1 hour ago, WRB-2.0 said:

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.

I use an LED flashlight for the same purpose.  The light mimics natural sunlight better than other artificial lighting, and gives me a better idea of not only what the colors ‘look’ like but also what colors are actually present.   I have taken what appeared to be white skirted spinnerbaits from a stores rack, only to see with my flashlight that there are actually some subtle chartreuse strands among the white.  And I’ve seen variations in oranges that to my naked eye looked like a jig with only shades of brown.  I think I sometimes make some sales clerks’ day when they see some old man looking at baits with a flashlight.

And before tying my own skirts,  I use my flashlight to check out my combinations of strands.  The difference between what they look like to the naked eye and what they look like under my LED flashlight can be pretty stark.

25 minutes ago, OldManLure said:

I use an LED flashlight for the same purpose.  The light mimics natural sunlight better than other artificial lighting, and gives me a better idea of not only what the colors ‘look’ like but also what colors are actually present.   I have taken what appeared to be white skirted spinnerbaits from a stores rack, only to see with my flashlight that there are actually some subtle chartreuse strands among the white.  And I’ve seen variations in oranges that to my naked eye looked like a jig with only shades of brown.  I think I sometimes make some sales clerks’ day when they see some old man looking at baits with a flashlight.

And before tying my own skirts,  I use my flashlight to check out my combinations of strands.  The difference between what they look like to the naked eye and what they look like under my LED flashlight can be pretty stark.

 

That’s not a bad thing to check, but just keep in mind that not all LEDs are created equal.  There are various ways to measure what the light output is, but CRI is a pretty basic way that most measure and report.  CRI = color rendering index.  It is a measure of how well a light replicates the color spectrum the way the sun would.  A lot of LEDs struggle to put enough red into the output beam.  Some overcompensate and miss out on another color in the spectrum.  So CRI is a 1-100 measurement meant to measure it.  Look for one that states ‘high CRI’ and has a number over 90 if you want to use it for color rendering/checking.

 

A very direct example that hit me was using LED lights to track deer that have been shot.  I have a hand held spotlight that is incredibly bright.  It will light up a deer across a field at 300 yards.  If I’m tracking a deer, it lights up the woods and it is great.  Except if you’re looking for blood.  It is not a high CRI LED and it struggles with reds.  If the blood trail is good then I can see the difference in grey tone between dark red blood and red/orange leaves, but the blood basically shows as a dark grey splotch.  I image that is similar to what a colorblind person sees.  If I am trailing on hands and knees looking for a spot here and there then it isn’t enough.  I have another light that is actually a diving videography light that is super high CRI and the colors just pop with it.  

I have seen times when bass fishing that color made a big difference, but I have never seen a time when subtle changes in color made much of a difference.  A couple of times I have had bass only hit a lure with red or orange on it.  The lure didn't have to be all red, but is sure had to have some red on it.

 

I have witnessed rainbow trout be so selective, that the difference in color would not be noticable by a person simply glancing at the bait.  

 

In Alaska before the salmon spawn the rainbow trout will hit almost anything as long as it is driftern close enough to them and in a natural drag free manner.  Everything from a minnow imitation to a large mouse pattern will get bit.  

 

Then the salmon spawn starts and they will only hit salmon egg patterns.  Float a mouse pattern over their head and they wont even take a look.  You would think imitating a salmon egg would be easy.  An orange piece of tightly tied yarn, or an orange plastic bead looks to my eyes exactly like a salmon egg.  A person can get  lucky and catch some grayling and char on such simple imitations, but in order to catch a big rainbow you would be wasting your time.                                                                                                   

When I first started fishing salmon egg patterns, I would put glue on my yarn tied flies, trying to make them appear more realistic.  I had heard about this deadly secret from a friend, and it worked ok but I was looking for something better.

 

The next be revolution in salmon egg patterns was the use of plastic beads.  It would take some time experimenting, but eventually I could find the right color of bead to  have a good day of fishing.

 

The real breakthrough came when someone figured out they could put a coat of pearl nail polish on a plain orange plastic bead and the rainbows would bite it even with a poor presentation.  The difference was night and day.  To this day I have never seen something make such a difference in any type of fishing.  If something like this ever hits the bass tournament world, it will be banned med season. The word spread faster than a wildfire on a windy day.  Within a week every bottle of nail polish in every store in Rural Alaska was bought up.  Workers in the stores must have wondered what every rough looking fishing guide was doing looking over every bottle of finger nail polish.  The color had to be just right, and the only way to tell for sure was for an experienced eye to actually see what the polish looked like out of the bottle.  Many times guides would simply have to buy a few colors because they weren't allowed to open the bottles.

 

At first a guide might be embarrassed and ask one of the girls at a lodge to pick up a couple bottles of polish, but after the full on rainbow bite developed, any guide worth fishing with didn't care in the least what anyone thought about him trying out fingernail polish in public.  A guide would walk out of the store with a different color on every fingernail, and may a couple colors on his toes.  We even had arguments over what brand  of a certain color was best,  Even the girls we had originally begged the bottles off of didn't know the names and difference like the guides did.  Many could explain the differences in between a clear pearl, or a cloudy pearl color with more descriptive words than a legendary artist could.

 

How the fish could tell the difference, or even care if they could, I do not know.  But I will tell you they could.  Throw an unpolished bead upstream of a big rainbow, and he might take a look but wouldn't bite it even if he had to move out of the away to keep from getting hit.  Cast a painted bead in, and the same fish would swim five feet to pick it up.  Even a painted bead with an ever so slight shade different color would not get a strike.

 

No a person can buy any one of 100 different colors of beads, designed for imitating salmon eggs.  The Bait Monkey loves taking craft beads costing next to nothing painting them and selling then in small packages at fly shops for big money.  They all have that pearl haze over orange the trout want, and no longer does a guide come to a lodge at the beginning of the year, with a small pack of clothes, and a suitcase full of nail polish.

 

I know there are many bass anglers that have their favorite green pumpkin soft plastic color, or maybe will only buy one brand of Junebug but I have never seen the  Bassmaster Classic won by a certain shade of green pumpkin, and the whole rest of the field get skunked because they didn't have access to the one and only shade of green pumpkin

 

I try and keep my color selection for bass fishing simple, and pray that I never  meet a bass that eats salmon eggs. 

CRI is definitely key.  It’s not information I always see provided.  Heck, I’m not even sure what the ratings are for the ones I use.  For tracking blood, though, I would have to know before buying.

3 hours ago, WRB-2.0 said:

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.

Wow, thank you very  much for sharing this. I'll have to find that book.

1 hour ago, OldManLure said:

I use an LED flashlight for the same purpose.  The light mimics natural sunlight better than other artificial lighting, and gives me a better idea of not only what the colors ‘look’ like but also what colors are actually present.   I have taken what appeared to be white skirted spinnerbaits from a stores rack, only to see with my flashlight that there are actually some subtle chartreuse strands among the white.  And I’ve seen variations in oranges that to my naked eye looked like a jig with only shades of brown.  I think I sometimes make some sales clerks’ day when they see some old man looking at baits with a flashlight.

And before tying my own skirts,  I use my flashlight to check out my combinations of strands.  The difference between what they look like to the naked eye and what they look like under my LED flashlight can be pretty stark.

Thank you for sharing this. I hadn't thought much about that.

1 hour ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

That’s not a bad thing to check, but just keep in mind that not all LEDs are created equal.  There are various ways to measure what the light output is, but CRI is a pretty basic way that most measure and report.  CRI = color rendering index.  It is a measure of how well a light replicates the color spectrum the way the sun would.  A lot of LEDs struggle to put enough red into the output beam.  Some overcompensate and miss out on another color in the spectrum.  So CRI is a 1-100 measurement meant to measure it.  Look for one that states ‘high CRI’ and has a number over 90 if you want to use it for color rendering/checking.

 

A very direct example that hit me was using LED lights to track deer that have been shot.  I have a hand held spotlight that is incredibly bright.  It will light up a deer across a field at 300 yards.  If I’m tracking a deer, it lights up the woods and it is great.  Except if you’re looking for blood.  It is not a high CRI LED and it struggles with reds.  If the blood trail is good then I can see the difference in grey tone between dark red blood and red/orange leaves, but the blood basically shows as a dark grey splotch.  I image that is similar to what a colorblind person sees.  If I am trailing on hands and knees looking for a spot here and there then it isn’t enough.  I have another light that is actually a diving videography light that is super high CRI and the colors just pop with it.  

Thank you for sharing this. I didn't know any of that. That explains why blood doesn't show up as well with some lights though.

1 hour ago, king fisher said:

I have seen times when bass fishing that color made a big difference, but I have never seen a time when subtle changes in color made much of a difference.  A couple of times I have had bass only hit a lure with red or orange on it.  The lure didn't have to be all red, but is sure had to have some red on it.

 

I have witnessed rainbow trout be so selective, that the difference in color would not be noticable by a person simply glancing at the bait.  

 

In Alaska before the salmon spawn the rainbow trout will hit almost anything as long as it is driftern close enough to them and in a natural drag free manner.  Everything from a minnow imitation to a large mouse pattern will get bit.  

 

Then the salmon spawn starts and they will only hit salmon egg patterns.  Float a mouse pattern over their head and they wont even take a look.  You would think imitating a salmon egg would be easy.  An orange piece of tightly tied yarn, or an orange plastic bead looks to my eyes exactly like a salmon egg.  A person can get  lucky and catch some grayling and char on such simple imitations, but in order to catch a big rainbow you would be wasting your time.                                                                                                   

When I first started fishing salmon egg patterns, I would put glue on my yarn tied flies, trying to make them appear more realistic.  I had heard about this deadly secret from a friend, and it worked ok but I was looking for something better.

 

The next be revolution in salmon egg patterns was the use of plastic beads.  It would take some time experimenting, but eventually I could find the right color of bead to  have a good day of fishing.

 

The real breakthrough came when someone figured out they could put a coat of pearl nail polish on a plain orange plastic bead and the rainbows would bite it even with a poor presentation.  The difference was night and day.  To this day I have never seen something make such a difference in any type of fishing.  If something like this ever hits the bass tournament world, it will be banned med season. The word spread faster than a wildfire on a windy day.  Within a week every bottle of nail polish in every store in Rural Alaska was bought up.  Workers in the stores must have wondered what every rough looking fishing guide was doing looking over every bottle of finger nail polish.  The color had to be just right, and the only way to tell for sure was for an experienced eye to actually see what the polish looked like out of the bottle.  Many times guides would simply have to buy a few colors because they weren't allowed to open the bottles.

 

At first a guide might be embarrassed and ask one of the girls at a lodge to pick up a couple bottles of polish, but after the full on rainbow bite developed, any guide worth fishing with didn't care in the least what anyone thought about him trying out fingernail polish in public.  A guide would walk out of the store with a different color on every fingernail, and may a couple colors on his toes.  We even had arguments over what brand  of a certain color was best,  Even the girls we had originally begged the bottles off of didn't know the names and difference like the guides did.  Many could explain the differences in between a clear pearl, or a cloudy pearl color with more descriptive words than a legendary artist could.

 

How the fish could tell the difference, or even care if they could, I do not know.  But I will tell you they could.  Throw an unpolished bead upstream of a big rainbow, and he might take a look but wouldn't bite it even if he had to move out of the away to keep from getting hit.  Cast a painted bead in, and the same fish would swim five feet to pick it up.  Even a painted bead with an ever so slight shade different color would not get a strike.

 

No a person can buy any one of 100 different colors of beads, designed for imitating salmon eggs.  The Bait Monkey loves taking craft beads costing next to nothing painting them and selling then in small packages at fly shops for big money.  They all have that pearl haze over orange the trout want, and no longer does a guide come to a lodge at the beginning of the year, with a small pack of clothes, and a suitcase full of nail polish.

 

I know there are many bass anglers that have their favorite green pumpkin soft plastic color, or maybe will only buy one brand of Junebug but I have never seen the  Bassmaster Classic won by a certain shade of green pumpkin, and the whole rest of the field get skunked because they didn't have access to the one and only shade of green pumpkin

 

I try and keep my color selection for bass fishing simple, and pray that I never  meet a bass that eats salmon eggs. 

Thank you for sharing that. I know nothing about trout fishing, so, this was all news to me.

 

I have heard that certain times an orange blade on a spinnerbait is fire, and that it's kind of a kept secret. I don't know when the right time to throw one is though.

1 hour ago, Bazoo said:

I have heard that certain times an orange blade on a spinnerbait is fire, and that it's kind of a kept secret. I don't know when the right time to throw one is though.

The orange blade is mainly tied to ambient light - really overcast days and nights without much moonlight. The REAL deal though is a blue Colorado blade at night.

18 minutes ago, ElGuapo928 said:

The orange blade is mainly tied to ambient light - really overcast days and nights without much moonlight. The REAL deal though is a blue Colorado blade at night.

Yep, I have heard of that too! I haven't tried it yet though.

13 minutes ago, Bazoo said:

Yep, I have heard of that too! I haven't tried it yet though.

Back in the 90’s, either Strike King or Stanley (don’t remember which) had a blade with what looked like an anodized blue coating on it - they were absolutely amazing for nights and just before dawn. 

@king fisher That’s called “mottling”, as I’m sure you know. Bead fishing steelhead has went crazy in Michigan(Great Lakes period) and the fish are getting conditioned because people are so limited and bead-dependent ; it’s all they run.
 

There are literally people who only use a centerpin and beads under a bobber; that’s it. Never any other tactic, method or bait. Always a bobber/bead, all the time, all season. Bobber+beads=boring to me lol! It’s gotten to the point I find it embarrassing to have a bead even tied on. I can’t state enough how against fads I am, but I’ll let myself take a shut out of it means I’m not like everybody else I see walking around with the “hot bait”

This past weekend I was using a green pumpkin bladed jig and didn't get it. I saw a whole bunch of bait popping and wasn't getting bit. Did a quick color change to an all white and hammered around 30 bass later. I think my situation was more of a match the hatch type. lol either way changing the color did help me. 

On 8/29/2025 at 4:16 PM, scaleface said:

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 .

 

I've seen many pros say the same thing, and they fish for their livelihood.

I'd think light vs dark can certainly make a difference, but have always thought all the multitude of colors was designed to catch fishmen more than fish.  I'll switch up colors till I catch something then keep fishing it.  In mind that's "hot color" for day, but I know a dozen different close to the same shade colors would have probably done just as well.

Slight variations do make a difference in my experience.

Couldn't tell you how many times I said to myself " I finally found the color they want " .

Then there's the placibo effect :

Make a slight color change and cast directly into the area of a hungry fish and think you solved the puzzle. 

 

Finally, I believe we can overthink and complicate things especially with reaction baits where the fish don't have time to examine the bait.

 

Water clarity and staining are a huge factor that adds to the confusion along with ambient light.

My changes that ever really mean anything are glitter/no glitter in a soft plastic (usually gold fleck in GP or silver in pearl/white) and/or a chartreuse or other contrasting tail. Hitting sparkle usually is appropriate for when I think they’re feeding on baitfish/shad; no sparkle is crawfish/lizards/frogs/terrestrials. I didn't mostly make this up but it’s always made sense to me.

YMMV and FAFO

On 9/4/2025 at 10:15 PM, Bird said:

Slight variations do make a difference in my experience.

Couldn't tell you how many times I said to myself " I finally found the color they want " .

Then there's the placibo effect :

Make a slight color change and cast directly into the area of a hungry fish and think you solved the puzzle. 

 

Finally, I believe we can overthink and complicate things especially with reaction baits where the fish don't have time to examine the bait.

 

So there are baits designed to deprive a fish the chance to examine it?

2 hours ago, OldManLure said:

So there are baits designed to deprive a fish the chance to examine it?

Yes.

On many occasions I've had bass hit a bait as soon as it landed and made a splash.

No way they knew what they were about to eat. 😁

Buzz bait is a prime example.

12 minutes ago, Bird said:

Yes.

On many occasions I've had bass hit a bait as soon as it landed and made a splash.

No way they knew what they were about to eat. 😁

Buzz bait is a prime example.

I once had a river smallmouth track my lure as it was flying through the air. It was a weightless grub that I was buzzing on the surface. I watched a wake follow the lure and hit it as soon as it touched down.

19 minutes ago, Bird said:

Yes.

On many occasions I've had bass hit a bait as soon as it landed and made a splash.

No way they knew what they were about to eat. 😁

Buzz bait is a prime example.

You witnessed either an example of a hungry bass’s incredibly fast response to movement, and/or its ability to detect the movement in the air and position itself.

I have caught both largemouth and smallmouth that intercepted a lure inches above the water’s surface.  The fish weren’t surprised or caught off guard.  They were feeding, and particularly good at it.

9 hours ago, VolFan said:

My changes that ever really mean anything are glitter/no glitter in a soft plastic (usually gold fleck in GP or silver in pearl/white) and/or a chartreuse or other contrasting tail. Hitting sparkle usually is appropriate for when I think they’re feeding on baitfish/shad; no sparkle is crawfish/lizards/frogs/terrestrials. I didn't mostly make this up but it’s always made sense to me.

YMMV and FAFO

That’s interesting. It’s similar to what I posted earlier in the thread that one day I was using a green pumpkin red flake sweet beaver catching tons of fish. When I ran out, I switched to the same bait in green pumpkin black flake and didn’t catch anything else. 
 

Seems like the red flake mattered that day. Why? No idea.

Ones I have noticed so far, most of which have been mentioned:

 

1) sometimes the presence of orange or red in a bait makes a difference

2) flake/no flake can be important, and whether or not it is sunny doesn't correspond. I've seen shiny flake absolute turn fish off, and on. No data on black/muted flake.

3) blade color on spinnerbait/bladed jig can matter a lot

4) chart dipped tail (or chin, depending on the bait) 

 

Each of these have made the difference between "where are the fish" and "get the net" more than once, and across multiple lakes in Texas.