so many colors....how do you choose?

 When I was learning about bass fishing I remember being overwhelmed by all the available lure colors: Citruse, Lavendar Shad, Sour Grape, Texas Craw, Spring Craw, Gold Dust, Colelsaw - Reaction Innovations has 47 colors in their Sweet Beaver bait alone! So how do you know which colors to buy? I will try to break it down for you by talking about the factors that determine color choices. the great thing is you can apply this method to any bait in your locker.

cracking the code on color selection 

the basics of color selection

As with anything related to bass fishing there are acceptions to the rule; Seasonal or regional colors, sky and weather conditions can influence your choices, but in the most basic form of color selection water clarity and available forage play the biggest role in choosing which colors to throw on a daily basis.

WATER CLARITY: This is the number one factor to consider when choosing your lure color. For the sake of discussion, dirty water will be visability, less than 18 inches, stained water - less than 3 feet, and clear water - 3 feet and deeper. As the water clarity decreases the more you want your lure to stand out. So if you are fishing dirty water you want to choose a bright or a high contrast color; Colors like chartruse, Red, or black are all good choices in dirty water. In contast, if you are fishing clear water, bass can see everything and see it quite well. In this situation I choose colors that match the available cover or the bottom. Colors that looks more natural like watermelon, green pumpkin, browns, baitfish or craw colors are all good choices for clear water. For stained water I throw the same colors that I would in dirty water.

AVAILABLE FORAGE: This is something that is easily overlooked and can really become a factor in clear water. Forage refers to the food sources that are available to the fish in any body of water. The key components here are much like "matching the hatch" in fly fishing; You want to pay attention to size, shape and color. As an example, if you are fishing a lake where the main forage is Gizzard Shad, a bait that looks like this would be a good choice. If the main forage is green crayfish choosing a bait that looks like this or this would be a deadly choice. In dirty or stained water, matching the available forage is not as important as vibration signatures - but that is for another lens.
 
 

Putting it all together 

my top choices for bait colors

     The take-home concept here is, you need to have contrasting/ bright colors to help the fish see your lure from further away and under low visibility conditions like dirty and stained water. But you also need to have colors with a natural appearance to help disguise and camouflage the bait in clear water. Again, there are other factors that may influence your choices, but with that said, here is a list of the colors that I like to use. This is not a be-all-end-all list, but hopefully it will help you wade throught the myraid of available colors next time you are at the tackle store.
  • PLASTIC BAITS - tubes, skirts, worms, jig trailers, etc watermelon seed/red, green pumpkin, Bayou Craw, Cayuga Craw (sssshhhh...this one is awesome!), blue/black, junebug
  • CRANKBAITS - lipless and standard lipped baits chartruse/ blackback, ghost minnow, chrome, Tennessee shad, firetiger, rootbeer
  • SPINNERBAITS: white, citrus shad, any bluegill or sunfish color, Tennessee shad
  • JERKBAITS: ghost minnow, chrome/blackback, chartruse/blueback, white, aurora pro blue
  • TOPWATERS: chartruse shad, ghost minnow, firetiger, black, pearl ayu, clear/glitter (yep....clear - don't spread the word.)
  • JIGS: watermelon, black, brown, junebug