I personally think that we as bass fisherman get a little carried away with the color of lures. When the newest color craze hits the market some people jump all over it and have to have that color. I personally try to keep it simple and go with darker colors like black and blue for low light or stained water, and lighter or more natural colors for clearer waters. Also, I will match the hatch when fish are chasing shad, bluegill, crawfish, etc. But, I don't go as far as to say that you have got to be fishing with a Green Tomato w/ Pepper Seed Core w/ chartruse tail to catch fish on Lake X (just an example).

Just curious what others think. It's easy to get caught up in all the hype, but I personally like to keep it simple as possible.

3rd most important thing after finding the fish and having the right bait.

Watermelon candy - clear water
Watermelon red - grass/timber
Green pumpkin/junebug - light stain
Black-n-blue - heavy stain

That's pretty close to my color choices. I don't think you need a lot of crazy color choices to be successful.


Watermelon candy - clear water
Watermelon red - grass/timber
Green pumpkin/junebug - light stain
Black-n-blue - heavy stain [/quote]

I think mainly boils down to what u have a lot of confidence in. Confidence goes along way in catching. JMO

Agreed.

it's all about what you have confidence in, most of the time..

What Cody said will work 99% of the time, But I fished a few lakes in the pasted forty years that something as simple as what color flake was in a bait or coloring the throat of a white fluke red made all the difference in the world

As I am an angler there are certain color(s) that work under certain scenarios: Light, water color, structure color(s), depth fished, indigenous species, hatch size to color and on and on. I've never really heard a viable reason why Watermelon/red works so well...I can see why Greenpumpkin does. I can honestly say that some of the ugliest baits I've ever made and was most skeptical as to whether they would produce were so plain and almost completely devoid of color. I believe where a high percentage of anglers fail is in "their" understanding of color...color is a relative term to us....it's not to a bass.

Keep thinking like that! Makes it easy for the rest of us!!

That depends. According to Ralph Manns (Tx. State biologist for over 20 yeaers and current In-Fisherman writer/researcher), sometimes, COLOR is the ONLY thing that makes a difference. He relates a tough fishing day on a power plant lake when NOTHING was working, fishing with his brother. Then he picked op an orange swirl worm and caught them on ever cast, until they ran out of worms. Even partial worms, as little as 1.25" long, caught fish. I have had the discussion with him many times. He believes that color is 3rd to 6th in finding fish that are biting YOUR LURE CHOICES. He thinks that finding active fish that are biting your lure is the MOST important things in fishing. He is an intersting gentleman that has probably forgotten more than most of us will ever know. Hope this helps.

Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

Color has always played a Big part in my fishing, I know a few months ago i went up to Pickwick and threw a Watermelon/Red Fleck trick worm on a Shaky head till my Arms hurt (2 days) No bites.
Buddy came up next morning and after about a hr he text me and said he been catching them on Junebug so far that morning.
I swaped over and withend 5 cast had my first SM and caught them good the rest of the week on it, while my son swaped back and fourth from Junebug to just about any color you can think of and the Junebug was the ticket that week on that lake.
And on my Home Lake my farther in law loves and believes in the Junebug worms, but i catch 20 to his 1 on that lake using anytype of Watermelon color.
So to me Color is a Major Factor

As long as its that New Red ZOOM Worm!

The lure companies love you guys. :o)

In my experience color is important in that you need to be confident.
Basic color choices that seem to make good sense (like mentioned above) give me confidence so I use those most of the time. However, a few times I have noticed specific color choices outperforming all others. I think more research would be great and we all know bass see and react to color so it makes sense that color does matter. One cool example is the stickleback fish. Males have red bellies and fight each other over beds during mating season. Those fish ignore any fish that don't have red bellies, but readily attack even crude plastic blocks with red paint on the undersurface. Not bass but makes one wonder.