How To Choose Lure Colors

Hi, guys. This is Gene Jensen, with BassResource.com. This morning, we're going to talk about water clarity and color selection.

When I first get to a lake that I've never been to before, that I'm not very familiar with, or even if after a good weather change like some rain or stuff like that, I'll grab a white Fluke or white lure of some type and put it on a jig head or put it on something that has a weight and drop it in the water and watch it sink. When it disappears, I stop and bring it up, and I see how deep that lure was when it disappeared. That gives me the water clarity.

As a rule of thumb, there's variances and everybody thinks of this rule of thumb a little bit differently, but in my eyes 6 feet and deeper is clear water. 4 to 6 feet is murky water. 2 to 4 feet is stained water, and 0 to 2 feet is muddy water. I take that knowledge that I have of the water clarity and I transfer that into my bait colors, if I'm fishing plastics. We're not going to talk about vibration, vibration is not a color. We'll talk about that in another video.

I have a standard, few colors that I keep with me at all times, and they pretty much cover every water color. The colors that I use the most are green pumpkin. Green pumpkin, I will use most of the time. It is good in clear water, good all the way up to stained water. Not so good in muddy water, just because a fish can't see it very well. Black is an all around good color; it will work in the whole spectrum of clarity.

If I'm fishing really clear water, which in the majority of lakes that I fish around here in Clarksville, Richmond Mill, in North Carolina, and several of the other lakes are fairly clear. When I'm choosing colors for clear water, kind of a little trick that I do is if I hold this lure up, this is a plum crazy, if I hold it up to the sun and the sun shines through it, it's a fairly good clear-water color. Then it's up to what type of color the bass wants; watermelon, plum colors, and red bug. Red bug, I have all the time and it works in clear or murky water. Then for your muddy waters, I'm going to almost exclusively fish black. I usually don't fish soft plastic in muddy water; I’ll throw a jig or something like that.

To go over it again, for clear water to stained water, you want to have a natural color; greens, browns, things like that, blacks. In stained to muddy water you want your dark colors; your junebugs, your blacks, things like that, things that are easier to pick up in that muddy water. Then for bright colors, like your metholiates and your chartreuses . . . chartreuse work in clear water and everything else . . . and your whites, I'll use that. I'll use bright color, actually in super-clear water and in muddy water. It's just my preference. It's just my thoughts behind water color, and it’s what's worked for me over the years.

Like I always say, visit BassResource.com for the answer to all your questions about bass fishing. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Have a great day.