The Toolbox · Color Call
Clear, stained or muddy? Sun or clouds? Three colors to throw, and why, plus the lures from my tackle box that come in each.
Color Call needs JavaScript to make the call. The short version:
Clear water: natural colors like shad, green pumpkin and silver. Stained water: chartreuse and white, firetiger and gold. Muddy water: chartreuse or a solid black and blue.
Low light: go dark for the outline, and keep a glow or chartreuse lure as the bright backup.
How it picks your colors
- The water. Clear water gets natural colors like shad, green pumpkin and silver, because fish get a long look. Stained water gets chartreuse, two-tones and warm metal. Muddy water gets the brightest or the darkest you have.
- The light. Sun favors natural colors and flash. Clouds bring in gold, brighter colors and always one dark pick. At dawn, dusk and night you get a dark outline and a bright backup, so you can try both.
- Three different looks. The three colors come from different families, like a baitfish color, a metal and a bright one, so you have a real spread to work through. Red crawfish colors only show up in spring, when crawfish turn reddish.
- Your fish. Bass have the most color know-how behind them. For trout, salmon, pike and panfish it leans more on old rules of thumb, so treat those picks as a place to start.
- My tackle box. Under each color are lures from my own box that come in it. When none match exactly, you get the closest one I have, or a color to look for next time you’re at the tackle shop.
These are rules of thumb, not the only right answer. Fish your water, and adjust when the fish tell you to.
Throw five on it