I thought this would be good to discuss. This post was prompted after reading GS and Fisherwoman talk about their boat trip in crystal clear water.
Anyway , my opinion has always been opposite of what was expressed in that thread. I have always believed that for clear water , you want very hi visibility colors for your lures and that for murky water , you want dull colors.

For example , in very dark water on very dark nights , black eels work fine. Black lures , gray lures , brown lures work in dirtier water. For sunny days in clear water , it appears to me that gold and silver or white and Chartruese work well.

Anyway , as I said , my experiences have been that bright lures work in bright water and dull lures work in dirtier water.

What's other peoples experiences with this?

saltheart,for what its worth, the other night I caught 5 fish all on a yellow swimmer## Also I fish the same color slugo day,night,light,dark it does not matter go figure

saltheart,for what its worth, the other night I caught 5 fish all on a yellow swimmer## Also I fish the same color slugo day,night,light,dark it does not matter go figure

Maybe I should taylor my plug color to water clarity but I usually don't. Just stick with tried and true colors like yellow, white and black. If I do feel the need to stand out more than something like bright green or chartreuse. But I think the vibration of the plug helps fish find it as much as color.

Back to my freshwater bass days, the "rules" were:

Blacks, purples, and other dark colors in muddy water because they offered more of a contrast.

Whites and chartreuse in clear water to offer high visibility.

Dark colors for night, as they offered a better sillouette in the low light conditions, at least for topwater assuming the fish is attacking from below (good assumption when using topwater lures).

Off color or stained water... I don't remember, I think bright colors.

The other theories were more flash in clear water, more vibration in stained water for pretty obvious reasons... murky water fish hunting by sound, clear water fish being more sight oriented.

Personally, I have always fished my favorite lures in my favorite colors no matter what the conditions, because I fish better when I feel confident... I'm sure most can say that.

I also go with more natural type baits with more natural colors in clear water, because my logic tells me the fish are more in tuned to sight and may ignore unnatural looking lures. I may be giving fish too much credit here, but when I see a shad colored fin-s or something in the water, I can't believe any fish could pass that up. A chartreuse jig, or a yellow atom popper? I sometimes wonder what the heck those fish are thinking.

Tight lines.

I have to go with schoolie monster . I use my favorites no matter what . black and grey at night and stained water and white and yellow during clear water and daytime. but ZI will cast yellow anytime fresh or salt . cant beat yellow roostertails for the fresh and white and yellow poppers for the salt .

Good post Greg, not much I can add to it, but clearly your freshwater background is similar to mine. A lot of my colors come from that ground work and I've just applied it to striper fishing and with great success.

The colors SM stated work for me, I start the morning with darker colors and switch over to translucent baits in natural clear/glitter bottoms and smoke/glitter backs. In that clear water, especially on bright sunny mornings/days, I want something that is going to give the bass a hint that it's food, the right size, close to natural color, baitfish profile, but I want them to almost say to themselves (yeah I know they aren't great thinkers...lol) the only way to know is to suck it in and try it.

I think those pearl baits that FW uses make great sense in Boston, because the visibility is so low. Not only that they put out a great deal of vibration from the paddle tail. They just don't make a lot of sense in my clear water, although I'm sure they would work fine during active feeding. If during the summer I find an absence of bait and fish are feeding more on lobster, a bait with with a more red and/or green will sometimes be the ticket.

I have an advantage by pouring, because I can experiment to my hearts content, plus my water clarity is fairly consistant year to year. After 14 years of fine tuning, I pour basically just two colors now. The first is a crap shoot of some brown/red/yellow melt down of used baits, a "get what you get" sort of deal for the early mornings. The other I make up from fresh plastic, with the clear (some silver glitter) bottoms and usually smoke (red/black/blue glitter) for when the sun comes up.

Dang Schoolie Monster!! Perhaps your most insightfull and informative post ever!!! Seriously, I agree with most everything you've said there but I want to add a few things... First - nobody said match the hatch, probably an almost abused saying but it does come into play ...

In some of the clearest waters I've seen from shore: Scortons (at least when I've been there), Various places in Naragansett, WW, Osterville - the FW perl Queen was tops. No doubts. Infact - usually nothing came close. Now it wasn't compare side to side to GS's jerkbait (which I'm personally impressed with) but that's life.


Now, going against this thread - some things just plain work in some places that don't work in others. Not only will you get some wierd stares throwwing a hot pink needlefish on some Scituate Beach, you might not get a fish but some Rhody spots, a hot pink needle fish is DEADLY...

What does this mean? S-M & GS's fresh water rule book translates largely intact into the saltwater, Soft plastics, whether clear, perl, or chartreuse are killer, some places love odd plugs or lures for not apparent reason, and did I mention, eels are the best overall nite time bass slayer...

I think "rule" probably is the wrong word... guideline is a better word for my post. We've all caught tons of fish that went against these guidelines. If the fish are feeding, it often doesn't matter what you throw... vice versa, if they ain't hittin', again, doesn't matter what you throw. Its the neutral fish that we have to pattern.

IMO, John hit the most important issue, matching the hatch. It may be a cliche, but it is the RULE that probably supercedes all other rules and/or guidelines. We've all been around feeding fish that won't hit anything we try.

Ran into Baitcaster on sunday and he was telling me about a worm hatch he had recently witnessed. From what he said (which goes with alot of things I've read) you couldn't get those stripers off the hatch. When they get locked in on something, it can be frustrating. Ask any trout fisherman. Why do flyfishermen carry 5 sizes of one fly?

As for eels being the best... tough to get more natural than a slimy, writhing, smelly eel. That would be like someone dragging a bucket of wings down the beach. Sure, we may be eating burgers, but who can pass up wings? Must be lunch time... talking about live eels always makes me hungry.

That would be like someone dragging a bucket of wings down the beach. Sure, we may be eating burgers, but who can pass up wings? Must be lunch time... talking about live eels always makes me hungry.

hehehehe...

That's why the guys down in Rhody work the worm hatch best with flyrods and light spinners - they still might not get may fish but they are the only ones getting them...

BTW - what are you doing tomorrow night??

A few things I think about when deciding on color:

Two people I have fished with and I consider "professional" by two standards:1) it is their full time or part time "job", and 2) they catch fish consitantly and independent of conditions (but not always, that's impossible). During daylight hours (I think this is an important part) the first thing they do is drop the light meter overboard to the depth we will be fishing at. Common process on two competely different types of water here (Lake Ontario, and Atlantic Ocean and bays attached there to). Generally, the lower the level of light due to in one part "murkiness", the brighter (less natural) the lure. Lure selection would range from an exact "match the hatch" to the flourecent/optic blues, pinks, and lastly, yellows (the kind that hurt your eyes on a sunny day. The two things that strike me as interesting, and probably important, are the light level reading takes into account both the light level of the sky/weather and the water clarity.

After many discussions on and off the beach or boat about color, one guy told me his method that he got from someone he considered an "old timer" from the surf in the Brielle area of NJ. His rule was "match the sky". There have been many times I have listened to the color discussions since then and found this reasoning to match the agreements or general consensous (when or if there was one/some). I think this "works" both day and night to a large degree, but I don't think this includes the water (murkiness) in the selection process. My basic interpretation of matching the sky has been something like: bright/mid-day - white and yellow over white, cloudy day - blue backs, green backs with dull or clear sides, yellow sunrise/sunset - yellow and yellow/red head, pink/orange sunrise/sunset - pink and orange, dark night - all black, low light night (due to either moon or public lights) - black and purple, moderate light - dark back over dull or clear sides, bright night - dark back over shinny sides (bright white or chrome).

Use of bright colors at night I feel are a function of the water clarity and maybe location (actually bait in that location). Although, I must admit that sometimes it seems like location is more related to prejudices and the fact that some particular knowledge has not caught up with the general fishing population in that area.

Just a few places where I have heard of using the very un-natural colors for surf fishing: bright yellow green (parrot) color needle fish around the Cape Cod area and islands, pink needlefish in RI, pink bomber plugs on the Connecticut river, a little of everything on LI. It also seems like the "knowledge" of the parrot color is starting to spread all over (even NJ).

Anyways, jsut some ruminations to consider. Comments and critiques are most welcome. That's how we learn about this stuff. Thanks for listening.

Me again. I can't believe I did not even mention schoolbus bombers. That would probably put me in the assigned "Googan" pool in NJ. These seem to be one of the more versatile night lures (and yes they work during the daytime too). Something about that particular yellow maybe, or is it the stripes? My general consideration for these is that these are probably good for most if not all night light conditions and most water clarity conditions as well. Generally a great starting point anyways. I don't consider starting here only on the extreme bright and dark nights. I gots lots of these. GTG

My lure selection is completely random. The first thing I look for is what kind of bait is around. If the bait are sandeels or spearing, I'll go with a thin profile lure like fin-s or sluggos. Even Yo-zuris work well. This is where the needlefish come into play.

If the main bait is mullet, which are coming into my waters more and more, I'll go with a finnish style minnow like a redfin or a windcheater.

If the bait is baby bunker, my go to lures are rattle traps. Mister Bunker by Gags or just the Bill Lewis ones. The freshwater ones work too. If they are being schooled on top, a normal popper.

Big bunker, shad and alewives are hard to mimic. Keeping with the profile theory, large wooden plugs like a Dani plug, casting swimmer, or a darter would be good. Of course we don't get many big bunker where I am so I wouldn't know. I just figure go with the line of succession. I do carry a few just in case a pod comes around.

I've heard that fish strike by silhouette during the day but then at night, rods in the eyes come forward and color becomes primary and silhouette becomes secondary. This is according to Doc Muller. I know, don't believe everything you read but just look at the man's credentials! He either knows his stuff or he is really lucky. I try to keep the bait natural looking. Two toned dark over light. I figure even if Muller is wrong, one of the colors will contrast.

What I look for in a lure beside profile, is a natural look. I watch a lot of underwater footage on Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and TLC. I've also seen some video done by Bob Popovics. One thing that is predominant in all the fish I've seen on video was the eyes. Bob has a theory that he explained to us at a CCA meeting. Fish focus in on key features of bait. Things he includes in his flies are eyes, the right profile for the bait, and then he looks at key features of bait. For example, spearing have the silver strip so he'll add mylar to his flies. Rainfish are clear so he'll use transluscent materials. I believe this theory can be adapted to plugging as well. Crystal minnows by yo-zuri have that silver side to them. You can get bombers in translucent colors to match rainfish.

Now, if fish have bait schooled tight. I'll use a lure that will stick out like a sore thumb. Poppers of course, krocodiles have constant flash to them.

So here is how I do it. Profile, eyes, colors, key features. The best lures, IMHO, are ones with no built in action or at least ones that are adaptable to the action of the bait.

Well --- way back in the recesses of my mind (probably a dangerous place to go - ha ha ha) I seem to recall studying that fish, because of the anatomical sturcture and the physiological functioning of their eyes, respond primarily to the color red - regardless of all other parameters (shape, movement, visibility). On the other hand --- I tend to sling everything I have at them until I get a response - so much for higher education - ha ha ha. AND - it should also be noted that from this fisherman's perspective - a bucket of wings will hook me EVERY time!! However, a box labeled Dunkin Donuts is not far behind!

john

I'm really not into the color of lures as much as the action and size being more important. "Matching the hatch" seems to work best if you find out what they are feeding on. I do have more confidence on certain colors and will fish these first and that includes my freshwater fishing where colors most guys feel are very important.

I do believe that at times fish are definately keyed into a certain colors more than others. That, combined with the size of your lure can make a big difference.

But, like Polish Prince described, what appears to us as one color can have a totally difference appearance to the fish. I have read that the structure of a bass's eye leans much more the black/white detection rather than color (can't recall if that was rods or cones - and I aced college bio too! ;) ) Given that bass are mainly nocternal predators this is logical. Therefore I think it's a safe conclusion that while we see a wide range of lure colors, a bass perceives our lures as different shades of light and dark, and not necessarily as red or yellow or white or chartreuse etc.

Until Dr. Doolittle can interview a bass I guess we can only conjecture on the subject. :)