I really enjoy after-dark fishing.  I think dark baits work better, but that's because I am informed to use them.  Any night fishers out there care to elaborate why this seems to work or does it matter?  One would think flashier baits would be more productive?

As far as plastics go it don't make a difference to me.I fish some pretty nasty looking water sometimes and can catch them on translucent watermelon to smoke to black or brown.I believe it has more to do with the vibration signature of the lure. I tend to throw my "junk" colors at night and catch them just the same.

I usually use black buzzbaits, and spinnerbaits, black senkos or powerworms. I have also use white at night, I caught my largest bass ever at night using a white War Eagle. Top water plugs work for me too.

Thx, I am going to try some of the pink single tail grubs my wife made me get.  I figured it was more action than color at night.  Hopefully I get something because of "the bet" hehe.  

Far as topwaters go I am straight black all the way at night.

The idea is that black lures throw a silhouette that is easy to see but with the absents of light most colors appear dark or black. When you have the light of the moon then colors can be more seen like white or chartreuse.

The eyes of a bass go through a night adaptation cycle beginning at twilight and are usually adapted for black, white, and all shades of gray within an hour after darkness. Bass can see color but not at night, color it's self is meaningless at night. Contrast is more important by far than color at night.

I have fished toledo bend for over 20 years at night, during this time I have fished a spinnerbait almost exclusively. I was always told to throw black and white by more people than I could ever remember, and have caught bass on both colors, but I am also a little rebelous and hate to copy anything everyone else is doing. Several years ago i tied on a zorro spinnerbait in pumpkin pepper and chartruse and have never changed, it seems to catch with or without the moon. My friends throw a black Mc Throb, side by side with me and always fall short. The only thing I have changed is I put the largest black pork frog you can find on the bait and have had far more hook ups, I believe they target the frog more than the bait. If you watch it swim the frog shows up as the bigger target in the water. I am not trying to go against the grain I am just trying to tell you to keep your mind open and dont be afraid to try something different, you just might find that one special bait , that secret bait that only you know about.

I always, ALWAYS, use black at night, if not black than something really, really dark. My favorite is a big black Colorado blade spinnerbait.

HAMMER23, exactly why I said color is meaningless at night

We have all heard that the color red is gone from the light spectrum after 10 feet and is perceived as dark gray. The color black is very popular when it comes to night fishing but why does adding red metal flake produce more bites than plain black (at least in my experience).

I another color I find highly productive at night is Junebug with blue craws (craw worm) or blue tail (worm); Junebug is purple with green metal flakes.

Ring Rascal Lures has a worm color called Starry Night; it is semi-dark smoke on top, clear see through smoke on the bottom with lots of silver glitter in the clear. Everyone says to use dark colors for night fishing so this goes against every thing you hear about night fishing and yet it is highly productive at night but no so much during day light hours. Why? Because of color contrast!

I have to agree with Catt. I think color contrast works better. I do quite a bit of night fishing and my best color for spinnerbaits is black & powder blue, or black & purple skirts with a blue pork frog. Likewise, my favorite color for a worm is black with a pearl blue tail.

After many years of messing around with colors at night I have come to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter what you use at night.  I think that profile and action are more important at night than color.