Why is it that when I look into someone's plug bag, that person has at least a dozen plus in many different colors. From reading the posts on this forum, many of us have our own favorite "go to" plug and color under many conditions

However, for those of us who throw bucktail jigs, the No. 1 color seems to be a White bucktail with a white trailer or the occassional Black bucktail/black trailer at night (I confident only a few actually use a black/black combo). In fact, a friend and well respected fisherman I know tells me he only uses WHITE bucktails.

If White is truly is the "go-to" color for bucktails, why don't we apply that theory to our choice of plug colors. For example, how many of us are willing to change the numberous "rainbow of colored plugs" we own to "white" and only carry an occasional off-color when we fish ?

I don't know how many of you have had the opporunity to fish a tube and worm combo from a boat, but those of you who have, know that blood red (burgundy) is a DEADLY COLOR that produces lots of bass. In fact, I can remember several occassions trolling these red tubes and cathching good numbers of bass when the sun was well-up in the same water I fish in the hours of darkness.

If we know that this blood red color works so well on a tube, how many of us carry blood red plugs in our plug bags (I admit, I carry NONE) and how many red bucktails to we use (I'm guilty again, none for me)

I wonder if we are missing out by not experimenting more with various colors when we fish bucktails ?

Any thoughts on this ?

In this months OTW there was an article by a diver who saw two stripers Playing with a bright orange golf ball! Funny article and gets one thinking about colors........

My bucktail bag contains the following;
usually I match bucktail and trailer or just plain grub/worm with unpainted lead...
Black
Red
Pink
Purple
White
Chartruse
Yellow/Red

I've got black/red, black/orange, white/red, blue/white, green/black, green/white...I've got a rainbow!....speaking of which, I need to start tying again! :behead:

I exclusively fish at night, around Newport Harbour and the Goat Island Causeway.. biggest producer for me have been fresh poggies and "storm 6" shads in albino"... I have tried black bombers, kastmasters, black sluggos, white sluggos, chug bugs, redfins etc, but nothing beats a storm shad, as long as there are no blues around.

I say if you are fishing third shift, you need only 2 colors, black and white... black if no moon/no light, and white if you are fishing under street lights etc

Any "seasoned salt" input is wellcome :jump:

I have always fished a chartreuse or white buck w/ a chart. grub, but this season I have tied up a bunch of olive w/ some flash and a strip of white on the bottom. I'll probably throw a white grub on there to give 'em something to chew on. Now all we need is fish.:uhuh: :uhuh:

I have almost as many colors of jig powder as i do spray paint.Plus i have bucktails in every color under the sun.I have a mean olive taken lots o bass on.cabellas has alot of different colors.i found this out after i made alot of my own.I own alot of plugs but a jig is my favorite lure to catch on.

NIB:

What would you say are your most successful colors for bucktails and are you using trailers of the same or contrasting colors ?

Dark red bucktails work real well, i use them at nite all the time. A black trailer is a killer combo also.
I do keep a few chartruse and olive/white bucktails with me also, the olive seems to work when the bass are being fincky and the chartruse is good when its stormin.

black, red enough said.:bl:

NIB:

What would you say are your most successful colors for bucktails and are you using trailers of the same or contrasting colors ?

natural colors like olive i always use a matching trailer.White i'll go red white an pink in that order.black gets red or blood red.Limew green, red.chartruse /match.I'll use pork rinds, rubber grubs, an fin-s fish, shad body's,& worms i will put just about anything on the tail end.mostly i change em up to have em work the depth i want .in other words pork sinks more that grubs which sink more than shad body's.I rapp the hook with some size E thread an add super glue to make my own grabbers this keeps the trailers on better.with these i can use any plastic an fire with no worrys bout the trailer coming down on the hook.

orange is very visable in deeper water.

I didn,t see anyone post THE COLOR / i,ll be fishless :drool:

chartruce. or white.
thats what works for me, keep in mind thats a big jig, down 50-60 feet, from a boat. long red or white pork rind or even better marios squid strips. belly filet flaps too.no better stink than the stink itself.
whats a tube without the worm? useless..so there goes the red theory.bright lime green works too but if i had one jig it would be,ok two jigs,, white on one side and chartruce on the other side.:usd:

Fishingfreak wrote:
"whats a tube without the worm? useless..so there goes the red theory".

Fishingfreak, I used to think the same thing, unitl the guy I was fishing these with told me he was hammring fish when he ran out of worms.
On some occassions, he just put scent on the plain red tubes and caught fish-so, I'm not so sure that "red theory" is gone, just yet.

Actually Mueller, I'm not so sure about orange being visible in deep water. Red is the first to fade to gray with depth, orange is close to that end of the spectrum. Red looks gray after a few feet down. Not that gray is a bad color, most baitfish are grayish. The blue end of the spectrum is visible deepest, with chartreuse standing up well.
As for colors of plugs, I think all white or all black is a good scheme. For picky situations, I like yellow at dawn, and olive over white sometimes, chartreuse in stained water.

Actually Mueller, I'm not so sure about orange being visible in deep water. Red is the first to fade to gray with depth, orange is close to that end of the spectrum. Red looks gray after a few feet down. Not that gray is a bad color, most baitfish are grayish. The blue end of the spectrum is visible deepest, with chartreuse standing up well.
As for colors of plugs, I think all white or all black is a good scheme. For picky situations, I like yellow at dawn, and olive over white sometimes, chartreuse in stained water.


I reaD A ARTICLE IN sws LAST FALL BOUT COLOR.
F'n caps button.
Lime green if I remember right was one of the most visable.
If I can find the mag i'll post the link.

Q: Why do some colors appear black when they're in the water? I know it has something to do with wavelengths, but I don't really understand it.
A: Water transmits light of every color and, therefore, looks clear. The clearness enables you to see colors of an underwater object near to the surface. Water is clearest for colors of shortest wavelengths%$the blues and greens. That's why water looks greenish-blue and the deeper the water, the more greenish-blue it looks. This effect is most noticeable in the water looking up. Looking down into the water, reflections and refractions on the surface can interfere.

Water isn't perfectly clear, though, especially for colors with longer wavelengths. It strongly absorbs infra-red (heat) radiation and weakly absorbs colors in the red and orange part of the spectrum. White light consists of red light plus its complement, greenish-blue light. So absorbing orange and red colors from white light leaves greenish-blue, the intrinsic color of water.

This also means that orange and red colors in deep water look black if illuminated by surface light. Think what a "red" fish means. The fish looks red, not because it emits red light, but because it reflects red light. If, at depth, there's no red light left, then a red fish will look unlighted or black.

Water molecules absorb red light weakly and infra-red strongly because the molecules vibrate greatly in the infra-red frequencies. They resonate%$that is, they vibrate a greater amount at that frequency like a gong vibrates and "bongs" when hit with a hammer.

The vibrating molecules get hotter due to their motion, like those in a bowl of water warming in the summer's sun.

Occasionally water molecules absorb visible red light. Since the effect is faint, it takes many molecules%$about nine feet of water depth--to absorb enough red light so the blue of the water is noticeable. That's why a glass of water looks clear.

"You want the truth? You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!!!!"
WTF---Just tie on a freakin bucktail and fish!!!!!

"You want the truth? You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!!!!" hahahaha....too funny!

Professor Baldwin (just kidding with ya) thanks for the lesson, it's all good info and I thank you. However, I assume when one is bouncing a bucktail jig in 10' or more of water at night, the spectrum of light thing is pretty much n/a? My guess would be that light colored jigs are pretty much gray/black and darker colors simply black. To me what are fish friends are looking for or at, is profile and contrast. Any thoughts or comments?

I only use white- heres my theory- it works ;)

Ya thats true.Its ok to pigeon hole urself into thinkin that way U gotta draw the line someplace.I think if u applied the same theory to plug fishin it would work most the time also.I know for fact though.there are times in the canal in 35 ft of water where black an red outfishes white big time.

pigeon hole urself now that's got to hurt!:bc:

Nebe was taking a little friendly jab and I know he throws some different colors in soft plastics w/jig heads. All in all though, its amazing how they see the dang jig coming and then pounce on it.

Nice meeting you at the MSBA, Andy had nice ball of hooks there.

I know.
Looked like something out of hellraiser when Slip picked the whole box up, without the box.

I am not a big jig thrower, I did pick up a couple of 4 & 5 oz. black and red from Pt. Jude Joe yesterday for the Canal and the Breachways.

Ya thats true.Its ok to pigeon hole urself into thinkin that way U gotta draw the line someplace.I think if u applied the same theory to plug fishin it would work most the time also.I know for fact though.there are times in the canal in 35 ft of water where black an red outfishes white big time.


I dont fish the damn canal :wavey:

Yea, profile is more important. Black, white, or something in between all have their times, though. Probably less important at depth after dark, though.
Also, don't rigidly follow the white on light full-moon nights and black on dark nights thing. Vary your plug selection until you find what the fish are in the mood for.
I've done well with black plugs on bright nights, or even during the day, and I've done well with white plugs on very dark nights when a lot of people slinging black were coming up empty-handed.
We read about a lot of rules in fishing, but the fish don't read the books that we read.

kermit the frog green, red trailer

merlot - red or black trailer

bare lead - minnow body attached on its side :btu:

:wavey:

white, black, going to do some up in a few colors and let the fish decide..

IMO bucktails are a great lure. They work because they get to the right depth, plain and simple.

U know i never had much faith in the wine red color.Its a good rubber trailor on bvlack but the whole jig that color has been a dud for me.
In Montauk lime green head an tail is a popular producer. One thing i pretty much always do is keep it simple.I mix a color to match the color bucktail i have. Like olive green for instance.there seems to be alot of variation when u buy a olive green bucktail.I try to find a brownish green that goes well with my favorite trailor.I like the heads to match the tails for the most part in one color only.Only time i vary in that is to put a little red on the bottom of some black when i wrap my canal jigs.An sometimes a chartruese head an white body is murderous.I like to tro bucktails when the water is big so chartruse gets alot of play in the daytime.At night white on the full moon an dark on a dark moon.It makes a difference.

NIB.....................:cheers:

NIB.....................:cheers:

Now u know I don't drink.
Could u imagine.
All my inhibitions would go right out the window
This is what u would get
:tm: