I've heard that color doesn't make a lot of difference, either use darker, lighter, or standout. So whites/bones, blacks/blues, or chartreuse.

 

I've also heard, but to a lesser extent, that color is important and after you find what they are biting on any given day, you refine the color choices.

 

So... I tend to go be in the first group.

 

I have heard that adding chartreuse might be the stuff sometimes when they are turning down a regular bait, but is the obverse true? Does it ever hurt the bite?

 

I was throwing a trap the other day with a chartreuse stripe that was pretty close to the chrome black back. I wonder if they saw that and said... nope! Not with a chartreuse stripe.

 

Has anyone noticed a minor color change like this making a difference?

The color debate has gone on as long as I can remember and that is a long time!

Yellow is a color most bass anglers avoid thinking it’s a negative. Yet a hollow body frog with a yellow belly is popular.

I knew a local pro who would hold up bags of hand poured worms and only use the ones with fewer black flakes, we all march to a different drummer.

Color is important when it matters and it matters most of the time imo. If I don’t like the color it stays in the box, not on my line.

Tom

I believe the majority of the time color to the fish doesn’t matter. Only important to the fisherman. We tend to throw the color lure we have the most confidence in. The more we throw that color the more fish we catch. One fisherman might catch them on watermelon (confidence color) while another might catch them on green pumpkin (confidence color) the same lake the same day.

 

However sometimes bass want a certain color.

 

Buddy of mine was fishing with a Zoom Trick worm in California 420. I could not get a bit on whatever color I was using. He gave me a Cal420 worm and I started catching them. 

Not always, but sometimes a really subtle difference in color makes all the difference.
 

This is mainly in really clear water, but I‘ve seen days where the same color from a different vendor is enough to not get bit. 
 

 

1 hour ago, WRB-2.0 said:

The color debate has gone on as long as I can remember and that is a long time!

Yellow is a color most bass anglers avoid thinking it’s a negative.

I have caught hundreds over the years with that old yellow jitterbug! ‘Course I’ve thrown it thousands of times! 

2 hours ago, WRB-2.0 said:

Yellow is a color most bass anglers avoid thinking it’s a negative

This all started when Doug Hannan the bass Professor wrote in an article, that according to his studies bass are repelled by the color yellow.  I read the article, and quit fishing yellow lures.  My friend and I were fishing and he tied on a yellow spinnerbait.  I told him he was fishing a color that repelled bass.  He laughed and said I read to much.  He caught bass after bass on his yellow spinnerbait, while I caught nothing.  Then he switched to a yellow sonic and crushed them some more.  A yellow sonic was my favorite lure at the time, but I could not get myself to fish one after reading the article.  Even to this day when I'm buying chartreuse colored baits, I always but the ones with that have more lime green in them.  If they lean towards a  more yellow color I don't buy them.  At one time Most of the old time lures came in a yellow pattern and worked fine.  Bumble Bee patterns were the most popular in many bass lures.

 

I'm not saying I come even remotely close to having the experience or knowledge of the Bass Professor, but I would wager he did not do any kind of scientific study giving him any kind of evidence that yellow is not a good color for bass fishing.  I think someone asked him to write an article on color preference for bass, he happen to not like fishing with yellow lures so he used some writers prerogative to punch up the article a bit.  I guess he didn't know there was a 13 year old kid that would take every word he wrote as pure gospel.

 

My friend still fishes yellow lures and I don't.  He still catches bass on them, and I still tell him he should use another color.  

 

 

12 minutes ago, king fisher said:

This all started when Doug Hannan the bass Professor wrote in an article, that according to his studies bass are repelled by the color yellow.  I read the article, and quit fishing yellow lures.  My friend and I were fishing and he tied on a yellow spinnerbait.  I told him he was fishing a color that repelled bass.  He laughed and said I read to much.  He caught bass after bass on his yellow spinnerbait, while I caught nothing.  Then he switched to a yellow sonic and crushed them some more.  A yellow sonic was my favorite lure at the time, but I could not get myself to fish one after reading the article.  Even to this day when I'm buying chartreuse colored baits, I always but the ones with that have more lime green in them.  If they lean towards a  more yellow color I don't buy them.  At one time Most of the old time lures came in a yellow pattern and worked fine.  Bumble Bee patterns were the most popular in many bass lures.

 

I'm not saying I come even remotely close to having the experience or knowledge of the Bass Professor, but I would wager he did not do any kind of scientific study giving him any kind of evidence that yellow is not a good color for bass fishing.  I think someone asked him to write an article on color preference for bass, he happen to not like fishing with yellow lures so he used some writers prerogative to punch up the article a bit.  I guess he didn't know there was a 13 year old kid that would take every word he wrote as pure gospel.

 

My friend still fishes yellow lures and I don't.  He still catches bass on them, and I still tell him he should use another color.  

 

 

Thank you for sharing.

 

I've heard that a black jig with yellow frog was a killer secret weapon.

Speaking of yellow, a yellow buzzbait catches the snot out of bass.

 

I think color makes a difference.Lots of times  I've seen bass choke a lure of one color then barely get hooked on a different color.   If bass are barely being hooked I usually start switching colors .

9 minutes ago, Bazoo said:

I've heard that a black jig with yellow frog was a killer secret weapon.

 

Tommy Biffle has won a staggering amount of money throwing a black and yellow (not chartreuse) jig during the course of his career.

Eventually,  someone is going to remind us that research has shown that bass have a difficult time distinguishing between yellow and white. 😆

1 minute ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Eventually,  someone is going to remind us that research has shown that bass have a difficult time distinguishing between yellow and white. 😆

 

And interestingly, a study done in the late 1970s showed that significantly bigger largemouth bass (statistically) were captured in yellow gill nets compared against 9 other color options, including white. 

2 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

And interestingly, a study done in the late 1970s showed that significantly bigger largemouth bass (statistically) were captured in yellow gill nets compared against 9 other color options, including white. 

Interesting.  Do you recall their conclusions?  I can think of a few possibilities, but they would be simply guesses without knowing the study’s  design and methods.

17 minutes ago, OldManLure said:

Interesting.  Do you recall their conclusions?  I can think of a few possibilities, but they would be simply guesses without knowing the study’s  design and methods.

 

I'd have to try and dig up the original study. You can find it referenced in this more recent paper, which also took an interesting look at net captures of different species, and comparing things like mono vs braid-like nets, etc.

 

MN Net Study

 

1 hour ago, king fisher said:

This all started when Doug Hannan the bass Professor wrote in an article, that according to his studies bass are repelled by the color yellow.  I read the article, and quit fishing yellow lures.  My friend and I were fishing and he tied on a yellow spinnerbait.  I told him he was fishing a color that repelled bass.  He laughed and said I read to much.  He caught bass after bass on his yellow spinnerbait, while I caught nothing.  Then he switched to a yellow sonic and crushed them some more.  A yellow sonic was my favorite lure at the time, but I could not get myself to fish one after reading the article.  Even to this day when I'm buying chartreuse colored baits, I always but the ones with that have more lime green in them.  If they lean towards a  more yellow color I don't buy them.  At one time Most of the old time lures came in a yellow pattern and worked fine.  Bumble Bee patterns were the most popular in many bass lures.

 

I'm not saying I come even remotely close to having the experience or knowledge of the Bass Professor, but I would wager he did not do any kind of scientific study giving him any kind of evidence that yellow is not a good color for bass fishing.  I think someone asked him to write an article on color preference for bass, he happen to not like fishing with yellow lures so he used some writers prerogative to punch up the article a bit.  I guess he didn't know there was a 13 year old kid that would take every word he wrote as pure gospel.

 

My friend still fishes yellow lures and I don't.  He still catches bass on them, and I still tell him he should use another color.  

 

 

 

44 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

And interestingly, a study done in the late 1970s showed that significantly bigger largemouth bass (statistically) were captured in yellow gill nets compared against 9 other color options, including white. 

 

 

Y'all got me over here about to wacky rig a banana.

I had a time where a green pumpkin red flake beaver was getting bit left and right. So much so that I ran out. I switched to the same bait in green pumpkin black flake and didn’t catch another fish. 
 

Was it a coincidence? No idea. But it happened.
 

My opinion; sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesn’t.

And then there's the time my buddy and I were throwing the same exact lure, same color and size, he got skunked and I boated a dozen in the two hours we had left to fish.  

What I'm saying is that scenario can be compared to the same lure in different colors.  

I'll switch colors if I'm getting short strikes, or followers, but I'll adjust my retrieve before I do. It boils down to personal experience, confidence. 

On 8/29/2025 at 1:53 PM, Bazoo said:

I've heard that color doesn't make a lot of difference, either use darker, lighter, or standout. So whites/bones, blacks/blues, or chartreuse.

 

I've also heard, but to a lesser extent, that color is important and after you find what they are biting on any given day, you refine the color choices.

 

So... I tend to go be in the first group.

 

I have heard that adding chartreuse might be the stuff sometimes when they are turning down a regular bait, but is the obverse true? Does it ever hurt the bite?

 

I was throwing a trap the other day with a chartreuse stripe that was pretty close to the chrome black back. I wonder if they saw that and said... nope! Not with a chartreuse stripe.

 

Has anyone noticed a minor color change like this making a difference?

 

As others have noted above, it doesn't matter until it does.  I've had a few days where I could swap between different colors of the same plastic and they are all getting eaten equally (sometimes a lot of fish, sometimes picking one here and there on each).  I did that on a recent trip with a neko trick worm- it was a day you had to work at it but fish were eating.  Those are the days that I'll keep swapping around colors looking for one that they are hitting more than others.  I caught fish on GP, black grape, red shad, and black and blue so the fairly full gamut of the normal colors.  I should have chartreuse tipped one but didn't think of it.  This is the same lake that 2 years ago the bass wanted a ned rig and on that one day the color did matter.  It had to be GP with a chartreuse tip.  I had a 5" senko with a dipped tip that wore through so I cut it to a ned rig and it was lights out.  After the first half dozen bass the plastic was crumbling so I threw on a GP ned bait and they wouldn't touch it.  After a stubborn 15 minutes I tipped that bait and was back on fish in 2 casts.  IN that specific case, it was the early bluegill spawn and I think that yellow tipping was enough to turn them on.  So some days it doesn't matter and you should throw what you have confidence in- until the fish erode that confidence and force you to swap.

 

Mike Iaconelli did a youtube video 6-8 years ago about one of my local lakes.  It was early spring, cold prespawn conditions.  He was throwing a flatside crankbait and he gave his thoughts about color.  For him, if he was getting short strikes or if fish were coming to the boat just barely hooked he would swap colors a little because that indicated to him that they liked, but didn't love the lure.  As soon as he swapped that day the fish were choking the crankbait.  That was a good lesson to learn and has stuck with me.  

When making my bait selections there are a few physical characteristics I consider. 

All things being equal as far as running depth and speed or fall rate, I am looking at bait size, shape, profile, sound and finally color. I believe they all matter. I may be able to get bites with several different versions or color patterns of same bait.

However I never feel like that's the best choice. Because In my mind every bass is an individual creature, with it's own likes, dislikes and preferences. So just like not everyone liked a certain food, bass might be in the same boat.

When there is a wide open world class big brown bass bite on, I will fish what is working until it's not.  But you can bet I will not leave without going a little off script to see if Mrs Jumbo would prefer something a little different.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Seems a different or even no sound on hard baits does the trick far more than a color change.

Bottom line, does color matter ?

In my fishing, Yes. 

A-Jay

I will agree that I have found that minor changes in color typically don't make a huge difference, BUT,... I can also recall multiple instances where it did 

 

One example was we were in Northern Minnesota fishing a weedy bay for large mouth. We were catch a fair amount on various shades of green tubes and senkos. Around mid day, they just stopped. Couldn't catch a thing. For whatever reason, I took my Green Pumpkin Fizz tube and dipped the tail in chartreuse spike it. They immediately started hitting it hard and I caught a ton the next couple hours. Couldn't get my friend to try it and he caught nothing. Stubborn!

 

Another time I was hammering the small mouth during mayfly hatch on a clear Zara puppy. It was the only one I had in clear. Let my buddy try a pearl colored one I had and they wouldn't touch it. They wanted the more subtle clear one or nothing at all.

 

As others said... "It doesn't visually matter much until it does"

I’m in the camp of color isn’t everything, but it can be something. It’s likely multiple things for the reasons fish get color selective, but they certainly do. I’ve had little things just as the op’s title reads make a difference this season multiple times.
 

I had a nice largemouth flurry on a green craw bitsy bug with an orange double tail grub. It was sunny, wind blown and a brownish murky stain. As soon as I put an orange grub on, I started getting hit. It was a quick flurry, but was worth the little change. 
 

I also recently had a smallie trip where a subtle change again quickly changed my fortunes and on this trip, it triggered bigger bass. I was running a green craw bitsy with a 3” gp senko and not much happening on that. It started clouding up and before abandoning a jig, I put a pumpkin-green flake bitsy on with a 3” gp chigger craw and hooked a 17” bass on my first throw back in. I ended up landing 19”, 19”, 19.25” and a 20.25” on that switch. So don’t obsess over color, but don’t be ignorant of it either 

In the crankbaits world the colors are endless and patterns are endless.   
Having confidence in a pattern can be felt before you even fish it or might become a confidence bait after you fish and catch bass with it. 
Shape of your bait to me may be more important than color. I like fishing crankbaits, a big bart of my fishing. I’ve had many of times that I start out with a favorite DT, no takers. On to a SK flat side with no results. Start fishing a Shad Rap style and putting fish in the boat. I believe shape and action my have been the leading factor to get a reaction. 

Bill Murphy* talks about colors and bass lures. My favorite was Bill’s experiment using 10 deep diving crank baits same model and brand. Bill was a dental tech vast knowledge of color tones and he painted each lure white using 10 different suppliers of the same shade of white paint. Bill trolled each lure and recorded his catch results. 3 of the where lures caught bass, the others didn’t. Bill then trolled the 3 that caught bass and recorded the 1 that caught the most same lakes and time. Bill then painted the other 7 lures the successful white by the same supplier. All 7 caught bass about the same ratio as the success lures that caught the most.

Bill looked at the white painted lures under both ultra violet and infrared light and determines the one suppliers white look very different color that stood out from the other suppliers. White is white but to bass it can look different.

Tom

* In Pursuit of Giant Bass.

10 hours ago, JonB2 said:

I’m in the camp of color isn’t everything, but it can be something. It’s likely multiple things for the reasons fish get color selective, but they certainly do. I’ve had little things just as the op’s title reads make a difference this season multiple times.
 

I had a nice largemouth flurry on a green craw bitsy bug with an orange double tail grub. It was sunny, wind blown and a brownish murky stain. As soon as I put an orange grub on, I started getting hit. It was a quick flurry, but was worth the little change. 
 

I also recently had a smallie trip where a subtle change again quickly changed my fortunes and on this trip, it triggered bigger bass. I was running a green craw bitsy with a 3” gp senko and not much happening on that. It started clouding up and before abandoning a jig, I put a pumpkin-green flake bitsy on with a 3” gp chigger craw and hooked a 17” bass on my first throw back in. I ended up landing 19”, 19”, 19.25” and a 20.25” on that switch. So don’t obsess over color, but don’t be ignorant of it either 

I’m in no way dismissing the benefits of different colors, but those baits you used for smallmouth offer very different profiles/action.   A 3” senko looks very different than a 3” chigger craw.  I might be a little reluctant to attribute the better results to color.

@OldManLure You’re correct, but I just realized I had gotten ahead of myself and forgot a portion of information lol.
 

It should have read that I “tried a chigger craw first and got a 17” bass on my first cast”, then it slowed and clouded up…which is when I decided a quick jig color change was needed and the pumpkin-green flake took fire. Sometimes my mind gets ahead of my typing!

 

I have gotten a couple smallies on the jig/stickworm combo, but that’s been my confidence trailer in the weed-limited areas I can run a jig in recent weeks for largemouth 

 

👍🏼