Interesting question

How many of you swim jig throwers have considered changing colors of the eyes on your jig heads. This question comes from a similar discussion born out of jig head question for Walleye fishermen.

The basic gist of the thread was changing the eye color can and will result in more fish. If it works for Walleye, why won’t it work for Bass.

I know Custom Lures out of La Crosse mainly paints yellow with black. Wouldn’t it be safe to say a simple change like white with red inset could turn inactive fish active? I’ve personally not tried it, so I was wondering if anyone has?

I don’t believe it works…………..

Call me doubting Thomas, but I don’t believe it.

These are “reactive biting” fish. Both the walleyes and the bass. They are not studying the bait, like they would with a lindy rig for walleyes.

I would like to see somebody with scuba gear dive into 5 feet of water, morning or afternoon with low sun, cloudy water, and see if you can see that red dot on that jig head…….

I think it is more of a confidence thing…….The more confident you are, the more focused you are, therefore more fish you will catch……

Mr. Doubting Thomas,

Please then, explain why a tube with red flake will catch more fish than one without on occasion. Yes, I understand that a tube is a more “stationary” approach, but fish usually are prone to following a bait. As an avid Musky fisherman you can agree. Not all Bass are hitting a jig as a reaction but some are more in a chasing mode.

So then, we can rationalize a following Bass ‘might’ be more inclined to eat a lure with a “standoff-ish” color scheme. I’ve had people in my boat fish almost the exact color scheme and get blanked because their lure didn’t have the right belly color, grub color(Haywood last fall), etc, etc…

That’s not to say you aren’t correct in your assumption though. All opinions are welcome. Just looking for food for thought.

Alvin, your posts are good to read but that picture is soooo distracting, can’t you find a nice picture of a gorrilla or something to replace it?

Talk to D-Nort he does great photo work.

Ive often wondered about this- my belief is that in cleaner water small things make a difference, but in the mudholes down here I have a hard time convincing myself that a small fleck of a different color makes much difference in catch rates. without a side by side test it is hard to tell. One possibility is that even in dirty water a different shade might be a trigger to strike, or provide a different flash that catches the “eye” of the fish (pun intended). I like to have either a red or yellow eye, but have no evidence that can tell me one or the other makes a difference. In other words, I dont know. It would be fun to have 2 guys use identical swim jigs, other than eye color and see if it makes a difference. In order to control the experiment, switch colors every so often so the other factors (retrieve speed, pauses, shakes, etc that we all do different)are taken out of the equation. Maybe slop and bc can do an experiment for us during their time off??? (color my eyes green with envy)

I can’t compare it to muskies………Because they make no sense at all………..I can throw out a chunk of raw wood and that would be the only thing they would strike………The next day that will follow 5lbs of milfoil that is 3 feet long, snagged to your bucktail, as you rip it in to the boat to clean it off.

With maybe red flecks or “blue” flecks in a tube, that may give off a different light pattern in the “spectrum”. Thus making that bait show the “right” color when reflecting light.

Water clarity and the style if fishing (finesse or reaction) bite will determine if I want to focus on little details.

So, if I’m fishing slow and trying to convince a fish to eat my offering……I’m all over the red eye………

However, if I’m running a buzz bait, who cares what the eye is, if there is even an eye………

WHICH BRING ME AROUND
to another question…………….Why do people buy 10 different colors of “Pop-Rs” when they all have white bellies?????
You have white belly/black top
You have white belly/frog top
You have white belly/Chartruese top
You have whte belly/Blue top
etc
etc
etc……………

The only thing the fish is seeing is the mayhem on the water and a something white wreaking havoc………

I could go on and on with examples I’ve seen where the tiniest detail made a huge difference. Some things that would leave some guys shaking their heads are common place for others. Like hand sorting oystershell ringies to find just the right hint / tint of blue…. out of 100 you might get a dozen. (Stewart will hit the roof for me even mentioning it so hopefully he doesn’t read this… lol).

It’s enough of a deal with us walleye guys that Dustin was refusing free jigs from BFT with the wrong color eyes and having his dad paint blanks with the “right” color eyes.

Preference by fish or by fisherman? You decide.

People that deny the importance of “little details” aren’t usually the guys catching the most fish.

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WHICH BRING ME AROUND to another question…………….Why do people buy 10 different colors of “Pop-Rs” when they all have white bellies?????

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Just cause.

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With maybe red flecks or “blue” flecks in a tube, that may give off a different light pattern in the “spectrum”. Thus making that bait show the “right” color when reflecting light.

I think you may definitely be on the right track here.

So, if I’m fishing slow and trying to convince a fish to eat my offering……I’m all over the red eye………

However, if I’m running a buzz bait, who cares what the eye is, if there is even an eye………

For the same reason you just descibed above, maybe as the bait moves, the hint fo red or blue or whatever gives oof the same color cues as a natural food source in motion.

WHICH BRING ME AROUND
to another question…………….Why do people buy 10 different colors of “Pop-Rs” when they all have white bellies?????
You have white belly/black top
You have white belly/frog top
You have white belly/Chartruese top
You have whte belly/Blue top
etc
etc
etc……………

Because if you work your popper a certain way, it will walk and roll and dive and skitter, and flash the top color, just like a rolling, fleeing baitfish.

The only thing the fish is seeing is the mayhem on the water and a something white wreaking havoc………

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To me it would depend on presentation. When you are burning the bait… eye color doesn’t matter… they see a flash then react. If you are slow rolling it maybe it would make a difference, but I personally doubt it. For walleyes the presentation of the jig is different. Eyes have a chance to look at the bait which is for the most part at rest, not the case with bass, at least not in a swim jig.

Alright James……..Your sloooooooooooooowly selling me on this…….But not quite yet……..In the next month or so, when we hit the river again, you going to have to prove this to me, just like you proved to me that ringworms and k-grubs pitched shallow catch big walleyes…………

Can you post a pic of the “old” and “new” red-eye?????

I don’t want to direct this thread in a different direction, but I think the swim jig bite isn’t a “reaction” bite but a “feeding” bite.
Anyways, I always figured the eyes were not important but a top notch fisherman told me they were. I have been adding them to my homemade lures ever since to see if there was a difference. I believe there is. Like James said, the little things can make all the difference.

Tbass

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Some things that would leave some guys shaking their heads are common place for others. Like hand sorting oystershell ringies to find just the right hint / tint of blue…. out of 100 you might get a dozen. (Stewart will hit the roof for me even mentioning it so hopefully he doesn’t read this… lol).

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Good thing I never read the bass forum. What’s that pounding on my roof top……….