Colors... how do you know which one to use?

[ronaultmtd]

You bring up another good point- change out weak trebles- why lure companies use inferior hooks, I don't know, but some do- I have a bunch of replacement XXX Mustad and Owner trebles- same as you, Dogfish, I put the red ones on- Rapala XRaps XR8 and XR10 have nasty, sharp hooks and they are strong, but the big XR14 has lousy hooks- changed them out with Owner trebles-

Putting too big trebles on lures can change the action- better to stick (pun intended) with factory size, but upgrade to triple strong Owner/Mustad premium hooks- I have caught some large fish on the XR8 size XRaps and never had any problem with the hooks- small, strong, super-sharp hooks are stickers- hard to get out of a fish after you get it in the cockpit-

[ictalurus]

One of the guys I went to school with at VIMS studied fish color perception. I'll have to see if I could dig up the articles, but there was a good thread about it on tidalfish. The studies generate curves of "visual activity" or "visual response" against wavelength (color). Chartreuse has the highest reactivity for striped bass and several other species. IIRC, red has low activity for stripers, which is funny given the prevalence of red/white lures, Shawn Kimbro's preference for red Spike-It, etc. The reactivity profile for specks is slightly different because they can see in the the UV spectrum, which makes sense give their preference for shallower water. Speck lures are often weird colors or color combinations. I'll see if I can find the articles and post them here.

I like firetiger because it has chartreuse, green, orange, and stripes--there's something there that's appealing under a variety of circumstances and conditions. I also like Tennessee shad (black back, silver sides, orange belly) for similar reasons.

Of course, what probably really matters is that the lures you have confidence in will spend more time in the water. You can't catch a fish with a lure that sits in the box. What kills me is when I'm fishing side by side with someone using the same lures, and they're out-catching me. Sometimes presentation can be as important or more so than color.

[BassMoore]

Theres colors that catch fish .. And theres colors that catch fishermen

[ronaultmtd]

In the last month, I have switched to chartreuse gulp almost exclusively- carry three packs with me every trip- 3 inch and 4 inch curly tails- 1/8 and 1/4 oz flat head jig heads on the gold Redfish magic spinner baits to make a giant beetle spin- it catches everything- speckled trout, redfish, stripers croakers and big white perch- I use the 1/4 oz on my Abu Revo's and the 1/8 oz on my UL Spinning reels- 1-3 feet of water was the secret Thursday- they were in very shallow water at the mouth of the creek on a fast moving outgoing tide- the shallower the better- the redfish were seemingly rooting in the sand and gravel with just enough water for them to swim in-

[dsiekman]

Theres colors that catch fish .. And theres colors that catch fishermen

I've found that I can be caught by many different colors and just about anything shiny.

[perchy]

I use natural colors in shallow water, and fluorescent/whites in deeper and murkier water. Chartreuse works well on fast moving lures because it's easy to see in all conditions.