<p> recently while on an excursion to my local lake I was digging through my box of lipless cranks while rigging up in search of the perfect color for that day. The bait that I was trying to imitate was a pumpkinseed sunfish. Now for those of you who have never seen a pumpkinseed, I will tell you that they are the physical embodiment of the firetiger color pattern. Bright green with dark green parr markings and a vivid orange stomach. Now here is where my problem lies. The water I was fishing was so clear you can see a jig sink to the bottom from twenty feet away on a calm and overcast day, and the logical color for a water like that is to get as translucent and as light as possible. But the bait I was trying to imitate is a vivid green. So do I choose colors to imitate the bait like a firetiger? Or do I choose colors for their function like a Clearwater minnow pattern? And in which situations do either color choices take precedence? </p>

  . If I was wanting to match the pumpkinseed  I would go with the fire tiger . Maybe it will be the right choice maybe not .

 

In clear water I'd use a more natural pattern. There's some colors really close to the natural thing made in red eye shads, rat l traps, and xcalibur's(getting hard to find but I still have some), and lots of companies bluegill pattern is close enough. I only use firetiger in muddy water

Cousin and I were fishing Table Rock   one fall in very clear water . Mike caught a crawfish with bright orange pincers , so we tied on brown jigs with a bright orange trailer and started catching fish . I  would not have chose orange in that clear water until I saw it was not out of place at all .  ,The clearer the water the brighter the fish . Some darters are brilliantly colored . I had some Orange throated Darters that I seined stocked  in my aquarium  . They were stunning.  Orange , turquoise and other colors and they came out of gin clear water .

Quit reading color charts!

Chrome Blue Back, Chrome Black Back, & Gold Black Orange Belly would be deadly in clear water.

Your color charts will tell ya those colors are out of date!

Reel fast

so just reading your comments I take it that matching the hatch definitely takes precedence over matching the conditions?

Problem solved bud. On one of my favorite models too.  The rapala DT series. I have this in the DT 4 and DT6.

Ive caught bass, bluegill, and crappie with it in the same day. 

Go with Firetiger, and ignore the clear water must use natural Shad colored bait talk. If you have pumpkinseed or perch swimming in your waters, than Firetiger is a natural colored bait for your body of water. I grew up on a lake that clear and fish another clear lake 1 week a year and Firetiger is my #1 crank color especially with deep divers. 

Also with cranks it is the illusion of color since they move reasonably quick, I like a green back chartreuse belly DT series crank and Chartreuse sexy colored cranks because they give off a similar pumpkinseed perch color pattern when retrieved. 

Try both...

The pic of that DT in sunfish is a great lure. Don't overlook the bluegill version of that lure also. Rapala has (2) versions of the bluegill pattern I like the original pattern better than the new real image. I'm catching fish on some of the real image Rapalas but at a lower ratio. This has been a big year for me with more natural presentations due to the lack of rain. Firetigers, chart. patterns have not been fished too much.  

Colors, it's the old color thing. When in doubt I toss different colors till I get action. In clear water it's smaller sized natural colors fished faster. Don't let the bass get a good look at it. I always say when in doubt toss a CRANKBAIT in firetiger.

On ‎10‎/‎3‎/‎2016 at 8:18 AM, bigbill said:

Colors, it's the old color thing. When in doubt I toss different colors till I get action. In clear water it's smaller sized natural colors fished faster. Don't let the bass get a good look at it. I always say when in doubt toss a CRANKBAIT in firetiger.

personally I've always subscribed to the theory of fishing slow in clear water, that might be why I always do so poorly with hard baits. That tip will definitely help me in the long run, muddy water is a rare sight in the lakes of Montana.

I have a lot of small lakes and ponds around me that are clear.  I start out with shad or shiner colors and go from there.

I believe what fools us is as we go deeper in the water column the water conditions can change. This tells me the bass can smell my scent, hear my rattle, feel my vibration but can't see the color of my bait. Since we can read the water conditions below firetiger can be our friend. What I say about clear water/ natural colored baits, stained water brighter colors, muddy water brightest colors is a standard starting process. Subject to change its your call. Why do we carry so many different colors of baits.

On 10/5/2016 at 4:30 AM, Bankbeater said:

I have a lot of small lakes and ponds around me that are clear.  I start out with shad or shiner colors and go from there.

the problem with my situation is that I have no silvery color baitfish in the local lake