Lure color and sunny or dark days

[bhl]

How many of you change out a spread of lures to match the sunlight of the day? I tend to mix some dark heads and light heads in the spring in my normal spread. I have caught fish on purple / black heads and purple shads but the catch didn't seem to correspond to sunny or cloudy. I caught 7 fish on a sunny afternoon in about 45 minutes 3 on white heads and shads and 4 on purple heads and shad. Lately it seems that light green and dark red catch well at the same time.
This summer it was all white 1 1/4 oz and 3/4 oz tandem bucktails with a white twister tail and it didn't matter if it was sunny or cloudy.
Just thought I would throw this out there because I'm bored stiff.

bhl (Bruce)

[5th Tuition]

Bruce, like you, I tend to throw out a mix of both white and green shads. As far as head color, I am all over the place. Two years ago, purple heads were hot. Last year, John Deere green heads were hot.
Again, I put out what I have as far as head color, and it's an eclectic mix to say the least. I don't pay as much attention to what head colors get hit, as I do to shad colors and length either behind the boat or off the boards. Don (Hunter) keeps a very detailed chart which includes head color on his catch. Perhaps he will chime in if he gets off the water in the Keys
Because I run so many lines (20 in the spring), I feel I have enough lures, and colors, to entice the stripers to react. If I only pulled 10 lines or fewer, it would be more important to "get the color right". To be perfectly honest, if I notice that green is the hot shad in the morning, I rarely change other lures, because white may be hot in the afternoon.

I will say, I like mixing a few lures with opposing colors (hair and shad DON'T match). A green hair parachute gets a white shad on several of my lures

So, if head color is a big deal, I have been lucky enough to have enough of the "right stuff" out there by accident I will be interested in what others have to say. I know Mike (garlien) will just say, "throw out a rattle trap of any color"
5th (Marty)

[Chessie27]

I run primarily all chartreuse or all white and tend to lean more toward the white. I will mix in a few other colors just to see what happens but it always seems to come back to green or white.

[5th Tuition]

Jeff, I think Bruce is primarily speaking of the color of the lure head, not the shad color.

So Jeff, are you saying most all your lures are white or green heads?

5th

[bhl]

Originally Posted by 5th Tuition

Jeff, I think Bruce is primarily speaking of the color of the lure head, not the shad color.

So Jeff, are you saying most all your lures are white or green heads?

5th

Actually, I'm more interested in seeing if the weather conditions (sunny day or cloudy day) influences your color of lure head or shad. Rule of thumb is light on sunny day dark on cloudy day. If you run spoons, rule is, use silver on sunny day and gold on cloudy day.
Marty, I agree on the John Deere Green. If I had 30 plus lures out last spring, the fish picked that color the most. Didn't matter if it was sunny or cloudy. It also produced deep on boat rods as well as 5-10 feet on board rods.

bhl (Bruce)

[5th Tuition]

Bruce; if we are going to throw shad color into the discussion, there is a lot to cover. On the Charter; I mainly stuck with white and chartruse. This is because these are tried and true colors. The last thing I wanted customers to say on the way home was, "Did you see they had some purple shads out in the spread? I knew we weren't going to catch anything on those lures."

Now that's not to say I didn't have some twotone green (green with a darker green back) or even some white shads with a blue back, but I didn't get "crazy".

During the PSCR season, or after we caught our limit of fish and we were just doing C/R, I had some "sparkle" shads recommended by Charlie Schneider (they were clear with mylar impregnated into the shad), and they caught fish as well.

I really can't say if fish are striking because the lure is in the proper "place" or if it's because of the shad color. In other words, if fish are shallow (catching off the boards), it doesn't matter what is on my deep umbrella's
Of course the opposite is also true, if fish are hitting my deeper boat rods, they don't seem to care what is on the boards

On my personal boat, I tend to have at least one "fun" lure out in the spread. Last year I was trying to poke fun at Mike (garlien) because he is such a Rattle Trap guy. I put a "Tomic" lure (the only thing I had onboard to mimic a rattle trap) on one of the umbrellas, and damn if it didn't catch a nice fish.

All of this is speculation. While fishing is supposed to be fun, we all have a tendancy to take it too seriously (especially when the bite is off).

Capt. Drew Payne, of the Worm, will be giving a seminar this Wed night at the Annapolis MSSA chapter. He is planning to speak for over an hour on all aspects of spring trolling I plan to attend and pick up a couple tips. I'm sure he will go over this in his presentation.

Why not have several CBA's attend, have a few beers, and see what Drew has to say? See you all Wed. night

5th (Marty)

[bhl]

I'll be in Jersey on Wednesday or I would be there.
It should be a great presentation.
24 days untill HOOK 'EM goes back in the slip, but who's counting.

bhl (Bruce)

[5th Tuition]

Don't worry Bruce, before you know it those damn red buds off the Maple trees will be dropping and then the "helicopter" seeds start landing all over the boat.

A daily "sweeping" will be needed to keep these from staining the gelcoat

5th (Marty)

[Chessie27]

I ain't too smart so I have generally stick with all the same color- heads, shads, and hair. I do mix in a few "cross-contaminated" ones just for grins and giggles. I know you are supposed to run one color if gray days and another if sunny but I always forget which is which. I think green is gray and white is bright but with 18-21 rods out, I get a decent representation of both out for each trip. I don't seem to have a problem NOT catching on any of them!
Actually, I did very well with some of the Spankin' Stripers last spring. I pull a bunch of his stuff and also a bunch from Shore Tackle.

I plan to attend tomorrow nights meeting. Usually I am out of town for all this stuff but since I happen to be here and Worm is the man, I am dragging my board man with me so count us in!! (Sorry Marty, I couldn't get Margaret to tag along and my board man is as ugly as I am! ). Sounds like it will be a very informative talk so I hope I can learn something but again, I ain't that smart!

See you there!!

[Skip]

Often the fish hit the " wrong " colors. When white is supposed to be best - they tear up the green glitter.

One crazy thing I've yet to figure. Some days the fish will hit white parachute with chartreuse shad but ignore the chartreuse parachute with white shad.

Same color combo - just in reverse.

Then - next trip , they hit the other one.

I have noticed a definite preference on incoming vs outgoing tides. Outgoing - I seem to do better with white. Incoming - the green glitter or blue / white do better.

If anyone ever really figures it all out - I give them credit. Fish change patterns every few years.

Old saying but rings true : Just when you think you got fish figured out .........................