Everyone is always asking about your favorite colors and the usual ones always pop up. My question is what are the non popular ones you use and in what water clarity?

 

For reference most of the water I fish in clear to stained 90% of the time minus the Lower Potomac which is mud 90% of the time. With that said I will post my top 3 favorite colors that are usually not mentioned.

 

1. Yamamoto Natural Shad= I have yet to find a color that matched the local minnow forage than this and I have caught thousands of fish using this color. Senko's, Shad Shape worms, and I pour my own Flukes in this color because it works so well.

2. Zoom Scuppernong= This is just a translucent brown, but man does it work around here. Caught my PB Upper Potomac River bass on a Super Hog in this color at 6-7. Not sure why it works so well but it just does, and I buy at least 1 pack of every bait in this color to try.

3. Gitzet Leech= If you just look at this one in hand it looks black? Hold it up to the light and it is a different color sort of a cross between brown/black. Same with their Brown which looks black in hand. Not sure what Gitzit has going on with these, but they are the best tubes I have used especially in colder water. I have 100's of different tubes but none of them have worked as well as these in colder water over the past several years.

 

Allen

Hey Allen,

 

My color choices are more about the forage than water clarity.  Almost anytime I’m tube fishing the water is fairly clear, 6 feet visibility or more.  One color that is very effective is called Green Ugly. It’s an avocado green.  Another is Buzzard Puke.  This is a double dip with a blue inner and a coffee brown outer. Finally a Cinnamon with purple flake.  These all mimic sculpin or crayfish.  I’m a dragger when it comes to tubes.  There you go.

The color purple has been my favorite but not just any purple. My purple isn’t wine red purple or dark grape purple, it’s Rit dye #13 purple similar to the old Stren box purple. 
Back on the day Vinyl skirts had 2 purples a red wine purple and a more violet purple, it!’s the violet purple that bass preferred where I fished.

In the late 80’s that Action Worms came out with purple thunder that was my purple with gold, silver and black flake this would become my go to soft plastic color.

Screamers

Reapers

Flutter Craft curl tails

 

Tom

Chartreuse Pumpkin in clear water.

Bubblegum in murky water.

Black Grape in any water.

Zoom scuppernong, zoom green weenie, and zoom plum apple are some of my favorites

 Cinnamon Pepper Neon Junebug Laminate 

 

White Ice

 

Merthiolate

 

I would have said bubblegum DShad but unfortunately Yamamoto discontinued that color.  If you like them, buy what you can.  I’m about to try Yamamoto’s new “stealth” colors, so stay tuned.  

Zoom Raspberry Shad

Culprit Tequila shad

bass pro neon grape has caught me fish on tough days
chompers watermelon red with purple flake
red shad flukes

Well since I mainly fish clear water here's a few less common colors that work very well here.

(1) As @Munkin mention Yamamoto natural shad - scope minnow 

(2) Blue steel - Zman finesse shad 

(3) Cotton candy chartreuse - Zoom lizard.

Deps Cover Scat, Golden Shiner

 

OSP Dolive Beaver, Green Pumpkin Chartreuse

 

OSP Dolive SS Gill, Vitamin Gill

 

Bass Assassin 7 1/2" Worm in Camoflage and Red Shad/Green Glitter

 

Gene Larew Salt Craw in Butterscotch (out of production but thankfully I still have a good supply)

 

Strike King Craw and Bug, marketed in their Okeechobee color 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

Most of the mainstream colors, whether for soft plastics or hardbaits dont work for the bass in my waters. I spent years trying black and blue, junebug, green pumpkin, watermelon seed, watermelon red flake, white.... Resulted in either very few bass or no bass.

 

The only colors that work for me 

Black, not alot of people throw all black baits. This at one time was my #1 bass producer regardless of water clarity.

Strike Kings Okeechobee Craw, this would probably be my #1 color so soft plastics.

And then Magic Craw from Netbait, with a jig skirt with similar colors it just does very well.

 

Option 2 and 3 are very odd choices for me, they are still a green pumpkin with some sort of blue in them, but something about the colors mixed just changes the way the bass bite them, individually those colors couldnt catch a bass starving where i fish. These colors arent exactly the most unpopular, but they arent the most popular either. Havent really seen many people fishing anything in these colors locally too. 

"Pumpkin green flake" (Berkley)

"Grape Blue Flake - white" (Mr. Twister)

 

 

 

 

"Crawdaddy" (Strike King)

Quite similar to my waters. The traditional colors just didn't work.

 

One of my best producing swimbait was OSP Cosmos Black.

Is Green Pumpkin mainstream?

I think my two best colors in my faved Pit Boss are

Skeet's Chartreuse Shad

Green Haze

Last good color I think is mainstream

Senko (or equivalent) in Green Pumpkin w/Black Flake.

39 minutes ago, king fisher said:

Is Green Pumpkin mainstream?

I'd say yes.

17 minutes ago, RRocket said:

I'd say yes.

OK. so how about Junebug?

Solid Black

Plum

 

Purple Haze 

 

All Deep Creek Lures....

 

Zoom South Africa Special 

Blue.