Bright colors have been used for years on magazine covers and in advertising, fashion and home décor to catch our attention, and this same theory on garish hues can be applied to bass fishing. Bright colored lures are HUGE attention-getters.
Bright colored lures are used throughout the country to catch both largemouth and smallmouth bass.
One of the most popular garish colors is bright pink, which anglers frequently pick for craw worms, tube baits, Senkos and soft jerkbaits while sight fishing during the spawn. The bright color allows you to see the lure better on a bass’s nest and you can detect when the lure is completely in the fish’s mouth to prevent foul hooking a bass.
Floating worms in bright white, pink, yellow and methiolate also trigger plenty of strikes in the spring and fall. Whereas some anglers think bright colors only work in shallow-water situations, a Texas guide I know has used flashy hues to attract the attention of deep fish. He drags a Carolina-rigged methiolate colored trick worm 25 to 30 feet deep in late May and June was to catch big bass at Lake Fork.
Picking the right bright colored lures to use depends more on the type of water you are fishing rather than the time of year. A worm in a methiolate hue seems to work best in the tannic waters of East Texas, Louisiana and Florida, but the bright pink hue produces better in clearer water.
While largemouth seem to prefer garish colors during certain times of the year, smallmouth bass will attack a bright colored lure year round. Waking a chartreuse spinnerbait with double chartreuse blades across the surface of Northern waters has always been a popular way to catch smallmouth bass. Bright pink is another obnoxious color that tricks smallmouth bass in Northern waters. If a chartreuse spinnerbait fails to rigger strikes, tempt brown bass with a spinnerbait adorned with a pink skirt and pink blades.
Twitching a hot pink Fluke or other soft jerkbaits across the surface also produces smallmouth on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. The bright color allows the fish to see it from a long distance and will pull bass from 15 to 20 feet deep to the surface to attack the lure. Bright chartreuse crankbaits also work well for smallmouth throughout the country.
If bass ignore your natural-colored lures, look for the gaudiest bright colored lures in your tacklebox to catch their attention.
All credit for these awesome tips goes to Karl’s Bait and Tackle. https://shopkarls.com/blog/when-you-should-be-throwing-bright-colored-lures/
