What color soft plastics work for you?

[gpfishingdude]

I bought some caffeine swim n shads in different colors the other day and tried one for quite a while without any luck. Then I hooked on one that was a different color and caught a bass on the first cast. This got me wondering how many of the different colors of the swim n shads never caught a bass anywhere and also how many of the Ocho worm colors catch fish and how many don't? I'm not trying to over think this but it seems like there should be some kind of guide lines as to which colors work in what kind of water or areas. It just seems like a waste to carry a whole lot of lures along that very seldom work for anybody. I think the reason that the first swim n shad didn't catch anything was because it was blue back with sparkle and was too gaudy looking coming through the water but when I switched to the ghost shad it looked more natural coming through the clear water in this lake. Another thing that I noticed was that the water seemed to bring out the colors of the lures more.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: What color soft plastics work for you?

I just read a very interesting similar thread--at the bottom of the page--about transparent soft plastics after I posted the above thread. I was wondering about trying different colored hooks in the ghost shad because they are somewhat transparent too. I was already thinking that I need to try different rigging for different lakes and different sized bass. Maybe the 5" swim n shad in lakes that have bigger bass. The red hooks that I have are nearly identical to the black ones that I used in the ghost shad the last time out.

 

[dingbat]

Re: What color soft plastics work for you?

The different color baits are to catch fisherman more so than fish. :lol:

It's been proven time and time again that presentation trumps color more times than not. Having said that, I fish black or dark purple at night. "Match the hatch" if a lot of bait is around. Bright colors (white, chartreuse, mustard, lime green, pink) when the water is stained and more sparkle when it's bright out.

I keep all of the colors below on-board in both 6" and 12" sizes.The 6" Albino and Alewife are my go to colors. They match the prevalent bait species in our are very well.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: What color soft plastics work for you?

I am starting to see that there are some set rules as to what colors work under what conditions. Just as the black or dark lures work better at night I think that the clear lures work in the clear water, maybe just during the daylight hours. I read somewhere that using a clear colored lure effects the fish in the same way as using a smaller lure. In other words to attract them instead of scaring them away. Are there other color patterns that work as good as these do?

 

[StinkinShip]

Re: What color soft plastics work for you?

White is a good all around color to go with. At night black works best for me.

 

[greenbush future]

Re: What color soft plastics work for you?

Here in Michigan one of our biggest and best lake is Lake St. Clair. Any color bait works here as long as it's green LOL. I agree that there isnt usually a color "fish" prefer, but man can lure companies sell "fishermen" all the different colored one's. Sucker born every day, but typically speaking any natural color would be a great place to start. For plastics I do use the above guide (natural) , then when nothing works I go to black or Pumpkin colors.

 

[dingbat]

Re: What color soft plastics work for you?

I agree that there isnt usually a color "fish" prefer, but man can lure companies sell "fishermen" all the different colored one's.

I agree to an extent. White and chartreuse are the tried and colors when trolling Striper (Rockfish) on the Bay.

Some days they are all over the white sassy shad, the next day they want chartreuse. Can't explain it. Can't deny it when you have 16 rods with 32 baits trailing behind the boat and everything is caught on one color or the other that day. Then there are the days when it doesn't matter one bit. strange

 

[Bronlonius]

Re: What color soft plastics work for you?

The lake has a lot to do with it. In northern MN, white or orange seems to work well in the "rusty" water. In the average lakes, chartruse/green seems to work the best. In a really clear lake, I always do best with natural colors, however there was one day where yellow was the clear winner. But I think most of the time color is not as important as presentation and being in the right place at the right time.

 

[quad59]

Re: What color soft plastics work for you?

Black, purple,green,pink thats all that works for me here in ohio.