When Fishing Gets Tough

[rFisherk]

For decades, I've fished 200 to 300 days a year, worked as a professional guide, tested baits for manufacturers and so on. And somewhere along the line, it sunk in that of the three aspects that trigger strikes (action, size and color), color is the least important. But all this obsession on color sure makes the lure manufacturers happy, because all they have to do is put a new paint job on an old lures to catch your dollars.

[Al Agnew]

It's a good thing color doesn't matter as  much as some of the other factors, because I pretty much use only a few basic colors, and choose colors based solely upon water conditions.

Topwaters--light, minnow imitating colors exclusively, the darkest I ever go is the purple back, tan sides, light belly Sexy Dawg.

Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits--white, chartreuse, and black

Crankbaits--brownish crawdad colors or minnow imitating colors; my homemade crankbait requires a skirt, and I only paint it in two body colors, browns and minnow imitations, and the skirt is always white, chartreuse, or a combination of the two, or once in a while yellow.

Superflukes--pearl, period.

Bottom bumping soft plastics and jigs--either black or a color that matches the bottom of the river, which will either be a brownish or greenish color.  I don't worry about what color the flakes are, only the main color.

I don't even own any other colors of soft plastics.  No smoke, no purple, no fire-tiger crankbaits, no bubble gum flukes.  No real green colors like watermelon--the only greenish colors are more olive than green.  No blue.  

It removes a lot of decision making.

 

[J-Doc]

Funny we talk about color doesn't matter when someone in the Beaver forum just posted a report and indicated a particular color was the only thing that got bites out of at least 4 colors.  I've also noticed this over the years and that one color will outperform the other colors of the same exact bait and conditions.  CANNOT figure out why because at 15-18ft, that color should be practically invisible due to light spectrums.  

 

I've also seen yet another color combo that will outperform that color in dirtier water as well.  So I attributed it to the better performing color because it WAS more visible.  In clear water, it doesn't do as well because it is so visible.  So......MAYBE, the bait has to be just visible enough to make a silhouette and have the right action.  If too colorful, they tend to shy away? 

 

Don't know.  But it's what Iversion been observing in the last year or so. 

[Quillback]

Usually when I notice color differences it's when I'm fishing with someone else.

An example was early this spring, I was fishing with board member Huntest on Table Rock, I was in the front of the boat, Huntest in back.  We were fishing the Ned, Huntest was using PB&J, I was using some greenish version.  He boated 4 bass and had several others on, I had caught one.  I switched to PB&J and was able to keep up with him for the rest of the day.

I can think of several other instances fishing plastics where color has made a difference.

Color seems to me to be very important when fishing jerk baits in the winter.

[J-Doc]

PB&J is the only color I get bites on with the Ned rig. No idea why. I've just excepted it. Lol

[rFisherk]

I didn't say color has no importance, just that it is less important than action and size. Hues are important, such as the earth tones Al uses, and sometimes visibility is important, such as white for flukes and chartreuse for spinnerbaits. To think that bass are selective to minor color differences is to suggest a highly sophisticated match-the-hatch mentality, which completely falls apart when you try to explain chartreuse. Besides, the scientific facts of it is that fish don't see colors the way we do because of the ways their eyes work and the environment in which they view things.

When I was a young fishermen, I thought color was very important, but that was because I really didn't know nearly as much about fishing as I thought, nor did I have enough experience to understand the finer subtleties of action and presentation. Color was right in front of me, so that is what I concentrated upon, and I didn't take into consideration that often when I changed colors, I changed action, presentation or location. Even re-rigging a different worm can change the action of it. The length, the type of tail, the thickness of the bait and other things effect how it behaves. Body language, or action, is the universal lingo of the wild, and the difference between representing a lingo that trips a fish's predatory trigger or not is often very subtle.

Often, too, without realizing it, you can finally stumble upon the right "color" after you've fished for a while, because you finally get some of the city out of your attitude and slow down. The majority of the time, most fishermen fish too fast. During the decades I guided, I spent a lot of my time simply trying to get clients to slow down.

[Mitch f]

PB&J is the only color I get bites on with the Ned rig. No idea why. I've just excepted it. Lol

I sometimes wonder if it's the contrast in colors? Or that they can see one color better. Perhaps you are doubling your chances of finding the perfect color for certain light conditions by using a two color bait.

[Quillback]

I'd say that in theory, bass see color fairly well, as well as we do, maybe not, but if you're going to rely on science as far as what bass can see, then they can see color.  Does it matter?  I'd say sometimes, but not all the time.

 

"Now for the most popular question we biologists get about bass vision, do bass see color? Without a doubt, yes! Not unlike humans, bass have cellular structures in the retina called cones and rods. Rods allow an animal to see black, gray and white in low-light conditions, while cones allow an animal to see color. The exact kind and quantity of cones in bass is uncertain, but the plentiful existence of cones, along with related research, indicates that color selection can be important, depending on the conditions."

[kjackson]

Then there is the issue of whether bass see UV light or not. UV reflectance is attractive to some fish, but practically no research has been done on bass in that regards. What is interesting is that some companies do use UV in lure finishes, Megabass being one, but don't advertise the fact.  While I haven't been flashing lures with a UV light, the owner of Tightlines-UV has been doing so because he recently received a series of patents.  

I'm not saying that UV is an important but invisible-to-us factor in bass, but it might be. It is in salmon, steelhead and trout and may be in walleyes. There just hasn't been the research.

 Certainly, color isn't always important, but there are times, IMO, when it makes a difference between catching fish and not. 

[rFisherk]

The most confusing aspect of their sight is the fact they have two types of receptor cells in the retina. Their "cone" cells perceive color and are used mostly during the day. Their "rod" cells see only in black and white and are used at night. These receptor cells reverse themselves every 24-hour period, so bass are actually color blind about half the time. Consider that the next time you’re trying to pick out the perfect color.

Sometime before sunset a bass’ internal senses trigger the advance of black-and-white vision in preparation for darkness. Completion of this process takes hours, so it is believed they have a sort of color fade as the rod cells advance. Then, just before daylight, the cone cells begin to advance, causing a gradual recognition of colors. For most of the morning, and for most of the evening, their ability to distinguish different hues of the color spectrum is limited. Ironically, that is usually when we do best with our lures of many colors.

We often think that the color of a lure was why a bass hits this or that model, when in fact, most of the bass we catch are fooled during times when they can’t actually distinguish between colors very well. If what you’re using is catching them well during the middle of the day, color might be the key. Early and late in the day, however, they may be hitting that "latest and greatest" model not because of the fancy finish that caught your eye and emptied your pocket, but in spite of it.

Again, I will say, presentation is all important.