I fished a club event Saturday on a smallmouth highland reservoir with very clear water.  The two top teams fished the same general area and the same lure. Their weights were near identical.  The winners fished a goby/sculpin colored Ned rig.  That made sense.  The other team fished the Ned rig as well but their color choice was bubble gum.  It would seem the profile and action or retrieve was much more critical than color. If someone had suggested bubble gum to me I would have scoffed.  I love this sport.

When they're biting, they're biting. 

 

Let the record show, there is no hard evidence on file, that color alone can impact fishing success.

RIGHT GUYS?   tap-tap!   tap-tap-tap!      HMPH, seems like my phone went dead       

All the fancy colors are made to catch us buyers. Not fish lol

?

When I'm guiding, I like to throw a Bubble Gum or White Lightning colored TRD. They're nontraditional colors but I always get fish to eat them and some days they're more productive than the standard colors. I've seen days when the color of the flake in a worm made a difference, more often than not though, put the right profile bait in the right spot with the right presentation and the color matters very little. 

Pink floating worms were hot in Florida about 20 years ago. Merthiolate (hot orange) was too.  I've caught bass on every color worm imaginable.  A color gets "hot" because someone starts catching bass on it and tells his buddies. This flows through the grape vine until everyone is throwing the hot color and it quits working.  Years ago when multicolored worms came out, they were all the rage.  Anyone remember Pace or Fleck worms? Worm color isn't nearly as important as size and shape.

Bubblegum holds a slot in my Senko box.  When the water clarity is good but not great and they don't seem to be interested in darker colors, I'll put on a Bubblegum.  That usually does the trick.

 

 

About 3 weeks ago, I made a post on here about color not mattering that day. This past Sunday, the bite was slow and I switched to a crankbait I found floating in the lake. The bite turned on. I caught the biggest of the day on it plus a bunch of little ones. So I had to scour the internet to find what it even was. I'll probably grab a couple more of that color. So yes, sometimes it does seem to matter..I think..lol

i think color makes a bigger difference in fishing something that sinks opposed to cranking something in. I know a few of the lakes around here green pumpkin w red flake will outfish regular green pumpkin 4-1. chart/black, chart/blue, sexy shad, & red are really the only important colors for crankbaits IMO

When they're biting, it doesn't matter what you're using.  When they're not biting, it doesn't matter what you're using. ?

I've fished the same lake all spring for pike and both bass/pike/crappie have hit virtually every keitech colour i could find: purple, blue/yellow, white, red&black, green, emerald shiner etc. On jigheads that matched well, or not at all. Didn't seem to matter. These were "high confidence" situations, but still. 

I think that when the bass fishing is dependent on color there is more going on than just the color of the bait. 

I agree 90% of the time color doesn't seem to really matter.  My buddy and I fish and our favorite go to colors are different.  His is Black/Blue and mine is Watermelon red/black flake when it comes to Senkos.  90% of the time we may end the day 1 or 2 fish difference.  A few days a year one or the other color absolutely starts to crush the other color so we will switch.

11 hours ago, Todd2 said:

About 3 weeks ago, I made a post on here about color not mattering that day. This past Sunday, the bite was slow and I switched to a crankbait I found floating in the lake. The bite turned on. I caught the biggest of the day on it plus a bunch of little ones. So I had to scour the internet to find what it even was. I'll probably grab a couple more of that color. So yes, sometimes it does seem to matter..I think..lol

Out of curiosity, what crank and color was it?

1 hour ago, Revival said:

Out of curiosity, what crank and color was it?

Bandit 200 Viral Perch.....the name is fitting for the times

Color doesn't matter, fish location and visibility does. Match the hatch but also make the bait somewhat visible. 

 

I've caught fish on black and blue and watermelon red on the same outing. They don't care what color it is lmao.