman) was one of the original founders of Gambler baits...Jake had customers from all around the US...he was a bass guide around here (St. Cloud, FL...think Lake Toho) for years and a few of them were tackle store owners. Jake was definetly WAY ahead of the plastic worm curve! It was our well kept, local secret for 4-5 years, then, after an article in Sports Afield featuring Jakes Producto Worms, all Hades broke loose, and he could'nt make 'em fast enough!! I, myself am a native Hoosier (Indy) and thats why I moved to FLA as soon as possible LOL...what part of Indiana? ...Tight lines...Dave

[JSC]

This is one thread on a subject that has been going on since day one .. not just worms but all lures .. a lot of factors make it all most impossible to pin down .. but I definitely thank that the shades are important .. look to see more opinions.

JSC

[Willy]

Here's my two cents from a scientific point of view:

As a student of both Marine Biology and Oceanography I have learned about the predators that most of the fish we hunt for are.

Predators hunt in an attack mode. Their attacks are triggered by a limited combination of things. The same predatory instincts that lurk deep within each of you, and influence your snap decision making abilities, especially in emergencies. I digress.

Firstly, fish know what they can and can't eat. When they identify a potential meal, they very quickly analyze the target and make decisions about the target based on a collection of knowledge bits they keep about their food group.

These bits of knowledge in the fish's brain are accessed by the trigger identifiers; shape, movement, color, vibration, odor, etc. There is a hierarchy of influence in the fish's decision to each of these, shape and size being the most influential, action or movement style being the second most. A fish won't eat a duck, but will eat a frog. Both swim on top of the water, but the size, shape and action of each animal tips the fish off about which one is ok to attack.

We all know predators attack the weakest potential target whenever possible. A trailer in a group, an older animal, a wounded animal. When a fish, or any predator looks at a target it is in a way so as not to tip off their presence. They don't swim up and examine the color. They see a flash of silver and identify the category: animal. They see a certain twitch and identify, fish, worm, minnow, etc. They see an erratic angle or motion and they identify wounded or weakness, or too fast, or whatever. Who knows how many of these identifiers the fish needs before it will strike. Most likely depends on the fish. They are dumb, but they are still individuals and all act a little differently.

So in a short form, yes color does make a difference, but so do a lot of things. Most likely presentation is a lot more important than color. I suspect most strikes are on a silhouette that has a good size, speed and action. Things controlled by the fisherman, and most likely influenced by the confidence of the angler. Which, as mentioned before, may be influenced by the color of the lure they are using.

Willy

Edited June 23, 2008 by Willy

[alsworms]

During the late 80's and early 90's, I had the opportunity to fish with a very successful tournament fisherman. When plastics were the bait of choice, he would ask me to toss him a bait. When I asked him "what color?", his answer was always either "something light" or "something dark". Nothing fancy, and it worked very well for him.

Color is important in catching a potential customer's eye. I'm not completely sold on color being important to the fish.

However, as times change, so do our techniques, baits, and color options. I say find your "confidence" color (s) and stick with that.

[daveh]

Hey DaveH ...sure, Producto Lures are still around, check BPS... I belive Jake sold his worm business around '81-'82 and until then all of his worms were hand-poured, and they were bass magnets!! The first really super-soft worm we had. His son. Mark (another great fisherman) was one of the original founders of Gambler baits...Jake had customers from all around the US...he was a bass guide around here (St. Cloud, FL...think Lake Toho) for years and a few of them were tackle store owners. Jake was definetly WAY ahead of the plastic worm curve! It was our well kept, local secret for 4-5 years, then, after an article in Sports Afield featuring Jakes Producto Worms, all Hades broke loose, and he could'nt make 'em fast enough!! I, myself am a native Hoosier (Indy) and thats why I moved to FLA as soon as possible LOL...what part of Indiana? ...Tight lines...Dave

thanks for the info, it was in versailes indiana a little bait shop. it was at least 25 years ago, i think they were purple worms with grape scent i think. what part of indiana were you from. i live in cheivot in ohio not far from larenceburg. dave

[bassman843]

to me I think its pretty important.I will be using one color and catch fish.after that lure gets to beat up i will use the same style of bait but another color and sometimes you won't get bite and I will change back to the color I was using before and within the first few cast you will catch a fish.is it location of the fish or something in the bait that a fish sees that makes him want it

[GB GONE]

Chris said it right. Talk with any very successful tournament anglers, like Elite series anglers and look in their boat. They don't have everything under the sun and 40 different shades of green or brown baits, they have "light" colors and "dark" colors.

Black will catch fish anywhere! Green pumpkin will catch fish anywhere!

Color matters to the angler, presentation matters to the fish.

All that being said, I won big bass $$$ ($175) in a tourney this past weekend in Florida on a junebug/red flake chartreuse tailed worm.

So much for BLACK!!!!

Jim

[Senkosam]

They don't have everything under the sun and 40 different shades of green or brown baits, they have "light" colors and "dark" colors.

Have to agree with Jim. Light (to me meaning florescent or light pearl) and dark (black, green pumpkin or other opaque plastic) usually are the only colors needed. I never match the hatch and let the fish tell me which color is hit more often.

I came in second this last Sunday using a super bright, florescent methiolate colored stick under dark skies, in calm water and in thick shallow weeds. My partner came in 5th using a short 4" pearl T-stick I poured. Pumpkin and black with blue flake got few hits; florescent chartreuse, in my mind, would have also outfished any dark color I cast. Anecdotes make for some wonderful illusions when it comes to why fish bite this or that; it's just a matter of remembering those experiences and using them when something different may be the key to the best reflex strike. Dark lures on dark days, light lures on bright days, hasn't held up in my experience when it comes to soft plastics.

Will I continue to use weird colors? Not if they don't work, and then it's back to the basics.

Edited June 25, 2008 by Senkosam

[Kajan]

I read this thread couple of times, I have to post.

I have not bass fished in a while, fish Speckled trout and redfish. I would agree with some of y'all about shape of lure, action ect.

But color is so important, well for inshore/coastal fishing, I can not use a prefix to describe how much. Maybe Bou'cou'

Have noticed how color does make differance for bass also though.

No matter if water is straight MUD or clear, color makes a differance. Even a slight change in the lure color from one to another can make a differance. You can be catchin a fish every cast, change lures from the same pack, no more hits, look at the lure and notice its a hair off color, change to another out of the pack and start catching again. I have seen it happen bou'cou' times.

I have caught 10's of 1000's of specks and reds, even the tail colors of the same lure will make a differance of catching a fish or not. From a tail color of Lime to Chartruse. No fish to fish sometimes. Even a 3 color lure, say a lure like a Tx avocado or redshad, if the black on the back goes to low on the lure, say past half way, fish would not touch it. Have seen using same lure color , same shape, one with no glitter and one with silver glitter. One lure in the same spot would catch redfish every cast, and the other every cast would catch speckletrout. Or same exact lures, one with chart tail with red tip would catch one fish and other with just chart tail would catch other.

I could go on and on, but you get the jist of what I mean.

Oh yea, even jighead color on the same plastic will make huge differance.

Everything you have read is factual and no statment was made under any influence of any adult beverages

[RipLip]

I'm going to say that all answers are right here because everyone has confidence in what they believe to be the best bait or color. My opinion is if your confident with a certain bait or color you'll throw it all the time and catch fish all the time but, the friend in the back of the boat will have a different color and a totally different bait and he'll be catching all kinds of fish and tell you his idea is better. This circle just keeps going round and round. My confident baits are Black, Watermelon, Red and Chartreuse.

[earthworm77]

Kajan, I appreciate your response because I'm really getting into inshore SW fishing for Reds,specks, snook etc. I agree with your point but I have some points that I've noticed as well. First off, in my area, without even thinking, I use a red jig head. It seems that you get bit far more often on a red jig head. The last few weeks, I've been jumping the fish. I see the birds working and I get into them. Now these have been mostly jack crevalle and bluefish. Here color doesn't matter at all, movement does. I've fished everything from a silver glitter shad body to a clear/chart tail to a pearl fire tail to a bare jighead, I've caught fish on anything and everything. Maybe color matters to specific species under specific circumstances? As a hardcore bass angler, it matters more there I think. But I'd be interested more about how it affects reds and trout specifically. The redfish I've caught and I think all the trout I've caught within the past two months came on the red jighead tipped with something that resembled either a shrimp or a baitfish and was natural in color.

Edited August 8, 2008 by earthworm77

[Senkosam]

Amazing how the color/ lure confidence factor goes sky high after the first few fish and drops like a rock after an hour of no bites and your partner is catching a few on something else. If color matters, then do other lure factors matter just as much positively or negatively? Maybe it’s just a matter of, how much is too much and how much is just enough?

First, I believe that a fish's curiosity is the pivot between a fish hitting a lure or ignoring it. You have to provoke it's curiousity if you're going to get it tracking your lure. If you look at color from the perspective of fish vision and bite stimulus, the hue or the color brightness/contrast or both seem to be important attractants.

Are there times when florescent colors (too much of one thing) are a negative (i.e.super bright finesse dropshot baits). There are bright white and off white. Can either be the better choice at times based on activity level and the lure chosen? Maybe a color brighter than black or green pumpkin might be too much in a jig that you’re slowly dragging the bottom with.

When fish are at a peak in activity (i.e. prespawn and feeding frenzies), the curiosity factor is easier to trigger, irritability and aggressiveness are higher and therefore high contrast and noisy colors seem to get clobbered as often as muted colors, at least in my experience. But there are times when fish are less active yet still irritable and high contrast (color or noise) get them swimming from a spot to hit my lure. Maybe subtle color differences can be the key, but why and is there a predictive guideline to follow? For me it makes more sense to experiment until I find where on the sliding scale of too much of a good thing to just enough of a good thing, the fish react to.

A blasting boom box gets on my nerves and repels me (too much) and a punk gets in my face for no reason (aggresive irritability makes want to wack him).

I'm in a good mood and somewhere nearby good country rock played at a decent level gets me tapping my foot (just enough stimulation);

I'm hung over, any music is too much - don't bother me! (negative irritability)

Maybe relate that to a fish's mood and which irritability it has - aggressive or negative. (BTW, fish do act like they're hung over after a cold front sets in! )

Edited August 8, 2008 by Senkosam

[Kajan]

Y'all can call it what y'all want, I was just trying to give y'all some insight on how fishn is here, for specks and reds, and my many years of fishing specks and reds. Either you beleive me or think I'm full of BS

Earthworm, red is not a bad color, I don't happen to use it, but I would suggest you try a blanc' (white) jighead or GLow jighead. Just give it a try. I have seen in the dark, before pre dawn, my Bro in Law had a chart jighead, with my home made lure and I have white, throwin in the same grass, I had 3 reds in three casts, he had not a bite. He asked me what was wrong, told him his jighead, changed and first cast caught a red. LOL

I can't tell y'all how many times I have seen such things happen. And not the fella in the back catchin on one color and me not catchin. Just putting a dot on a lure in the rite spot will make the differance of you catching fish or nothing at all. Take that like you want.

Now fishin in the dark , color does make differance der too, but dat would be a differant thread

[JSC]

Just a thought ... been in my head many years ... the water color ... amount of light .. effects of clouds .. wave action and etc. have to play a big part in all of this and if some one can REALLY put it all together would be nice ... But I doubt being able to get all of the variables together is possible .... Cast .. Cast & Cast some more changing in between ...

JSC

[bassnfool]

I've seen different deals from the front or the boat or the back of the boat, ie: larger or smaller size trailer on the same color pattern jig, different color plastic or glitter on the same soft plastic, same size and color of crank bait, but one dives deeper than the other. So many variables that to think we can figure out a critter with a brain the size of a bb shows how arrogant we can be.

I know a lot of guys have confidence in one or two things, but the infinite number of combinations of color, size, speed, etc. are what makes this an exciting avocation. On any given day, the color, size, speed, texture, and style of bait will determine if you win a tournament or not.

By the way, when was the last time anyone saw a camera boat following them? Sad to say I keep looking over my shoulder and don't see the ESPN guys.

[Vodkaman]

Kajan, no one is calling you, from what I am reading. I thank you for sharing your experience. I find it a bit scary that such a small change can make such a big difference in catch. It would explain the vast number of blank days that I have had. I will certainly explore the idea, with a spread of shades, next time I fish.

I have noticed that red is essential when I fish for perch, black and silver produced a lot of trout for me. But I have put all my design effort into action, so I was just hoping that the color thing was just for catching anglers. This subject has been aired before. Sometimes action wins, this time color. I guess we have to accept that both are important on their day.

[Kajan]

No, Vodkaman, Just talkin bout Senkosam and confidence statement, LOL. Just tryin to give my opinion on somethin I know. I also know I don't have the freshwater fishin experience as most of y'all prob have. But then again coastal fishn gives me a differant perspective of things. Not that I know for sure, but I doubt many bass fishermen have caught Thousands upon tens of thousands of fish, which gives you more insight on how they react to lures and colors and such. Day and night. Ma' it sure is funny how a damn fish can make us think so hard on how to catch em.

[Vodkaman]

I agree and they still beat me. Sometimes I think they occasionally jump on my hook, just to keep me interested!

[Senkosam]

I've seen different deals from the front or the boat or the back of the boat, ie: larger or smaller size trailer on the same color pattern jig, different color plastic or glitter on the same soft plastic, same size and color of crank bait, but one dives deeper than the other. So many variables that to think we can figure out a critter with a brain the size of a bb shows how arrogant we can be.

I know a lot of guys have confidence in one or two things, but the infinite number of combinations of color, size, speed, etc. are what makes this an exciting avocation. On any given day, the color, size, speed, texture, and style of bait will determine if you win a tournament or not.

By the way, when was the last time anyone saw a camera boat following them? Sad to say I keep looking over my shoulder and don't see the ESPN guys.

The tighter the strike zone and the more scattered the fish, the more importance color, size, speed, texture, and style of bait have; size and design affects speed, vibration, action, appearance and maybe presentation); color/texture promotes visual cues alongside lure size and action.

For me there are few lures or colors that I need to get consistent panfish bites. My primary choice is a flash jig (flashabou tied to a 1/32 or 1/16 oz jighead. Color - not important; a little vs a lot of flash hair - super important! A little flash goes a long way; too much gets rejected. Finesse action and flash makes the flash jig the most subtle lure ever fished (other than a 1" grub or tube). Are bass that more intelligent than panfish or trout? Can one or just a few colors catch all species? If so, having a hundred shades is nice, but not important or predictable on any given day.

Many lure details can be equally important and so can other factors such as line diameter, line type and rod action. All affect lure presentation and action, with color being just one (equal?) part of what bassfool posted. As Jim (Ghostbaits) posted back in the beginning of this thread, light, dark and in between colors are simple options that everyone should consider, hue being limited to experience and confidence.

[Vodkaman]

What has not been discussed, is what the angler does with the bait and where he throws it. This is what separates the pro's from the mortals. But probably belongs in another thread.

[Jurgo68]

In my mind a lot of things can come into play when catching fish and certain lakes/rivers/streams have colors that always produce better than others. That being said I would rather be in the right spot with the wrong bait, than the wrong spot with the right bait. If you aren't putting your bait infront of the fish you won't catch them, but if you put a bait that may not be the exact match infront of enough fish you will get a dumb one from time to time.

My jig box usually only has 4 colors to choose from:

Black/Blue

Dark Green Pumpkin

White

Brown/Chart.

I will mix things up on trailers size/action as I think the trailer itself can be the most important part of a bait as it is what adds the action to a jig or can make a small jig have a big profile, change the rate of fall on the jig, etc...

I know it is a little off the subject but a caouple years back I was fishing a tourny with a friend and we were throwing the exact same jig/trailer combination both using 20lb test. He had put three keepers in the boat, I hadn;t caught anything. As I was going through what we were doing different I realized he was using Yum craw scent and I was using bang pure craw. I asked him if I could use some of his Yum and on my first cast I put a fish in the boat. We ended up killing fish behind other boats that day, but the fish wouldn't touch a jig if it didn't have the yum scent. It was one of the strangest things that I have seen in person on the water as to how picky the fish were being.

[Kajan]

I agree with alot of what is being said, my tests if you want to call them dat are from an anchored position. I know where the fish are, just years of experience fishing here. Thats the confidence part. Slight color differances can make so much differance as in catchin 0 fish to 50 fish. I use my own scent on all lures. Now these tests were giving the fish the type (shaped) lure they wanted also. Senkosam , you mentioned pan fish, I have noticed the only place a colorselector works is in fresh water. Very accurate on sacalait. Sorry, White perch-Crappie-calico bass, what ever most of y'all call dem.