Changing colors

[TomM]

I'd like to get an opinion on when you change lure colors when fishing
soft plastics. I have my favorite colors and if I don't get bit after
10 or 15 minutes, I tend to go to a different type of bait instead of
changing the color the type lure I'm throwing.

So, if you fishing your favorite plastic worm down a bank where you
know there's fish, how far do you go or how long do you go before you
changing the color of the worm? Should I be using the 10 - 15 minute
rule like I mentioned?

Thanks,
Tom

[UMFCHRFISH]

>I'd like to get an opinion on when you change lure colors when fishing
>soft plastics.

I'll change colors after working the soft plastic to a similiar color (dark
[black to blue], translucent [smoke to motoroil], bright [bubblegum to
yellow],) when I don't get any bites or if the fish are just nipping at the
bait. I also change crankbaits using the method.

Fishon Fishhard
Howie

[RichZ]

TomM wrote:
> I'd like to get an opinion on when you change lure colors when fishing
> soft plastics.
>

With traditional platics (eg, worms, grubs, craws, etc., -- anything that
is primarily fished slowly and along the bottom) almost never. I carry very
few colors to start with. I have a favorite or two from each style of bait
I use, and pretty much stick with them.

EG: Flat and paddle tail worms. Black Grape and black. I use the black in
tannic stained water and in absolutely gin clear water. All other times, I
use black grape. I suppose I could do away with the solid black, except I
don't like the way black grape looks in tannic water. I do carry them in
different styles though -- mostly based on the bulk of the body. (fat worms
vs skinny worms) in sizes from 4" to 10")

Swirl tail style worms. I think I might have some green pumpkin around here
somewhere. But I don't really use swirl or curl tail worms all that often.
I have one color that I really like, that's not available in any other
lure, so I use it in a curly tail. Blue Baboon is a rootbeer pepper with
some blue pearl mixed in to one side of it. I like the color, but use it
mostly for psyche effect on draw tournament partners, to get in their head
by catching fish on something they can't match.<G> I do still have a few
hundred old Mr. Twister phenoms with the little curly tail, and mix them in
with my flat tail worms so they will eventually get used. They are all
black grape anyway.

Grubs -- boot tail style (Mr. Twister Sassy Grub, Lunker City Grub. The
most underused and under appreciated lure style on the planet. Smoke and
some kind of green/brown. Aside from smoke, I guess my favorite is LC's
Rusty Melon. (watermelonseed with a touch of copper pearlesence mixed in --
it looks watermelon when you look through it, and brown when you look AT
it.) But I might find a bag or two of green pumpkin if I looked hard
enough. CURLY TAIL GRUBS, green pumpkin and green gourd (amber with green
and black flake)

Lizards -- When I do use them (rarely) I use black/chartreuse or
pumpkin/chartreuse. But I pretty much use creature baits or craws in lieu
of lizards. Oh, and I do have some black grape dingalizards, but I just
think of them as fat worms.

Creature baits -- Brush Hog, Water Widow, skirted double tails, etc. Green
pumpkin, pumpkinseed, pumpkinseed green flake. That's about it. GP most of
the time, the others on a whim every now and then.

Craws -- I've got a couple 'natural craw' colors that I really like --
(green pumpkin with a tan belly, and 'duble pumpkin' -- green pumpkin with
pumpkinseed claws.), plus I always carry craws in green gourd or
pumpkinseed green flake. Truth is, I consider craws and creature baits
kind of interchangeable. I adjust based on the bulk and size of what I'm
using. In off colored water, I want something that displaces a lot of
water, in clear water, I want the opposite.

Drop shot baits -- although these are basically 4" worms, I don't mix the
two. For standard DS, I use almost all lighter colors -- smoke or salt &
pepper styles with some colored pearl mixed in. Probably my favorite DS
color is Natural Pro Blue -- basically a really washed out, pearly version
of tequila sunrise. Light pearly blue/purple over light pearly pink/purple.
But I do DS green pumpkin worms some times, too. When I go with a heavy
tackle drop shot rig in heavy veggies, I am going with the same worm colors
I use when T-rigging.

As you can see from the above, I don't have a whole lot of leeway to change
colors. If the water color tells me to start with a black worm, I don't see
much need to change to black grape, and I don't have much in the way of
other choices. Ditto for grubs. I usually have a couple grub rods rigged,
and one is smoke, the other some kind of green/brown color.

All of the above is predicated on my first fishing tenet. In nature,
bottom/cover dwelling prey creatures blend in with their environment. I
want my lures to do the same.

Soft Jerkbaits (fish imitators) is a bit different. If it's a LM fishery, I
start with a baitfish color. Arkansas Shiner in clear water, golden shiner
in off colored water. But with smallies, I like to keep the bait in sight
at all times, because I find a catch a lot more fish when I see them
approaching it, and that's easier to do if you're look AT the bait instead
of looking FOR the bait. So if it's a smallmouth fishery, I start with a
high/viz color (chartreuse silk or white pearl) and will stick with that if
the fish will respond to it. If they won't then I'll switch to a more
natural color (eg, Arkansas Shiner or Alewife). For some reason, keeping
the bait in sight doesn't seem nearly as important with LM, so I go with a
better baitfish match right off the bat.

That's pretty much it, I believe.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

[Dan]

Like most other things in bass fishing, this is a judgement call.
For myself, the adjustment of color is way down the list of things I change.
Usually the first thing I do is change the speed of presentation, That is
the most important thing to watch. (as long as you ae fishing where the fish
are.) Only after I'm convinced that I am fishing where fish are and can't
find a speed or presentation that the fish want, then I start to adjust
color. Usually I change anywhere from 10-20 minutes. The first thing I do
though is try to find an imitator for what they are feeding on. A dark brown
is not nearly as effective as a salt & pepper when they are feeding on shad
for example.
2 days ago I was invited up to a friends private lake where the bass are
dumber than an ex wife. Spent an hour or so flipping and pitching a grape
gitzit and caught a few fish but really thought the bite was too slow.
Switched over to a brighter rootbeer green flake gitzit and killed them.
Best explaination I have is the grape looked like crawfish which they were
not looking for and the rootbeer green flake looked like sunfish that they
were feeding on.
Bottom line is that usually color is not the most important change you can
make. Don't worry about it too much and look for the important stuff,
(depth, speed, type of presentation) and you won't go far wrong.

Dan W.

"TomM" <bass....@verizon.nospam.net> wrote in message
news:mahufu46e486ca0m5...@4ax.com...

[Charlie B]

The colors I use are dark or light. Specific colors are un-important ( only to the fisherman). The fish don't seem to care much. Things that live on the bottom are dark (halgermites, leaches, crawfish,ect). Things thet swim (bait fish) are light in color. I use white or light Flukes, & dark jigs. If the bait store dosent have whatever color I'm looking for I get a similer color & I don't care much. There is no need to make fishing complicated. Young bass will eat everything that gets near them. If what they eat is not eddible they expel it. After a while they learn not to eat sticks & seeds or sunfish that are too large. Plastics are too much like the food the bass eat every day of their lives for them to learn not to eat it.  Bass fishing is not as  complicated as the industry would like you to believe. You dont need a gazillion different colors of plastic to catch a fish. Fishing is supposed to be fun , not empty your pocketbook.

---

in article mahufu46e486ca0m5...@4ax.com, TomM at bass....@verizon.nospam.net wrote on 6/6/02 7:25 AM:

[go-bassn]

I tend to think there's alot to this theory Charlie, although I do have my favorites based on past successes.  My choice for "light" color is watermellon/black flake, and my choice for "dark" color is junebug.

 

Warren

--
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"Charlie B" <boweriv...@uninets.net> wrote in message news:B92617C6.1A7B%boweriv...@uninets.net...

[go-bassn]

Hi Howie. I can't say for sure that bass ever just "nip" at a bait. I
think when we think that's happening that the culprit(s) are usually panfish
& the like, and possibly very small bass...

Warren

--
TriState Bassmasters Official Website:
http://tri-statebassmasters.com/
Mesa Tackle Supply Pro Team
Tournament Proven Pro Quality Hand Poured Soft Plastics!
http://www.fishingworld.com/MesaTackleSupply/
My B.A.S.S. Tournament Patch Page:
http://tri-statebassmasters.com/patches.htm

"UMFCHRFISH" <umfch...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020606084352...@mb-mb.aol.com...