If you've fished for any amount of time, you've probably heard someone
use phrases like, "You can use any color, as long as it's white." Â Or,
"If it ain't chartreuse, it ain't no use!" Â I know I've used expressions
like that from time to time.
For these expressions to be so widely used, there must be a great deal of truth to them.  Right?  Of course, they can't be true all the time.  Can they?  Or does color even  matter at all?  Is it just a confidence thing?
For
a long time now my favorite colors for fluke (and some other saltwater
fish) have been chartreuse, white and pink. Â I do try to match a color
to what I think will work best for the current conditions, e.g. stained
water, clear water, cloudy skies, rough water, etc. Â Having said that, I
admittedly, at times, use them somewhat randomly as well, e.g. "This
color looks cool! Â I think I'll try this one." Â
Does it matter?
Fishing
on the Irish Ayes the other day, we had a pretty hot fluke bite going.
And when the bite is hot that's the time to experiment. Â What I learned
that day is that color definitely matters (at least sometimes). Â Let me share my experience.
My rig was set up as follows:
A
white 3 oz. Spro bucktail with a white bucktail teaser hook placed
about 12" above the Spro. Â I also had a stinger hook attached to the
Spro (see Rigging the Bucktail Stinger: 101).
For
bait on the Spro I had two Chartreuse 4" Gulp! Swimming Mullets (one on
the main hook and one on the stinger). Â On the teaser hook above I had a
Pearl White 4" Gulp! Swimming Mullet.
Using the rig like this, every
bite came on the Spro or the stinger attached to the Spro. Â After a
while I swapped out the white Gulp! on the teaser with a natural color
3" Gulp! Shrimp. Â Still, every bite was on the Spro or the stinger.
I
then replaced the natural shrimp on the teaser with a small piece of
Pink Gulp! Cut Bait (which I cut into a pennant shape). Â After doing
that every bite I had came on the teaser. Â The fish were now
totally ignoring the Spro in favor of the teaser despite the fact that I
still had two pieces of chartreuse hanging off of it, which they were
tearing up just moments ago!
I fished like that a little longer -
replacing the pink bait on the teaser with another pink piece as I lost
them. Â Then I replaced the chartreuse Swimming Mullets on the Spro and
put a Pink 5" Gulp! Jerk Shad on it and added another short pink pennant
shaped strip to the stinger. Â Immediately the Spro started to get bit
again. Â With pink on top and bottom I never knew which one would get hit
next (but they both did).
As I noted above, being in the middle
of a hot bite is the best time to experiment. Â So, I decided to remove
my pink bait on the teaser (which at this point was any piece of pink
Gulp! I had) and I put the natural color shrimp back on. Â Once again, I
could not get a single bite on that hook, while the Spro continued to
get devoured. Â
Based on this experience I could only draw one
conclusion - color matters! Â And, at least on that day, the colored that
mattered most was pink, followed by chartreuse. Â The natural color and
pearl white baits were a bust.
I'm curious to hear your experiences and preferences as far as bait colors for fluke. Â Do you think it matters?
Oh, and "If you don't use pink, you better rethink!" Â I'm still working on that one.
See Comments and Discussion Here
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