The importance of color

If you walk through any local bait shop and take a look at the tackle selection every color in the world has been applied to some sort of lure. Now I understand the importance of variety and that different situations call for certain colors, but when does it get ridiculous?

These companies are coming out with fades on crankbaits from blue to green to yellow with a hint of magenta above the eye. To me its impossible that a bass is going to register that much detail before striking a lure. Its been said before and I will say it again. Most of these colors are for the fisherman, not the fish.

I am as guilty as the next guy of ordering specific color combinations and having certain colors made in jig skirts but is it really worth all our trouble? Yeah sometimes we pound fish on our little secret baits, but would they of hit something just the same missing that 3 strands of purple? What should we be concentrating on more the baits specific color combinations or the fish?

Just thought I would throw that out there this morning

amen – blue/black , green pumkin , Black , white , chartruse — there you go. – Cory

A threadfin shad while swimming produces silver, yellow and a hit of red flash. A Crawfish depending on molt will vary from pale white bright red with all the brown and green variations in between. When the sun hits the back of a bluegill a baby blue color radiates the surrounding with a bright almost glowing turquoise.
Frogs native to our area have a predominately white belly during the early season which however turns more yellow with black blotches as summer progresses.
Dogfish turn a brigh Chart during the spawn.

I understand that their prey has subtle diferences in its color from season to season and matching the hatch is part of the game. However, how extreme must you go into to detail to get them to eat it? I just can’t see putting hours of work into creating a bait that has 10 different shaed of blue in it.

Outkast,

I agree most of the colors are for fisherman. My issue is guy worried about the right color and are overlooking things that are more important. You can get my view in the artical I wrote several years ago. http://www.in-depthangling.com/articles/stears_color.html

John

I was only implying that the river has a fairly diverse pallet in which about any color combination is available. The fact that they are so many variations on the market only suggests that there are more people with money than with brains.
I keep a fairly wide variety of colors that match well with the forage that I find throughout the season and a couple that are so opposite that they trigger strikes.
The overseas markets are diehard true to life fanatics which may or may not have profound impact on success.
Jc

I really don’t believe the fish look at the ten shades of a color they put on the lure, but color does make a difference. I would have to agree that many colors are for the fisherman. You should though keep a variety of colors for different times of year and water clarity and well you get the idea. this is a great topic though because when I take the wife shopping with me for lures, she always pick one up and says “try this one its really cute.
‘the worst part is most of the time thats the lure that gets the fish.

I don’t speak up a lot, but thought I’d add my 2 cents.

In general, I think you’re spot on. Most lures intend to catch more fisherman, rather than more fish. However, occasionly the manfacturers mistakenly put something out there to catch fisherman that undeniably has “something” that really works. A poor example of this (poor because it’s a custom painter not a mass manf.) is Tim Hughes creating the Table Rock Shad color (Purple back, char sides). He won many tx’s and a LOT of $ on Table Rock when he started painting up this color. After a couple years, he went public with it and now it’s a very popular color because it does indeed work.

For reaction baits, I don’t see those small details as a huge benfit. The jerkbait in cold, clear water would be my only step back. However sometime the jerkbait isn’t really fished as a reaction bait (whole other subject), so that is really when that applies in my opinion.

For slow baits (down baits as we called them back home), there are times when detail plays a role. Aaron Martens is a good example with his blood line type baits. Different hue’s can be the key, no matter how subtle they are. Clear water is a key though. Fish in deep clear resevoirs (southern states and CA for example) might sit an look at a lure longer, so you have to fool them a little longer. Those small details might do the trick?

All in all, I’m as basic with my lure colors as I am in real life (not hip as I tell my wife). ) However I’ll try anything once! )

Fluker

John’s article is great! We usually end up discussing it every trip. Most of the times braid diameter and the color of braid bring it up.

I’ll pose the question here. If those small details (small line of red, or purple, etc) on a bait don’t really affect things, then why would switching from 10 LB to 20 LB test? Or switching from 20 LB Fluro to 40 LB braid?

Granted fall rates apply in the argument, but I’m talking strictly from a sight/color aspect.

Color does make a difference.. no matter what you are fishing for.. we all know this.

As for the lure companies coming out with new patterns, colors, combinations.. they HAVE TO to stay competitive with thier competition to keep the lures they make on the store shelves for us to buy. You have to sell it to the fisherman, not the fish. If the fisherman chose a decent color scheme in the end that is effective on fish… it will be a productive lure. The more color schemes the lure manufacturer makes that will catch fish.. and as long as that lure looks as good as *the other companies* lures.. YOU are going to buy more fishing tackle.

For example.. If I make crappie jigs in 5 different colors.. chart, white, orange, black, glow .. odds are, your going to grab a couple in your favorite colors, hit the cash register.. and go fishing. Now if there were 40 different colors with different glow colors, color schemes, glittery, whatever… your going to stand in front of that wall in awe and have to rethink what you really want(not what you use).. and impulse is likely going to draw you to buy far more jigs than you really wanted in the 1st place. Major department stores depend on this.. they have it down to a science. If you dont know exactly what you came for and have money to spend, you are going to leave with more than anticipated.

The lure manufacturers are simply filling the demand of the retailers.. more choices means more sales. Whats better than a bunch of choices? Keep changing lure colors(Rapala).. when that fisherman runs out of their favorite color scheme, they will go back for more and it will be gone.. but there will be 2 more with similarities.. next thing you know you intended to buy 2 of one specific lure.. and you walked out of the store with 2 lures of two different colors(4 lures) to replace the one specific lure you ran out of.

Chuck,

You alluded to it in your last sentence. Line construction material, diameter, suppleness, stretch and sink rate are far more important than line color. My issue with color is, it should be considered but that only a small part of the equation. I can through forty pound test Trilene XT in solar into Minnetonka’s milfoil will likely go unnoticed because of all of the other vertical strands (the plants). However, that same line into the clear water on Table Rock would be a red flag for every fish in the county. Here is my message. If anglers spent as much time analyzing the other factors that affect fishing success as they do obsessing about color they would be a lot better off.

John

Fisher Dave

I agree that they do it for marketing purposes and for good reason, it makes them more money. I was trying to find the justification in it for actually catching fish. I think obsessing over such minor details in a lure is wasting time when you could be looking at all the other factors that come into play.

John,

I agree with what you have said as well. I think there are much more important things to concentrate on then the shades and hughes of your bait. Color does have some importance in matching what they are feeding on but I think it reaches a point where its close enough and its time to look at other factors.

Thanks everybody for throwing their two cents in!