Ok, I have figured out that Black/Blue is definitely the hot color in my home lake. My question is whether or not that is still a good choice for baits like Spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, small swimbaits for an A-rig and the minnows for a hover rig type bait. At my local stores these kind of baits are almost always centered around white, pearl and holographic colors. What do y’all think?  Also, there is no shad to speak of in my lake but there are lots of bluegill and crappie. Thanks y’all. 

I don’t put too much thought in choosing a color for those. 
Sure it can make a difference, but water temp and clarity, size, action and depth of any hard bait with the correct retrieval speed is more of a consideration for me putting together the whole picture to make a choice. 
 

Color is more of an issue for slow moving bottom contact plastics considering the water color and structure. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

Has anyone ever used colors like Black/Blue or Green Pumpkin for an A-rig?  Does it work?  My lake is very opaque. 

I have had good luck with black and blue spinnerbaits, bladed jigs, and crankbaits.

40 minutes ago, Mike L said:

I don’t put too much thought in choosing a color for those. 
Sure it can make a difference, but water temp and clarity, size, action and depth of any hard bait with the correct retrieval speed is more of a consideration for me putting together the whole picture to make a choice. 
 

Color is more of an issue for slow moving bottom contact plastics considering the water color and structure. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

Mike, thank you for replying. Your answer makes sense. In my case, I’m looking at purchasing baits I have never owned before. For example the A-rig I mention. Almost everyone on YouTube talks about shad colors. I’m wondering should I pay the money for the first time for that or should I stick with the colors I know work for my other baits like Black/blue. Of course I have considered not even trying some of these baits but I can’t stand it, I gotta know if they’ll work. 😁 Thank you again. 

Buy it all in every color.  You know you want too.

6 minutes ago, king fisher said:

Buy it all in every color.  You know you want too.

True story!  Haha 😆 

Buy and choose colors your have confidence in. I may be doing it wrong but I am very limited to the colors I throw. Yes I have a lot more colors but that is to take up space in my boxes. 

The only way you will really know is to try it.  Use two outfits, one with a white spinnerbait ( classic) and another outfit with a spinnerbait of your chosen color.  Cast them 100 times and switch to the other for 100 times.  At the end of the day you will know.  

Attributing success to color is usually false equivalence but confidence is king, so if I was you, I’d just throw a black and blue A-rig.  You won’t know til you try and nobody’s success or failure here can accurately predict exactly what will happen for you.

 

Most of catching fish on any bait is timing and location followed by depth and speed of retrieve followed by action and profile and then I put color in the final tier of importance for the most part.

5 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Attributing success to color is usually false equivalence but confidence is king, so if I was you, I’d just throw a black and blue A-rig.  You won’t know til you try and nobody’s success or failure here can accurately predict exactly what will happen for you.

 

Most of catching fish on any bait is timing and location followed by depth and speed of retrieve followed by action and profile and then I put color in the final tier of importance for the most part.

I can get with this.

However, the fallout out of the 'experimental stage' for me 

usually results in a few presentations that work consistently,

and then more of a percentage that do not.

Perhaps consider planning to make room for that later deal now.

You may need it.

Good Luck

A-Jay

When I first started fishing the pretty clear and pretty pressured waters here in NJ I thought for sure that natural colors were the only way I was going to get bit.  Clear/smoke/translucent skirts on moving baits, pale colors on soft baits, etc.  And then bass started eating all white or chartreuse and white spinnerbaits, black and blue everythings, and plenty of other things that you'd say aren't the right choice for super clear water.  BTW, they also eat the more subtle stuff too.  So if they like black and blue in your lake then fish it.

 

specific in this case- a A rig- the cost is in the rig and the jigheads.  Swapping plastics between black and blue and all white takes all of 2 minutes to rethread a couple plastics.  It doesn't hurt to try and if it doesn't work swap over.  

58 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

When I first started fishing the pretty clear and pretty pressured waters here in NJ I thought for sure that natural colors were the only way I was going to get bit.  Clear/smoke/translucent skirts on moving baits, pale colors on soft baits, etc.  And then bass started eating all white or chartreuse and white spinnerbaits, black and blue everythings, and plenty of other things that you'd say aren't the right choice for super clear water.  BTW, they also eat the more subtle stuff too.  So if they like black and blue in your lake then fish it.

 

specific in this case- a A rig- the cost is in the rig and the jigheads.  Swapping plastics between black and blue and all white takes all of 2 minutes to rethread a couple plastics.  It doesn't hurt to try and if ti doesn't work swap over.  

That’s a very good point. Thanks!

I think we give too much credit to fish sometimes.

 

A bass has a brain the size of a peanut.

 

A good example I can think of is Musky fishing (although I've never done it).

 

You can catch them right at the boat, doing figure 8's with 3/4 of your rod sticking in the water.

 

Fish ain't that smart sometimes.

 

 

Now, am I still anal about color selection?

 

 

 

9 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

chartreuse and white spinnerbaits

 

I catch a lot of bass with chartreuse and white too and there's nothing in the water that's chartreuse and white other than my lures. So, whereas matching the hatch is sometimes in play, it's not always in play.

 

4 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

A bass has a brain the size of a peanut.

 

Yes, but this position holds as much weight for me as a peanut because bass are ancient,  instinctive animals. Their genus goes back 26,000,000 years. The fine-tuning of their instinct is beyond our ken because we can't conceptualize 26,000,000 years. There is genius in their genus because of this unfathomable time span. 

 

I think about caribou calves when I consider the power of instinct. They can rise and run within minutes of being born. Minutes. It takes our species between, on average, between 18 and 24 months to learn how to run. And a sparrow can fly through a forest and not hit a branch. Our species have been here for 200,000 to 300,000 years and we still haven't invented a drone that can do that, much less birthed a pilot who can do that. Instinct is breathtakingly powerful, which is why bass best us so often. 

Size of brain, intelligence, and instinct are related, but are also very different.  A bass while having a small brain and not intelligent only needs to trust it's instincts to learn what is edible, how to hunt, catch what is edible, and what is dangerous.  A bass puts a rock in it's mouth and instinctively knows that it is not food, he doesn't know why, doesn't ponder on what the rock is made of, or if other animals eat them, but he knows not to try and eat any more rocks.  A shadow from a bird flying overhead instinctively indicates danger to the bass.  He doesn't' have the intelligence to determine what kind of bird, where it came from, or if it migrates or not, but he instinctively knows to dive deep, and find cover.

 

People have incredible instinctive ability, but don't solely rely on instinct.  A person who has never seen fire before will instinctively pull their hand away from an open flame before getting badly burned.  However a person's intelligence may kick in and overwhelm the instinctive response.  This person may look around and try and determine why the fire is hot, they may move their hand as close to the fire as possible to see if they get burned, they may even be stupid enough to get burned again. They may think of ways to utilize the heat of the fire, they will eventually find a way to make a fire.  All of this takes intelligence, but an animal with a much smaller brain, will only use the their instinct to stay the heck away from the fire.

 

People are so accustomed to using their intelligence, they forget that survival is primarily based on instinct.  Yes a bass has a small brain, and very little intelligence, but they don't  let intelligence get in the way of their instinct. They don't have to be smart to find, catch, and eat their prey, while at the same time avoiding danger.

 

They can't articulate why something doesn't look natural, and should be left alone, or even feared, but they instinctively know not to put it in their mouth.

 

Why they have evolved thousands of years of instinct to stay away from my lure, but crush my friends is something I have spent hours of superior intelligence contemplating.  My friend who relies much more on instinct just tells me I don't hold my mouth right and I need to wiggle my worm, with more rhythm.  Maybe intelligence is overrated for both the bass and the fisherman.

 

I doubt a bass with a pea size brain, ever gets skunked while fishing, but I often go home without catching dinner, and I have a larger brain.

 

I like black and blue moving baits, and so do bass.  The bass don't know why, and I don't care the reason, but I recommend throwing a black and blue crankbait, the next time your buddy ties on a shad colored one.

Black is a very natural color.  Blue I think ads contrast. Also blue gills have black and blue 

On 12/14/2025 at 4:50 PM, Boondocks Hunter said:

Ok, I have figured out that Black/Blue is definitely the hot color in my home lake. My question is whether or not that is still a good choice for baits like Spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, small swimbaits for an A-rig and the minnows for a hover rig type bait. At my local stores these kind of baits are almost always centered around white, pearl and holographic colors. What do y’all think?  Also, there is no shad to speak of in my lake but there are lots of bluegill and crappie. Thanks y’all. 

Lure mfr’s have your lake figured out too. The color black-blue is offered in a wide variety of lures types including crank baits, spinnerbaits, chatter baits, etc. Bluegill colors are also offered in every lure type….choices!

Tom

The two colors I always have on hand are "dark" and "light".

 

I have my favorite versions of each, but those preferences are entirely local and situational based on a highly rigorous and precise balance of critical factors such as: Forage; Stain; Clarity; Lighting; "What some guy told me"; "What I read on the internet";  and "What kinda looks good in the water to me right now." (in no particular order of importance) 

 

 

Dark and light color contrast works.

Tom

@king fisher said; They can't articulate why something doesn't look natural, and should be left alone, or even feared, but they instinctively know not to put it in their mouth.

Reminds me of a story:

You are hungry.

You walk into a room with a table.

On the table are 2 cheeseburgers.

One burger has a string running from it and over the edge of the table, the other does not.

Which burger will you pick up?

 

 

Call it conditioning call it learning call it instinct call it whatever you want - bass are much tougher to catch once they’ve been fished for a lot by a diversity of presentations.

 

This phenomenon is much less pronounced for other freshwater and saltwater game species which can easily be caught on the bait that just caught them as they swim away.

 

A bass doesn’t even need to be caught to become conditioned to your lure and your presentation.  It can determine its fakeness from a distance visually, it can determine its fakeness by observing its school mates biting or being caught, it can directly feel that it’s fake the hard way ~ biting - but once it determines your bait is fake - it might as well be a leaf floating on the surface to a largemouth bass.  Does that make it smart?  Hard to say - but it ain’t the size of the brain but the kinda neuromechanical magic that’s happening behind the curtain that keeps the lights on for these critters it would appear and it works just dandy.

1 hour ago, Lottabass said:

@king fisher said; They can't articulate why something doesn't look natural, and should be left alone, or even feared, but they instinctively know not to put it in their mouth.

Reminds me of a story:

You are hungry.

You walk into a room with a table.

On the table are 2 cheeseburgers.

One burger has a string running from it and over the edge of the table, the other does not.

Which burger will you pick up?

 

 

The point of the story has nothing to do with the color of your lure or line visibility, the point is DECISIONS.  Do bass have the ability to make decisions?  Humans make decisions based on a variety of things.  Can bass?

11 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

preferences are entirely local and situational

 

Agree. What works for me might fail you and vice-versa.

 

12 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

Humans make decisions based on a variety of things.  Can bass?

 

Sure. Most the guys at Bass Resource talk about how Whoppers Ploppers don't work for them. Many bass have learned to avoid them. 

21 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

The point of the story has nothing to do with the color of your lure or line visibility, the point is DECISIONS.  Do bass have the ability to make decisions?  Humans make decisions based on a variety of things.  Can bass?

Let's change the story to say your dog went into the room with the 2 cheeseburgers.  Would a dog choose the one without the string or would he nab the closest one first?