I’ll start his by saying I am very new to river fishing. I’ve been fishing from shore quite a bit this year (P2) and have had some success. However, I haven’t noticed any patterns with regards to colors when it comes to live bait jigging or jigging with plastics or blade baits. So my question to the more experienced river rats is: does color matter and if so is there a “recipe” for choosing the right color based upon conditions?
When conditions are good and the fish are snapping at anything – no, put a dog turd on a hook and your good to go. The details come into play when things are at its worse. Cold front, unstable weather, dirty water all play into it. If you have the time, go back through the articles forum and look at the crankbait seminar I did. Its not “plastics”, but the same principals apply. I start with mid-range colors and go brighter or darker depending how the fish relate. Time after time in crappy conditions i have seen fish “nipping” at one color and subtle color change makes the difference where they EAT IT.
orange or white for me.
sometimes green works…. other times purple….
black or gold too….. and chartruese is good too…..
I’d say anything but brown…. 
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. This last WED. at RW it was yes. My partner had caught 7 all on purple. I finally switched over to a purple ring worm and caught 5 in a row. Go figure!!
I’m certainly not a walleye guy, but I don’t think the jig head makes much if any difference river fishing.
I think it has more to do with profile of the bait and it’s color.
Even when everything seems to be working well, one color (of plastic) seems to stand out. (Thanks Farmer)
I think if this rig with a 10/0 hook, Nuclear Yellow line and a 5″ bullhead is eaten by walleyes, they will go after anything that is presented correctly.
PS old picture. Normally there’s an inch or so of tag end hanging off the knot.
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Here’s another good article on lure color and how fish see color.
I’d say anything but brown….
I’ve caught lots of ‘eyes on brown. 
…and, I wish I had a nickel for every ‘eye I’ve seen caught on an unpainted lead head, whether with plastic or meat. A few years ago I almost swore off color altogether and vowed to fish only unpainted jigs for a year. Fortunately, it was only a temporary bout of insanity which I quickly recovered from and my healthy and sane obsession with every color, style and size under the sun continues unabated to this day. 
Seriously though, there’s a lot of good information being posted, and I’m sure more to come…remember not to do what I do, which is over-complicate it to the extreme. It happens, but rarely will one single color or shade be the ONLY thing that will put fish in the net.
-Rev
I fish unpainted jigheads almost exclusively,except for hair jigs. When I do paint my jigs, they’re usually painted black. Take that for what you will, but I’ve caught a few in my day.
A color does seem to standout at times but the window of opportunity seems to open and close with them all. My suggestion would be to find confidence in something that seems to consistently work for you. I agree not to overcomplicate it. Types and sizes of jigs are likely more important than colors. I’ve heard that’s what catches the fish and the colors catch the person buying them in the stores.
Yes, color matters. More so when we’re talking about fishing jigs and bait. Less when we’re talking about the little “splash” of color a jig adds to a jig & plastic presentation.
I have seen jig head color make a huge difference when dragging jigs and livebait so in my mind river walleye anglers need to keep the intended presentation in mind when we start talking about the the importance of color in our presentations. When we talk plastics I’ve seen the fish be so color specific that Dustin Stewart and I would spend our evenings sorting through 100 ct. bags of Oystershell ringworms to find the 6 – 10 baits with just the correct tint of blue….
I was a full time guide on Pool 4 for over a decade and found that at times jig head color played a big role in refining my catch rates. That said, jig head color selection rarely made the difference between catching fish and NOT catching fish at all when fishing plastics. Again, when we’re talking about a jig and plastics presentation we’re talking about the refinement of presentation and not making the difference between catching and getting blanked when we start obsessing over jig head color, in my opinion. My take on the importance of color changes completely if we’re talking about dragging a jig and leech or crawler. I’ve seen jig color make a huge difference in that situation to the point where I’d obsess over just the right shade of Medium Blue!
Now when it comes to jigs, unpainted lead should be considered a color in my opinion. Call it “muted silver,” if you will. My favorite colors were, in no particular order, unpainted, black, blue, orange, sour apple, and gold. This color mix could be broken down into 3 categories; two metallic colors, two bright colors and two dark colors.
Metallics – gold and unpainted.
Darks – black and medium blue.
Brights – orange and sour apple.
I feel any time I hit the Mississippi River if I have these 6 colors in the boat I’m in good shape.
James, when you have those colors with you are you concentrating them based on conditions and time of day, or do you try ALL throughout the day and let the fish tell you? I try to work the philosophy of natural colors during the day, or something flashy that will reflect the light of the sun, and then switch to the brighter oranges, or chartreuse during low light periods. Some days it works, some days is the complete opposite. One last question, thinking of the Mississippi only, what do you consider clear water? 2-3 ft of vis? 1 foot? 6 inches?
James, when you have those colors with you are you concentrating them based on conditions and time of day, or do you try ALL throughout the day and let the fish tell you? I try to work the philosophy of natural colors during the day, or something flashy that will reflect the light of the sun, and then switch to the brighter oranges, or chartreuse during low light periods. Some days it works, some days is the complete opposite. One last question, thinking of the Mississippi only, what do you consider clear water? 2-3 ft of vis? 1 foot? 6 inches?
I let the fish pick the winners but I have some basic strategies I try to keep in mind.
When fishing plastics in clear water (visibility greater than 1′) I opt for unpainted, gold and black most of the time.
Dirty water (less than 1′ visibility) I’ll fish black, orange and sour apple predominantly.
I don’t use a medium blue jig when fishing plastics very often but I love that color when fishing jig and bait in the summer.
I find it hard to believe that walleye in a muddy river can be that picky on color… Trout in a clear stream or lake, yes, but not eyes is dirty water.
However, I always carry about 20 pounds of plastics and 40 pounds of rainbow painted lead…
I try to whittle down my selection to a few colored jigs in all weights every spring, but I get nervous I won’t have that “right” color and I always end up bringing 3 shades of green, 2 shades of chartreuse, purples, black, blues, red, pink, oranges, whites, Browns, gold, two tones, uv’s, glows, etc. it’s ridiculous… What’s worse, is I have every size from 1/16 up to 3/8, in 1/16 increments, every color. Then you wanna talk hair jigs?!?
I truly believe I can get away with 5 or 6 colors of lead like James, and someday I will overcome my phobia and leave the dock with only those colors. Now plastics and hair? Where do I draw the line there? Any day on the water, I can not conceivably go through every color and presentation (hair, plastic, bladebaits, cranks, live bait) to hopefully find one color and presentation that sticks out. Not to mention the down time of switching colors and baits constantly…
So, I guranatee walleye don’t care about color much in a river! Once I wrap my head around that, my boat will be 30-40 pounds lighter and I’ll probably catch more fish, since my bait will be in the water a lot longer!
It’d be a lot easier if manufacturers just painted everything like a rainbow. But then they wouldn’t sell as much product. 
That’s why I like “firetiger” style paint jobs.
Hush on the Firetiger!!
my god keep it downin here, pretty soon someones gonna slip and let the word out on the flying lure 
So I shouldn’t say anything about the “Clown” style then?
Don’t even think about cheap sunglasses
Gold out fished every other color at least 4 to 1 last weekend on rainy, and we tried em all. So yes imo.
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