How do you select a lure colour?

[jimvanm]

How do people choose a lure?

 

Basically I have become conditioned towards orange lures. Why? Because all my favourite fish have been caught on orange lures.

 

Now what actually might be happening is that I tend to fish more often with orange lures, so naturally more and more of the fish I catch would be on those, which reinforces the conditioning.

 

When I go to look at lures, I am totally mystified by all the selection. I try and look at them from the fish's perspective. "mmmm, that one looks tasty". "hey, this one's nice and shiny!", "wow, that one has real-looking eyes!".

 

But then I start to realize that I am not a fish, I can't know how a fish responds, and there's far too much about this that I just don't know.

 

So I buy another orange lure.

 

What I really need is a cup full of worms. It is a consistently proven fact that fish find those things irresistible.

 

Do they come in orange?

[misfish]

Common colours are orange,s, blues,s ,greens,s and white. Any mix ,seems to work well. Solids in some cases work better.

Live bait will catch anything.LOL

[Dabluz]

It's hard to say what fish actually see. I'm most certain that through evolution, some colours are more important to fish than other colours. But, bait fish through the evolutionary process also use colours to protect themselves.

 

Wounded baitfish or wounded and sick fish quickly change in colour and are easy for everyone to spot. They also swim differently. However, you never see sickly looking artificial baits that have a bad "limp" when pulled through the water....lol.

 

From my experience...pike like yellow a lot. Walleye like gold and orange lures and black jigs while landlocked salmon like silver.

[JohnF]

How do people choose a lure?

 

My fishing buddy has been at it all his life (60 years plus) and he uses nothing but the original grey floating Rapalas in a few smaller sizes. He uses them wherever he's fishing, whatever he's fishing for. If they let him down his goto is real worms. He gets a big kick out of all the crap I haul around. His Raps work fine in our local river on bass and pike, for whatever he catches down in the Everglades from his kayak, and for the bass and pike he catches up near Calabogie. He's caught steelhead and other river trout/salmon types on them too.

 

About the only thing I've tried that actually caught his attention were the plastic worms that often work when his Raps let him down. He likes the idea of keeping worms forever in his little tackle bag.

 

I'm convinced from watching him that presentation is everything. What's tied on the end of the line is irrelevant, as long as there's a sharp hook involved. Danged if I can get the principle to work for me though.

 

JF

[kickingfrog]

Confidence, real or imagined, has a strong influence on colour as well as lure selection.

[HTHM]

John! I know what you mean.....There are guys who just seem to be blessed, and then there are shlubs like you and I (sigh)

[Dabluz]

I'm also very orientated towards natural colours. Most of my swim baits look like the minnows that inhabit the water. In any event, I have way too many swim baits and among them are a few having very wierd colours. Most of those weird ones.....I have yet to use.

[JohnF]

John! I know what you mean.....There are guys who just seem to be blessed, and then there are shlubs like you and I (sigh)

 

He's the guy with the kayak I said I'd bring along if we went out in the canoe. It's really depressing how he catches fish with his Walmart tackle. You'll see what I mean.

 

JF

[jace]

I watched an interesting show on fishing with underwater cameras. Fish will hit anything if the conditions and presentation is right including clumps of dirt, weeds, sticks, ...anything. If you drag a bottle cap past them the right way, a fish will hit it and this video includes a huge segment on trout which we seem to consider smart or wary. Matching hatch is probably just as much bunk as the same fish will hit a glowing unnatural fire tiger pattern from the next fisherman. We see the same thing in our fish aquariums where they'll take anything into their mouth before deciding whether it's food or not.

[jimvanm]

It's really depressing how he catches fish with his Walmart tackle. You'll see what I mean.

 

People like that are fascinating. In most cases they don't even know what they know, in the sense that they can't really articulate their technique beyond the obvious. Put the lure on, put it in the water, wiggle it just-so, and there's a fish. They just happen to have an almost magic feel for it, and to them it's so natural and obvious they can't see why anyone would spend much time thinking about it.

 

I think one could spend a lifetime on this.

 

What a hobby!

[cisco]

Lots of occasions the fish go for colours which resemble them. Specks like dotted spinners blue and red... walleye like yellow... rainbow like greens/pinks... bass like browns and greens...... but some critters like red and white like Mr. pike.

 

Some say 'Match the hatch" but I recommend "Match the quarry". l

[brickNblock]

My fishing buddy has been at it all his life (60 years plus) and he uses nothing but the original grey floating Rapalas in a few smaller sizes. He uses them wherever he's fishing, whatever he's fishing for. If they let him down his goto is real worms. He gets a big kick out of all the crap I haul around. His Raps work fine in our local river on bass and pike, for whatever he catches down in the Everglades from his kayak, and for the bass and pike he catches up near Calabogie. He's caught steelhead and other river trout/salmon types on them too.

 

About the only thing I've tried that actually caught his attention were the plastic worms that often work when his Raps let him down. He likes the idea of keeping worms forever in his little tackle bag.

 

I'm convinced from watching him that presentation is everything. What's tied on the end of the line is irrelevant, as long as there's a sharp hook involved. Danged if I can get the principle to work for me though.

 

JF

 

xcuse my spelling but cant find my eyes...glasses..

Strained them enough to read what you wroyr however....

 

I can certainly understande both you and your buddies ideas of lure selection...

Frustrating...interesting....unique..

if it works...go with it John.

[JohnF]

xcuse my spelling but cant find my eyes...glasses..

Strained them enough to read what you wroyr however....

 

I can certainly understande both you and your buddies ideas of lure selection...

Frustrating...interesting....unique..

if it works...go with it John.

 

I'm stubborn. I only use the grey Rapala when Rob's not around. No way I'm gonna concede that I can't buy a bigger fish.

 

JF

[chewy]

i myself use firetiger color i always catch something with it and now i discoverd black lures work awsome 2 thats about all i use for bass wallye pike crappie

[purekgw]

i simply do like fly fishermen (do some fly fishing) and simply match the hatch and try to get as close to same size as the minnows around seems to work well to

[Rich]

I don't go nuts on color. Light colors for bright days (occasionally chartreuse or flo. pink for a reaction bite), darker colors for cloudy/rainy days, and black for night fishing. Has always worked well for me.

 

Or in the case of musky - black/orange no matter what. lol

Edited July 7, 2008 by Rich

[Victor]

Confidence, real or imagined, has a strong influence on colour as well as lure selection.

 

Agreed.

[limeyangler]

Agreed.

 

 

 

Agreed again....lol.

 

 

Great post by the way.

[splashhopper]

How do people choose a lure?

 

Basically I have become conditioned towards orange lures. Why? Because all my favourite fish have been caught on orange lures.

 

Now what actually might be happening is that I tend to fish more often with orange lures, so naturally more and more of the fish I catch would be on those, which reinforces the conditioning.

 

When I go to look at lures, I am totally mystified by all the selection. I try and look at them from the fish's perspective. "mmmm, that one looks tasty". "hey, this one's nice and shiny!", "wow, that one has real-looking eyes!".

 

But then I start to realize that I am not a fish, I can't know how a fish responds, and there's far too much about this that I just don't know.

 

So I buy another orange lure.

 

What I really need is a cup full of worms. It is a consistently proven fact that fish find those things irresistible.

 

Do they come in orange?

 

 

Interesting question, as I was wondering the same thing about me and worms.

My fishing buddies use RoE ROE ROE for rainbows and i NEVER catch any on Roe.

I throw a worm on and i catch a rainbow. ( i have even tried the GROSS looking LIVE GREEN ones, but to no avail).

 

So, is it the colour of the lure, the preferred type of live bait, or the person's perception of it all?

 

Inquiring minds really DO waana know.

 

Splashhopper

[fishindevil]

Well it is proven that some fish see colors,and some see certain colors better than others,but like they say try to match the hatch or use natural colors in clear water & bright colors in stained water or in overcast days,i go by that and catch fish,so i suppose theres many ways to look at it,i think its also a confidence thing for the angler as well,lots of cool responses though....cheers

[ccmtcanada]

I agree with the confidence thing, although I have no proof of how confidence affects 'how' you fish.

 

My wife and I fish the same areas at the same time.

 

Last year, with her throwing a classic red devil spoon, she caught brown after brown. I used the same thing, caught nothing.

 

Another example....we both throw little cleos for fall salmon...I catch them all the time on them, and she wasn't as lucky.

 

Strange, but I think you get 'tuned' in to how a lure is moving through the water, and are able to replicate it once it works...you can't explain how, but there are some finesse things being done that you dont even realize you are doing.

 

Not sure if this made any sense....

[Rich]

Definitely Cliff.

 

If you have confidence in the lure you'll just "work" it better than you would another lure. You'll also have more patience for it.

[misfish]

I have a brand of tube I love to use for smallies. This one has been my go to for about 6 years now. I bought a pack of the same brand,but it was missing something the other had. For the last 2 years I have been trying to get a fish to bite the one that was missing the added piece of the puzzel,but for the life of me,it will not work. I will be catching,switch up to the other and nothing.