Lure Colors

[findingem]

Clear to stained I use green pumpkin. stained to muddy I use black and blue. These are the colors I use 90% of the time. Keep it simple.

[12VoltMan]

Back to SCUBA diving: When I was doing my open-water certification in the rock quary, one of the other students (a female) had pink fins, mask and snorkle. I noticed that even in real shallow water, less then 10 foot, they turned almost gray in color. If pink does this in less than 10 foot, I imagine red turns grey shortly there after.

[DJD]

Back to SCUBA diving: When I was doing my open-water certification in the rock quary, one of the other students (a female) had pink fins, mask and snorkle. I noticed that even in real shallow water, less then 10 foot, they turned almost gray in color. If pink does this in less than 10 foot, I imagine red turns grey shortly there after.

Yep always heard that Red was one of the first if not the first color fade so I guess Pink is the same.

I use natural colors in clear to very little stain and hotter colors (red, chartuese, yellows) in stained and dark colors in muddy. There are always exceptions but thats pretty much were I start.

[TEE]

I beleive it's more of a confidence thing too....
I think they just see different colors and lighter as darker hues.
I usually let the water color tell me what I'll be using.
I also think that red cranks do better in spring for both LM and SM because when they are up shallow for spawn..most crayfish take on a red hue. Some I've seen in the mouths of both with blue tips on their pinchers. Seems they can definitley see that!

[Jabbo]

Clear Water- Clear Baits.
Darker Water- Darker Baits.
Muddy Water- Rattle Baits or Scent baits in a larger profile and Bright Colors or Dark Colors
Slightly stained water (can see 1-2 feet)- Natural colors
Pretty Basic stuff, hope it helps

[00SKEETER]

Terry Scroggins keeps it very simple. He said he only carries two colors of Jigs (Blk.Blue and Green Pumpkin). He said he only carries a couple colors of crankbaits (Citrus Shad and Foxy Shad and only a couple crawdad colors). I think we make it too complicated (myself included) with colors. I mean when you watch KVD fish a crank, 90% if the time he's throwing a shad color no matter what time of the year it is. And when Timmy Horton fishes a crank he's throwing Citrus Shad or Foxy Shad 90% of the time and these guys are some of the best crankbait fisherman out there.

[goosecreekguy]

Thanks for the opinions guys...I agree that we tend to make it more complicated than it probably should be. But 12voltman brings up a good point about how pink and red change to a gray appearance, even at shallow depths. I'd be curious to find out what other colors change underwater.
i'll be sure to keep plenty of green pumpkin cheeseburgers handy....
thanks for the opinions guys, lots of good information.
-Rob

[roadrunner]

I had a friend tell me once color make no difference and he had four tackle boxes of every color ever invented. By the end of the trip he would like to have those words back. That was ten years ago and we still don't cut him any slack.

[artcarney_agr]

I believe action is the number one thing to concern yourself with. Keep your colors simple and basic, limit yourself to two or three colors, and focus more on the action of your bait.

A fish won't see the color unless you can get his attention first...

[Stevens]

i agree, keep it simple. i mean ive heard greens show up better in deep water and yellows dont, but ive caught em all day on a chartreuse deep diver so go figure. basically in clear water just concern yourself with matching the forage and making your bait the least noticable as possible. A bass see's the surface as white when cloudy and silver when sunny and crawfish and other baitfish have a cameleon affect to their surroundings, just evolution i guess. take that into consideration when picking your clear water baits and your off to a good start.

one more thing, im pretty sure that bass have the same cones in their eyes as we do so they will see the same colors, but they have no eye lids so they are more sensitive to light. i dont think its that they cant see the same colors its just that the deeper you go the darker it gets the less they can see, and so some colors may show up better but i really dont what they are.