lure color

[kevinv]

I'd like to hear some input from other anglers on here about your opinions on lure color selection. Is one better that the other? On e type better than another?

Joined this discussion on another forum, and being a few moths till fishing season, I figured it was time to re-look at my tackle boxes, and maybe do a spring cleanup.

Also how do you set up you main tackle box?

do you setup by lure size, fish? type of tackle? Do use one box, or many?

Thank you.

[lape0019]

Different scenarios call for different colours but you can pretty much guarantee I will have something tied on that is white.

most of my hard baits are white, black or natural coloured to mimic forage. Plastics are a little different. It's either black/blue, black/red or green pumpkin for me. There are a few other colours I have but those are my main stays.

As for tackle boxes, I typically used Plano 3700 and set them up by type of lure or function. If I have too many for one box, then I will look at size.

I have one with walk the dog baits and various other topwater baits. I have another that houses all of my cranks from square bills to 20 foot divers. It really depends on how much gear you really have.

[Fishoholic]

Do you like to target a particular species or are you a multi species angler?

Personally I fish for trout (lakers, Brookies, splake, bows and Browns), walleye, bass, pike, Muskie.

I use Plano trays of various sizes and a back pack (any backpack that can fit 3-4 trays at least will do). Backpacks good cuz it has other pouches for pliers, scissors, terminal tackle, snacks etc.

I usually organize my trays based on what species I am going after that day/trip. Some lures are good for multiple species so I usually do a quick check through my trays before I go out to see if I wanna grab any lures from other trays. Having the trays already set up species specific makes its quicker for me to gather everything if I end up getting a window of opportunity to head out for a quick fish. It also makes it quicker for me to get everything organized if I'm heading out for a weekend of fishin in the bush or something.

For my Muskie tackle I made a box out of a milk create and plastic eavesdrop. Easy to pick out lures and they always dry nicely so my hooks don't get all rusty.

As for lure selection, I've got my tried and tested lures for each species. I try to have a few of each lure in different sizes. If I lose one I have a back up and if they don't seem to be hitting I can downsize or upsize. I always try to have some silver, white, and gold lures since they look a lot like most baitfish. Then I always have a few black lures (black stands out when looking up from underwater) and a few bright lures incase the water is really murky (orange is my favorite). These are all mixes of cranks, spinners, jigs, top waters etc etc.

[kevinv]

Sorry guys. I forgot to mention the fish I go for. I do muti species on some lakes, but most of the time I target bass and perch.

I target mostly bass, perch, panfish, and pickerel in our local area. Springtime sees us out for catfish if we can get out.

In the past I have also fished for Carp and pike. Two very different but fun fish.

[pickereye chaser]

My favourites: perch, firetiger/chartreuse and clown are my go to colours. I go brighter and darker in stained or dirty water and more natural/lighter colours in clearer water. If fishing really dirty water i like the lures that make a lot of noise (rattle or clack).

also, I find the shape, size and action of lure more important than the colour, for pickys/walleye, and the speed that its presented too i find makes a big difference.

Oh boy, organizing tackle...i haven't found a perfect system but I keep everything at home in trays by style of bait and then pull the ones i plan to use from them into 3 to 6 trays into my tackle bag, depending on where i am going/target species. This is something you're going to get a million answers for!

and same as fishaholic, I have doubles and triples of lures that i have had a lot of success with

[DropShot’r]

My senko-style baits now generally fall into two categories. Fish imitators and crayfish imitators. Smoke based and lighter watermelon colors with a bit of fine glitter make up the bulk of my minnow imitators and are fished wacky style. My crayfish colors are generally pumpkin copper/orange red and these baits are fished Neko style.

Creature baits are crayfish and sunfish imitators.

Gotta have a white spinnerbait. At times I prefer a bit of color with the white and seriously like War Eagle spinnerbaits in Coleslaw. Silver/silver & white/white blades. Chartreuse and gold/gold will get the attention of a St. Lawrence River pike.

Cranks & jerks tend to be those that mimic forage fish such as sunfish, perch & shad patterns. I also like a few chartreuse patterns as well. Never forget bass are cannibalistic and largemouth and smallmouth patterns work well. I really like the translucent painted ghost patterns as well, especially in clear waters.

Tackle storage. I do not have the cavernous storage our bass boat brethren have. I have two tackle bags for my two areas of use, slop and not slop.

All of my soft plastic stay in their bags and the bags are put into the Large BPS Extreme Finesse Binder Bags. I love these bags. I have one for each family of plastics I carry. The medium Finesse Binder Bag is used as a spinnerbait wallet. All my hard plastic, jigs & frogs go in either Plano 3771 or 3600 boxes. The one noted exception is my deep diver box which is a Plano 3700. I use various smaller Plano’s to keep D/S weights, flipping weights, worm weights & assorted terminal tackle in.

BPS Extreme Qualifier 360. This is my Slop Bag. This is a very well made and laid out tackle bag designed around the BPS 360 and Plano 3600 series boxes. I have two Plano 3600 boxes, two Large Finesse Binder Bags and a medium Finesse Binder Bag in the main compartment. The front and side compartments hold everything else I carry with ease.

BPS Extreme Qualifier 370. This is my Not Slop Bag. This is a a big, very well made and laid out bag, this one is designed around the BPS 370 and Plano 3700 series boxes. I have two (room for three) Plano 3771 boxes, three very well fed large Finesse Binder Bags and a Plano 3700 on top in the main compartment. The side and end compartments have ample room for the remainder of my stuff.

If you have any questions, don't be shy.

Good luck,
Drop

[kevinv]

Thank you everyone for some ideas and pointers. I now have a few ideas of how to do it. I am now also looking at the Plano boxes for quick trips to grab and run with.

I also got thinking the other day of an old friend I would fish with before he past on a few years ago. He would spend hour setting his small metal tackle box for the season. He had every thing sorted, boxed, tied or whatever he liked to keep it in order. And he mostly fished live bait with a hook and sinker. I still have his tackle box. It was still in perfect shape when he gave it to me. He believed that if it was sorted and in order, he would catch more, and spend less time fumbling around.

[FLOATFISHIN]

Hey Kevin, as lure lure colors, everyone has personal favorites. I have a few "Go to" baits and colors myself. When it comes to jerkbaits (Minnow style lures) White is a go to 85% of the time. Black and blue, or black and silver are mainstays also. Water clarity, weather will see brighter baits, fire tiger, orange in some way also. ALWAYS a white or combo of white bronze, silver for a spinner bait. That is a 100% staple I always throw, for pike, bass (In season) I've caught so many different species on a white spinner bait. For jigs, tubes, most flipping style baits is black and blue for me. Smoke with red fleck in a tube setting, also green with red fleck are my tops all around. Senko's "Red Shad" is my go to 95% of the time, but I do like to experiment with senko colors. Another lure always on hand, is a "Mann's 1-minus" I prefer a ghost, or bluegill pattern most of the time. That goes mainly the same for topwater I.E Spooks, chug bug's etc.

As per all of the great feed back I can only agree with a tackle bag of sort, with plano boxes with lure and or colors to each box . You can label them, and it's easy storage whether walking shoreline, or storage in a boat. I normally have 5-6 plano boxes in a soft tackle bag. Soft plastics, jigs, crank baits (Shallow and deep) stick baits (Minnow inmitations) Topwaters, and always an assortment of spinnerbaits.

I hope this helps, and as stated before, any more questions, feel free to ask!

F.F

[Tacklejunky66]

Kevin to add some xtra color or to make your own color you can use a product like J.J.Magic dipping dye on your soft plastics. Bottles comes in 4 colors (chartreuse,red,methylate and blue) and a clear one and the garlic scent in them is strong..and i mean strong...dont bring this stuff in the house or your wife will kill you, keep it in the garage. As an example if you dip the tail of a green pumpkin plastic worm in methylate it will become orange and it will last cos even the inside of the worm will become orange. No clue if anyone sells it in your area, i get mine from FISHNTECH in Lachute, Que.,bottles are around $9 each or a box of 5 (4 colors and a clear) for around $40.

[toobinator]

I carry spike-it at Paddletales, another lure dye brand.

[Bass Addict]

White......

[kingofbeasts]

I'd like to hear some input from other anglers on here about your opinions on lure color selection. Is one better that the other? On e type better than another?

Joined this discussion on another forum, and being a few moths till fishing season, I figured it was time to re-look at my tackle boxes, and maybe do a spring cleanup.

Also how do you set up you main tackle box?

do you setup by lure size, fish? type of tackle? Do use one box, or many?

Thank you.

I'll skip the color part of this discussion since I'm new on this waters and don't want to mislead somebody . I do have my preferences from my fishing years in Europe and from the other people replies I noticed that white and fire tiger are universal colors along with gold and silver when it comes to most predatory species of fish.
Setting up the tackle box really is a challenge for most anglers out there. I would say that really depends on some basic facts which one has to consider when packing:
1. Whether you fish from the bank or from a boat
2. If you fish to catch or you fish for fun
3. If you target mainly one species or multiple species
so on and so forth.
In what I am concerned, I started chasing predators with only one rod and a couple of spoons and spinners . Soon I got to the point where 2 duffel bags full with lures and gear and more than a dozen of rods. I was fishing from a boat at that time so carrying everything was just a matter of unloading the car and loading the boat. It was always a hard choice to pick the best rod and the best lure to fish with. In time,I've learned that quality should prevail over quantity so I sold most of that equipment to buy less ( even if more expensive ) and better suited to my needs. I got to the point where I had some favorite lures and patterns and just a handful of rods to fish them. They are "my universals" so to say and they became the core of my tackle box. Speaking of boxes , I don't like them anymore , most being dead weight in my backpack (I fish from the banks now) so when possible, I prefer zip-lock bags instead. I want to travel as light as possible so I only carry one double for my best lures and none for the "let's try" category. In the end, if fish are biting they will bite on something else as well not just on "the one and only". Besides , fishing is supposed to be fun not a life and death matter. Nowadays , I do find myself spending more time in taking pictures of the surroundings than choosing what tackle to fish with and I still manage to catch a few fish too. Most times, the story is better and the memory of it will last longer when you have to improvise than when you have the magic solution for the big one served on a plate.
I tend to spend more on "that new trip" than on "that new thing" so, this way, my life has more pleasure in it.
Keep in mind that , when you draw the line, our lures fooled us before fooling that big one that swims (and I don't like being fooled so often ).

[613wetline]

clear water go natural colors, stained or murky water go bright is usally a guidline.
and white is also a go-to for me.

[toobinator]

You know, I agree with all this discussion about lure colors, and have invested a lot of time and effort getting the most natural patterns for each body of water, than some damn fish comes along and eats a bubblegum senko and throws the whole theory out the window.

Ed

[stevenhennige]

I stick with the light dark routine. There was a study done on champlain a few years ago, where they poured a ton of custom colors and broke up the anglers into teams with only one colored senko, over a few days results were very even. team green pumkin didn't catch any more then team purple.