bucktail colors..and why not ?

[fcap60]

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 ?

[nightfighter]

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........

[RIROCKHOUND]

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

[Bob Thomas]

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!

[Aragorn]

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

[PI guy]

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.

[NIB]

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.

[fcap60]

NIB:

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

[libassboy]

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.

[seabass]

black, red enough said.

[NIB]

Originally Posted by fcap60

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.

[pmueller]

orange is very visable in deeper water.

[Clammer]

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

[thefishingfreak]

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.

[fcap60]

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.

[baldwin]

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.

[NIB]

Originally Posted by baldwin

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.

[baldwin]

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.

[STRIPER77]

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