The Colour Rule Of Thumb

[my03]

guys ive been hearing conflicting theories about which colour lures and sp's to ultilise when fishing different visability waters eg- some say bring colours for low visability, others say dark coloured to create sillouettes

so what exactly is the rule of thumb.

in particulur i am talking about the usual weapons of choise- hard bodies, bass minnows, gulp sand worms, atomic grubs, squidgies etc.

whats you take on this?

thanks

[FletcherG1991]

ive always been told dark day (overcast) dark lure, light day light lure

not sure about the clear water thing but i try and use a natural looking SP/HB in clear water and something abit brighter in dirty water

[Chef]

Everyone has a theory & it can be confusing but this is what we do.

Dark plastics for overcast days & light ones for sunny days, however, if this is not working to well we always try the reverse for two reasons.

1. matching the hatch at the time. Each day their food source can change so today may not work tomorrow.

2. Mother nature does not always play ball the way we want.

In most areas we have a favourite lure / sp that we always start the session with. Once you find yours it will tell you what to try next if it's not working on that day.

I start the session with 3" Pearl Watermelon minnow & or Camo worm. From there we re-colour the plastics with one of our kits, on the boat, to suit the food source they are feeding on at the time.

Hope it helps & does not confuse you more.

[The Iceman]

A bit of advice I recieved from the old master Vic McCristal way back when I was a kid sometime in the seventies is what ever colour the water is start with the same colour lure in a slightly darker shade

Hope this helps

[Flattieman]

I'd suggest reading Tim Simpson and Ron Calcutt's Book of Lures - there's 25 pages of information devoted to colours... awesome book - I'm into my second reading at the moment.

Flattieman.

[Bream Mad]

I am still working on my theory but some rules i will always use are:

1. Try to imagine what the conditions are in the area the plastic is being fished and choose a colour to suit. eg. deep water, mud bottom, low light = dark plastic or shallow water, sand bottom, sunny=light plastic with flash to use the sunlight to full effect, dirty or discoulored water=fluoro plastic.

2. Match the Hatch: try to match the general colour and size of the prey in the area you are fishing eg. if fishing shallow flats for lizards prey will be small whiting and bream, therefore use a small lightly coloured plastic and fish as the prey would move on the flats.

3. When fishing in full shade i can't see the value in using a light, flashy plastic, however a pearl watermelon BM does work in these situations so i guess you could deduce that shape and movement are much more important than colour alone.

cheers

BM

[my03]

thanks for the advice fellas, and one more question i know this has been discussed before, but whats the situation with using sp's at night? do they work? or is it only the gulp and glow in the dark types that work, what have been your personal expereinces with sp's at night

[Bream Mad]

SP's work at night the same way they work in the day. Gulps would probably be more effective because of their stronger sent. Fish use sent and movement much more at night to locate prey.

The only problem with this all this is we humans can't detect strikes because we can't see the line move, this means you have to feel for stikes and use a tight line, which trust me, decreases your hookup ratio.

So yes you will get the same number (if maybe a few more) strikes at night, but you won't convert these into hookups as often as you would during the day.

Cheers

BM