Throughout years of fishing most anglers develop their own favorite lure colors. They swear by their choice that it will outperform all the other colors. Just how important is lure color to landing that trophy bass? After all you’re going to be fishing underwater anyway, so how much could the it fish actually see?
Does Lure Color Matter Underwater?
Depending on how you look at it lure color doesn’t play as big of a role as most of us think, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. From a pure scientific perspective light doesn’t penetrate water the same way it does on the surface.
Water absorbs and blocks out different wavelengths of light.This means that the colors you perceive above water are going to be very different more than a few feet down. As you get farther down into the water the overall intensity and color of your lure will quickly dampen reducing the overall affect of color. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore color altogether.
You’ll notice that lighter colors like red, orange and yellow won’t work well once you get into deeper water. On sunny days brighter colors work well down to about 15 feet. When fishing deeper water found in the great lakes stick to your greens, blues and blacks which are visible deeper in the water.
Whenever I want to get down into the water I break out my Blue Rapala X-Rap Magnum Deep Diving Lure. The X-Rap is designed to get down in the water to depths of 30-40 ft. The blues and silvers really stand out at lower water depths.
How Fast is Color Lost?
As you go deeper through the water the impact color has quickly fades. However you’ll notice significant differences depending on the fishing environment. Subtle things you may have overlooked like whether or not the sun’s out, water clarity and the color of water itself will have a significant impact.
Honestly the only time you should worry about color is when fishing freshwater lakes. After you get past 20 to 30 feet of water there really isn’t any noticeable difference when using different colors. Light just simply can’t reach that far down into the water. Instead look at how you can differentiate your lure by varying contrasts and changing up the sound and presentation.
How the Weather Affects Lure Color Selection
Sunshine
Whether or not the sun’s out should have a huge impact on your lure selection. On sunny days you’re going to want to stick to colors that pop. Stick to your shiny gold and silver lures that will really reflect a lot of sunlight. The same lures that work on a sunny day could be almost invisible when the clouds come out.
On sunny days I would go with something like this yellow and black Strike King Square Bill Crankbait or the shallow Rebel Lures Wee Crawfish if your fishing the spawning beds. If it’s so hot that they’ve taken cover in the weed beds you might want to go with a Albino Booyah Pad Crasher with a few basic frog modifications.
Overcast Sky
On cloudy days UV light is going to be a lot stronger washing out your lighter lure colors. Not only will it wash out these colors the sun won’t penetrate as far down. Instead opt for fluorescent colors and your blues, greens and blacks that hold up in deep water.
This Hot Steel Rapala X-Rap Jerkbait will work extremely well on overcast days thanks to its fluorescent almost neon like color scheme. Run it somewhere between 3-8 feet of water on cloudy days using a subtle jerk-pause-jerk pattern.
Effect of Water Clarity
Just like sunlight water clarity will play significant role in your lure color selection. When the waters clear light will really penetrate deep down, but clear water isn’t likely in most American freshwater lakes. Instead you’ll likely have some variation of murky crud in the water. How you fish this will depend on how the water looks and a few other conditions like seasonality.
Murky Water
Water can get murky for a number of reasons, but most of the time it’s going to be caused by excess runoff after a storm. When rivers run off and Lakes they tend to kick up a lot of silt clay and debris’s causing a brownish red hue. When the water starts to look a bit murky stick to your darker colored lures,black works the best.
I’m a huge fan of Rapala’s Silver and Black Shallow Shad Rap when fishing brown murky water. The presentation is spectacular offering a realistic wounded minnow wobble. It’s perfect for fishing skinny water under 8 feet with a slight off hue.
Algae Stained
When there’s significant algae buildup you’ll notice the water starts to look a bit greenish. Algae is going to build up seasonally when the sun is at its brightest during the summer. When Algae starts to build up you’re going to want to use a two tone lure. Again try the Rapala Silver and Black Shallow Shad Rap or a black back Strike King Square Bill Crankbait.
Tannic Acid Buildup
It’s hard to describe tannic acid buildup,but you know it when you see it. The water starts to take on a nasty red brown color caused by the tannic acid leached from nearby pine trees. The Image below is a good example of a lake that has a ton of tannic acid in the water.
In this type of lake you’re going to want to use dark colored lures. Think of lures that are designed to look like bluegill and bream. In this situation I would bring out my Pradco Dark Brown Crawdad Square Bomber. Fished in a few feet of shallow water it will really tear things up.
