Im having trouble with lure colors. The water i fish is dark.

What colors to use on a sunny day?

What colors to use on a cloudy day?

What colors to use while its raining?

The most basic rule of thumb is, what are the colors of the primary food sources in those waters? Go for a match whenever possible of those species.

Darker waters will have darker inhabitants. In muddy and stained water I used dirty craw colors or black. If these don't work a lot of times chartreuse will.

More than color, in dark water I think it may be more important to make your bait profile larger, move more water with your spinners, or add rattles or beads to make a little noise.

My go to in rain is raindow trout on topwater, but I couldn't tell you why, just seems to work.

The most basic rule of thumb is, what are the colors of the primary food sources in those waters? Go for a match whenever possible of those species.

i always heard that recommendation, but then, why is firetiger such a productive color??

i always heard that recommendation, but then, why is firetiger such a productive color??

Not every fisherman thinks it's necessary to "match the hatch" and many anglers don't have lure color high on their list of considerations. Your lure, in its entirety, must appeal to the fish's senses. Not only does firetiger work, so does every other color. Are some colors better than others? I don't know. But I suspect the color is more important to the fishermen than the fish. I've been fishing 40+ years and have seen so many colors catch fish that I find it impossible to draw any meaningful conclusions.

I tend to agree with Marty...... Having said that.

Cloudy days = Darker Colors

Sunny Days + Light or Natural Colors

Some days it's just a crap shoot!

Im having trouble with lure colors. The water i fish is dark.

What colors to use on a sunny day?

What colors to use on a cloudy day?

What colors to use while its raining?

Can better define the water color and clarity....?

Can you see a spinnerbait 3' under water and are the gold blades more visible than silver?

Tom

I like to use natural colors like watermelons, green pumpkins, black, etc.

I toss in other colors as well within those colors (laminates, etc). I also like a chartreuse tipped worm for wacky, Texas, and split shotting.

While I'm not at Marty's level of experience, I'd agree we are hooked by the latest and greatest color, style, rattle to hit the market.... I am not at the point where I have experienced success with every color I've tried. Some days one color works better than others, in my experience.

Everyone's experience is different. Experiment with light, dark, perhaps even glow-in-the-dark lures and see what tends to success for you.

For stained/muddy water I start out with either something dark (black/blue, watermelon, etc.) or bright and flashy (chartreuse, fire tiger, etc.) and work my way from there. The less light penetration because of rain or clouds, the darker I tend to go. You can never go wrong with using natural colors that "match the hatch," in my opinion.

Im having trouble with lure colors. The water i fish is dark.

What colors to use on a sunny day?

What colors to use on a cloudy day?

What colors to use while its raining?

I fish a few ponds with that dark "tea" colored water. cloudy and rainy the best producer is a junebug red flake. Sunny, usually use red shad. but my best fish out of there have been on cloudy or rainy days.

i always heard that recommendation, but then, why is firetiger such a productive color??

I suspect that's because we are still basically guessing on what makes a fish strike based on the available research, and that most likely changes due to the innumerable variables on the day in question. Very old designs of one solid color remain extremely effective and there was no CAD or celebrity input into their designs. It seems logical that matching available forage can't be going in the wrong direction.

Im having trouble with lure colors. The water i fish is dark.

What colors to use on a sunny day?

What colors to use on a cloudy day?

What colors to use while its raining?

Blacks, purples, blues, reds, green pumpkin.