These may or may not be mainstream to some people but the few colors that work for me that aren’t mentioned overly explicitly in forums all the time are:

smoke

dark cin

dark pumpkin

 

Sometimes less is more. Flake or color otherwise. But at the same time sometimes branching out and trying “off-the-wall” colors that could still pass as “natural” type colors to some degree is a good bet to show them something different as well. 

 

 

 

 

magic craw, really it’s just green pumpkin with a blue glimmer but it works great. I also really like summer craw. Both are probably decently mainstream to some degree thoug.

I can tell you one non-mainstream color that DOESN’T work for me…….. Bubblegum. 🤣 I’ve caught diddly squat on bubblegum colored flukes or senkos. Friends swear by the color & I can’t catch jack on it.
 

Merthiolate not much better. But I will get the occasional bite and fish on this color. 

Green Pumpkin/Chartreuse Laminate

Green Pumpkin/Junebug Laminate

Green Pumpkin/Smoke laminate.

Zoom Raspberry Shad.   It's killer

3 non mainstream colors that worked for me this past season;

 brown bait

 watermelon spice

 liver.

Houdini, Baby Bass-watermelon/white laminate & Green Pumpkin/Purple. 

 

Pumpkinseed in clearer water. Culprit Pumpkinseed translucent is one of my favorites. Also like the Kalins grubs in Pumpkinseed. 

I caught hundreds of bass in 2024 with different soft plastic baits in chartreuse and white. 

Purple, although I can't see the red in it, is one. A black grape, fire tail worm has caught me hundreds of LM over the years and was the predominate soft plastic of my success in tournaments.

Second, and I don't know if you all consider it one, is black. This is my fav for punching and night fishing.

Last is a chartruse/red flake. Next to a GP tube, I won't go smallmouth fishing without them.

Big Texan

Roadkill 

Tomato

 

Grape, junebug,redbug,Calif 420, and watermelon red make 70 percent of the time.

Lime green worms have been as good as any color for me. When I find a  pack, it usually just last one day.

 

 Dark brown tubes are special. About the color of cola. I'll usually run a chartreuse marker down the length on one side making it a two tone cola/turquoise. Really good for smallmouths and largemouths.

Tequilla...Culprit color.....Bass Assasin...Native Shiner....another Culprit color...Blue Ice...

bubble gum pink.....especially for spawning bass. and on drop shots in stained water. No idea why it works. I am not even sure what color the bass think it is. I started using the color because it was easy for ME to see.

 

#1 summer craw which, I believe is watermelon or GP on top and chartreuse  on the bottom of the bait.  Michigan bass will hammer summer craw from 55 degrees to 80 degrees water. I usually use it with a googan Bandito bug.  However, I have used it with other MFG's creature baits and stick baits. 

 

#2 Yum's GB Hayes which, is smoke clear and purple flake.  Absolutely a killer in gin clear water where visibility could be 20ft+.  Yum has started to offer it in other plastics but, I found out about it from the Yum Spine Craw. 

 

#3  Yum's watermelon pearl laminate.  Favorite bait to use with is the 6 inch yum dinger T-rigged. It does work well as a lizard and other creature bait color as well. 

 

#4 GP and blue flake.  the farther you get into summer and the farther north you go in the state.  Craw fish will take on a blue hue to them.  Especially in clear Northern Michigan lakes 

Give me purple, orange or chartreuse. 

I wonder constantly is it the color or your confidence in it?

8 hours ago, CDMTJager said:

I wonder constantly is it the color or your confidence in it?

 

The latter.

Hard Candy and Fire Craw from Rage Tail are great. 
 

Green tomato is a spinnerbait skirt color from Strike King and its accounted for more bass than probably any other single color or pattern for me the last decade. 
 

Siebert Outdoors colors Bama Craw and Bluegill are two of my favorites as well. 

On 1/27/2025 at 2:01 AM, Mbirdsley said:

#2 Yum's GB Hayes which, is smoke clear and purple flake.  Absolutely a killer in gin clear water where visibility could be 20ft+.  Yum has started to offer it in other plastics but, I found out about it from the Yum Spine Craw. 

 

 

 

I was going to suggest something similar which is a yamamoto color- smoke with black and purple flake. I was skeptical at first, but it looks killer in clear water.  Though, it looks like the 4.5" standard Ika might be discontinued. 

 

@TOXIC- Is the standard Ika dropped from the lineup?  I can't find it anywhere now.

 

I’ll check…..

In soft plastics, SK's Falcon Craw color. When they are eating craws they can get keyed in really hard on some red in the bait. I really like the two tone GP/red on these. 

In moving baits, red/black keitechs. Shallow. Same reason as above.

In hard baits, black. For gill eaters. 

 

Each of these have had enough outstanding results in the right situation that I'm past the 'it is just confidence' conclusion.

I think colors can be location and bait specific. Some days, color makes all the difference and the next it doesn't seem to matter much.

 

For Senkos, I've tried over a dozen colors. The hands-down winner for me is Emerald/blue flake (junebug) followed by the GP/watermelon laminate, and just GP.

 

For other T-rig plastics... watermelon black flake, watermelon/red flake, GP, junebug, and maybe plum.

 

Shad colors have worked well with flukes and swim baits.

 

Colors that seem to be consistently horrible...White, black, black/blue, and watermelon gold flake.

Motor oil use to be mainstream but not anymore. Same with Manns blueberry. 

On 10/18/2024 at 2:53 PM, Mike L said:

Okeechobee color 

 Now you done went and done it… you gave out the secret color of the south..haha.
That is one color that works here on St John’s for me.