"Color only matters when it matters". Sounds good, but let's face facts. Marketing drives the bass fishing economy, and the place where it shows up the most is probably with baits and lures, especially in the realm of color and color patterns. If you own a bait with a red hook, or have a color of bait that somehow is referred to as 'sexy' in your possession, then you're guilty or a victim depending on which side of the fence you sit on.
This topic stared me down again, as I was recently reading an article on how the color flakes in your soft plastics can make a big difference in your catch rates. The premise here being that you need lots of the same type baits with lots of flake (color) variations to cover a wide range of conditions, and arguably a wide range of preferences exhibited by bass at any given time. Sigh...
Everybody has their thoughts and opinions on color, and that's good...and certainly not wrong. The beauty of bass fishing is that you can approach it in however a way you choose - pick a system or a style that works for you and run with it. If intricate color detail is in that system, more power to you. If anything, having such a system, or a strong opinion on color breeds confidence, which is probably one of the most important things that truly matters in helping you catch bass. But I do want to take a minute to throw out a different line of thinking on color and color selection than what you have traditionally heard. A simplified way of thinking that goes against the marketing game a bit, but still allows for variation.
We've already talked a bit about action being more important than color, as well as studies showing that bass don't preferentially select for small but bright color additions to their prey. Let's go one step further with the research now, looking across a range of studies with a variety of fish including largemouth bass, but seeing the exact same results appear, leading to the following color generalization theory:
There is no such thing as the 'best' color. Instead, there are a lot of colors that will work equally well (statistically) for any given bait, along with a host of colors that will work less well.
Simply figuring out and having a color or two in the former category is all that you need on any given day, on any given water.
I've now found and researched about half a dozen studies dealing with statistical catch rates of fish as relates to lure color, including largemouth bass, mackerel, tuna, and marlin. A wide variety of fish, but interestingly all coming to the exact same conclusion - there is no ONE best color. Instead, there are a range of colors that worked equally well, along with some colors that didn't do so hot. As long as you were using one of those BETTER colors, you'd never be able to tell a difference in catch rates on any given day. In other words, you don't need to worry about optimizing - you don't need to own every color a soft plastics manufacturer makes. You can live perfectly fine with a color or two (or even three) that has proven its catching ability in any given style of bait. Call it your confidence color(s), your baseline color(s), whatever.
Here's an example: I go out to a lake shallow cranking with square bills. I only need to keep switching colors until I find one that seems to be performing well. Once I've found it, I don't need to worry about finding another BETTER color. Additionally, it has been my experience that I can then bank on that color as a staple, if not everywhere, at least for that given lake. Once I've fished enough square bills, I'll eventually find a few baits or colors that seem to catch fish equally well under a variety of conditions. At that point, my lure selection becomes focused and limited, as I've figured out the better colors, as well as the not so good ones. Get rid of the 'not so's' and just keep and use the proven ones. Use the same process for all your baits.
Another example; I now typically only carry 3 different jig trailers with me, in just 2 different colors. Football heads, flipping and pitching jigs, finesse - doesn't matter. One of these trailers seems to work every time they're biting jigs. Same goes for color of jigs - I've got that down to just 3 or 4 color variants I use everywhere, any one of which I feel comfortable throwing.
So you now have my theory on color selection and how I apply it in my fishing. If you want to dig into the research for yourself, I'll list the studies below for you to track down. I've been running with this now for about 2-3 years, and haven't been let down yet. It simply takes a little change in your thought process, or how you view and/or prioritize color in the grand scheme of your bass fishing success. For me, it has simplified decision-making and tackle storage, ultimately minimized lure purchases, and resulted in much greater efficiency when out on the water.
References:
- The response of rainbow trout Salmo gairdneri to lures with special references to color preference
- Color effects of lures on the hooking rates of mackerel longline fishing
- Lure-size Restrictions in Recreational Fisheries
- Color vision and spectral sensitivity in tunas and marlins
- How Much Difference Does Lure Color Make?
- The Colour Vision of Fish
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