Question for all

Tom is on it with the word "contrast", but I'll add another element, "camoflauge". It's probably impossible to explain that fully with other than a theory. We're still a long way from figuring out bass behavior. When you look down into the water how easy is it to spot one shad that's not moving? Well, I've been studying baitfish for decades, and still can't see them suspended. Maybe it's my eyes, but until they swim an inch I don't see them. Out of the water, sure, I see the individual colors. But in the water they can adjust like a black bass can change it's colors to blend in. They do that to survive.

Our crankbaits can't blend in naturally. We have to choose a color scheme that works with high/low light conditions, water clarity, surface reflections, and color filtration with depth. Since they can't self adjust, crankbaits will remain much easier for a bass to spot. If too unnatural and easy, a wise bass might pass on it. If camoflauged and appearing to be hiding, it might appeal to a bass. If it were not for the keen senses of a bass, hearing, sensing vibrations, etc. as well as acute eyesight, it would starve. It depends on movement of its prey unless not hidden from sight.

IMHO black & white might have been too much for those water conditions. That might be best in darkly stained water.

The wild card here is "reaction" bites, though, sometimes making no sense at all. They might ignore everything tomorrow, biting only a bone white worm ???

Jim

Color can be deep topic related to fishing and specifically bass fishing. Loren Hill's research to develop the color C-Lector is not generally accepted by the science community. My personell beliefs on this subject vary and conflict with experiences. Some years ago there was a study project done to determine if bill fish could determine colors, there is lots of money behind bill fishing! The results were that bill fish are color blind as we know colors and all predator fish in general are color blind, as hard as that is to believe. What may be close to the truth is fish see the ultra violet color spectrum in lieu of mixes of primary colors like we see. Several years ago I was catching bass on the Colorado river lakes using a dark red with purple blood line vain worm, then they stopped biting the worm. The bass would bite the original hand pored lot and not the new batch. the only difference was the dark red dye had been changed by the manufacturer. I contacted the mfr and asked if they had any of the original dye lot, the had some at a distributor and I bought it. The dark red worms came back to life and I was back into catching bass again on that worm. A similar thing happened to he Lew Eppinger company with their red and white striped spoons. Eppinger's paint supplier changed dye suppliers and the red / white spoon sales dropped off dramatically, until Eppinger discovered the problem. The human eye apparently sees colors differently than fish. Maybe someday we will know what they see, but until then we need to keep an open mind on the color subject.

A classic experiment exists that proved color does come into play for bass, but they didn't rule out transparency/translucency/opaqueness. Several colors of lines were baited with live bait. it was noted bass followed the line down to the bait. Wella, they do see line, but that didn't deter them. Some lines were then left baitless until only one color line held bait. Then when all lines were put out with that one color line baited, the bass would only follow that line down. Some colors were better than others in regards to how quickly a bass learned which line held bait.

I've had bass come up to the boat, then follow the line back down to the bait. Walleye will do that too. All that explained to me why as a teenager I caught all available species of fish on a ragged hand-me-down spool of braid probably made around 1955. It had to be hung out between trees to dry to prevent mildewing. Thick as yarn and darker colored than any you'll find today.

Any color will look different under water and certainly comparing full sun to cloudy sky conditions. Most colors mellow out, sort of "cream up", blur, or become otherwise more natural, blending in. We see a lure diving and apparently not changing color, but that's because there's only a few feet of water involved. But to a fish 20 feet away from it the colors are dimmed considerably due to water filtration, refraction, and reduced reflection. Light gets scattered in water. When diving the first and most lasting impression I had was the drab colored world there. It was like a scene you might expect off a printer having only shades of black and green, and silver for the surface seen from below. All fish appeared to be nearly invisible until very close, all very close to the same color scheme until very close. You'd have to learn fish shapes very well to identify them 50 feet away. Out there you won't see a green with brown splotched fish saying its a bass. You examine fins and body shape compared to other fish. Down there the fins are all fluffed out, unlike a bass in your hands, fins folded down. A way different world. While there I was most interested in watching the fish instead of looking over a submerged town's remains. Bass drift slowly around or remain locked on a spot. Barely in view way off in the dim I once saw a school of probably baitfish. The instant I saw them the bass took off in their direction. Any color? No. Just what looked like a black swarm of bees. Since then I've seen baitfish down there diving, very close by, the only color being a bright silver wall of shad when they turned just right to let sunlight reflect off their scales. Until then they are individually "invisible", seeing only motion in mass. But out of the water they are white, chartreuse sided, black backed, and faint glimmers of other colors.

That's why I think the most important factor isn't color, but contrast before color, and motion. Does it swim like something the bass likes to eat? If something moves down there and a bass is looking that way, it will see the movement. It's kind of like hunting squirrels or deer. If you are still you patiently wait to see motion, then you study what moved. Animals do the same. A deer might be looking straight at you, but until you move in its view, or your scent drifts to it, you remain "unseen" though plainly in view, even wearing orange.

I believe various crankbait paints and worm colors simply reflect and refract colors that barely compete with the drabness down under. The colors simply help a bass see the motion, or pick out the contrast, like seeing a blue worm deadsticked on a black shale bottom. Any contrast at all shows up regardless of colors. It's easy to spot a silt covered tacklebox because of the way the shape is still there, something unnaturally square-sided, and too evenly surfaced. There will be litter all around the box. No rocks will be on it, but it'll be the same color as the bottom it sits on. In that case the contrast is shape and texture.

Well, we've all been out there only to find after loading up watermelon green with red flake was THE color that loaded several livewells. "Oh, WHY didn't we try that? Kick me." So the next day you return with 300 of those, and by day's end, fishless, you find out 5 guys limited out on the new color of the day, plum-apple with green flake.

Tom, you probably remember when Creme worms became the rage. Remember those plain Jane colors? They caught bass no matter how you rigged or fished them. Then came those fancy colors and the bite became less predictable. It became a chore finding those original basic colors, which Creme finally resumed making. I still rely on those a lot. It's easier to find a biting color in those than going through 30 combos of mixed colors like "plum-apple" and Junebug flakes. But from too many times of learning about a hot color at day's end, I carry probably a hundred varieties of colors, tail shapes, lengths, transparent, translucent, opaque, floating, salted to sink, scented, and even eyes with rotating pupils. The bait monkey put me in his cage. 

Jim

I thought only western bass fisherman were crazy enough to own every color combination worm ever made. Yes, the very first Creame worms were night crawler brown. Black, purple and brown worms ruled for the first decade or so, then 1970's Creame came out with the Scoundrel color plus, a brown that turned purple under water. Blood lines followed, then hand pored salt & pepper flakes, neon, etc. etc.
Aaron Martens may be the best worm fisherman on the tour and he is color blind! Aaron only fishes 3 colors; shad w/ translucent purple, Aaron's magic a green/blue/brown combo and People worms a cinnamon/blue-purple combo. Aaron can't see the flakes and could care less what they are. Maybe we should re evaluate what we are doing, although it would take all the fun out of looking for the flavor of the day. I agree with the contrast statement and is the reason my most product hair jig over a 30 year period has been a combination of black back, purple mid section and brown belly. Never have seen a crawdad that color, however those giant bass love it. All I need to do is determine through trial & error what color trailer to use; brown, purple or black...sound familiar?  like the original Creame worm colors.