Lure Colours

[macca]

Thanks to fellow Ausfishers and some research from myself I know what sort of lures to buy to tackle Lake Awoonga.

So this is my question. :)

What are the best colours to use? Also are some suited better for daytime use as opposed to trolling at night? :-?

I am buying my lures soon, so help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Macca

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

Any colour during daylight, its all in technique. fullstop
At night time, red isn't seen as red, nor is blue seen as blue. In dirty filthy water during the dark moon phase, any colour lure will work the same as during the day as with no light, colour cannot be distinguished. Ignore colour choice, and focus on technique. Put 100% into lure technique for best results. Put 100 % into lure colour choice and give 0% on technique and I will guarantee you will catch nothing!!
In my eyes, and that includes 20 yrs of successful salt barra fishing and in 10 yrs of lake barra fishing, colour makes no difference. Sight is only about one third of a barra's sensory system. Sound and vibration is the other 2/3. It is the frequency emmitted from a vibrating and / or rattling lure that draws fish to a lure, not colour, hence the reason why multitudes of varying types and colours of lures will catch barra. Discover the correct presenting technique that stimulates barra to strike and your on the money!

Some will disagree, but that is the reason for this great site, to share experience and to openly discuss certain issues.
Johnny M

[McCod]

Agree about 95% on that one Johnny.... I think sometimes colour X will get more strikes than colour Y ... and vise versa sometimes. Barra will tune into a lure via there lateral line long before they see it thats for sure. Technique is the most important thing. But like Johnny has said... a small part of a Barra's sensory is sight.... And i think that it counts sometimes. You just have to find it on any given day ;) I like the golds or darker colours @ night. Daytime i just keep ploding along untill i find the right lure then flog it for a while and then sometimes change lure shape #and or colour and see what goes.

Cheers Les

[rogue2527]

Went to Awoonga in November, at that stage they where saying the gold viper was the only lure to use. We were there for a week and never had a touch on it. From day 1 we were getting hits on ne thing but gold ranging from red head white body thru to blue and white. Now by all means I am nowhere near to being an expert at catching the big boys but as far as i could tell swim action and speed of retrieve were pretty big factors. Good luck mate.

[BigChiefBarra]

Am certainly no expert, but hey you have to buy one color.....

Find that shallower runners eg, bombers, etc work well in Gold.
Sand Viper in chrome gets nailed.
Love my orange Reidy's & purple Scorpion

[ahoj]

Hello
Noise ----Not too rattly) ( fish have ultra sonic hearing) and lures wiggle the water ---attracts their attention

.. Colour? mybe not important but possible a flash of light -- reflection

Sight? I don't think they see very well how in the hell they don't recognise a foney lure
as against a real sardine.... there are many thearies and since fish are dumb we will never be able to ask them what attracts their attention lol ;D ;D ;D

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

Happyrock just mentioned 4 colours in less than 20 words,,,,,,,,thats the strong evidence that supports it!!

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

Macca, you might be more confused as ever , but if you buy lures with natural shades or tones, like,,,a dark back, and a lighter underside you won't be let down. Any colour works, but a'la natural is a great start! I hope this helps you to begin your choice.

[ahoj]

A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE

You have the best reasoning I have heard, it does make a lot of sense-- perhaps if one was to smear the lure ( Natural looking) with fish oil one never knows what will happen

::) ::)
Ahoj

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

come on,,,,,,,,,,,,,,what does everyone else think about colours???
honest opinions,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,its all open, spit it out,,,,,,,,,,,,still-water??? and the million other barra anglers that visit this site??? we are listening,,,,,,,,,,,,!!

[Mak579]

There is a saying the 'lures catch more fisherman than fish' and I'm probably guilty of that as I think I have almost every lure colour in existance, but there's a few 'confidence' lures that always seem to be on the end of one of my lines.

I'm a firm believer that size, presentation and action probably have a lot more impact then colour but find myself generally using the following

Gold is a clear favourite in all conditions,

in the local creek with clear water the 'natural' looking black\gold squidgy has outfished everything (I suspect it imitates a shrimp),

in low light or dirty water I like the brighter white\fluoro lures, Kakadu Tiger is one of my favourites.

Best advice I've been given is to catch up with the local tackle shop around the area you want to fish, they can generally point you in the right direction.

Cheers
Matt

[Mad_Barry]

OK, I'll spit. ;)

I think it's funny how we get preconcieved ideas on lure colours. :)

Years ago I had a few blue (or mostly blue) lures in my tray, never caught a fish on them snag bashing the creeks so I turfed them. Now I'll never catch anything around the creeks or rivers on a blue lure because I refuse to buy them or use them. Does that mean blue is crap ? It does to me, but it's not based on any real logic, just emotion. :)

(Off shore is different, My mackeral trays have got a lot of blue lures in them, like blue pillies & silver blue laser pro's. That maybe something to bring up with my therapist at some stage ;D)


I must be influenced by the bling bling factor as there's a majority of gold coloured lures in my box, regardless of the brand or style.

Except for bombers, I like the ones with the internal prism & clearish sides like the tiger lilly & a few others as they last heaps longer. The gold paint on the bombers is crap.

In saying that, It's ironic how they still catch fish even when when they're mostly bare white plastic with only remnants of the original flakey gold paintwork left. (which adds more weight to the colour doesn't mean a lot theory. lol) ;D

If the gold looks a bit lairy in clearish water then something a little more subtle like a natural looking mullety or herring colour gets tied on instead.

[Panasonic]

green and gold

[BobbyJ123]

come on,,,,,,,,,,,,,,what does everyone else think about colours???
honest opinions,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,its all open, spit it out,,,,,,,,,,,,still-water??? and the million other barra anglers that visit this site??? we are listening,,,,,,,,,,,,!!

Hhhhhhhhmmmm, thought provoking, indeed. Colour does, I believe, play a significant part. Suffice it to say that my son and I experimented on coloured lures. He put on an EJ coloured barra bait, I had on a nitro barra bait, I consistently had more hook ups than my son.
We changed lures, I had an EJ predatek and he had a nitro predatek and beat me by 3:1
As you say, vibration is 2/3 of the solution, which is a matter of getting a lure into the strike zone.
When I was living in Kununurra, we always got gold/black ABU killer lures and outfished the blokes using nilsies 8:1 with their blue/white lures.
But then, I've only been barra fishing on and off for 40 odd years.
Again, colour is, supposedly, something fish do not see?????? (Scratches ball....er... head and gets another beer) ;) ;)

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

smiles at the ball, head scratchin, beer gettin' comment!!

Interesting topic. Great to see individual feedback from a few extras so far. I like the comments about good lure colours that catch well, then when all the paint falls off they still catch the same! There is enough in those comments alone to set a strong standard.
Different barra catch rates of lures with different colours can't be used as a comparison when used by 2 different anglers. 2 different styles are used, even if they are similar, they are not the same. Too many variables often exist to accurately assess the issue, but at the end of the day, I'm finding no real trend as to any colour or colour shades that outfish another lure. Many timber lures have different individual densities and buoyancies, and any singular lure of the same brand name may have a different action than another on the shelf because of this. This can actually create a false impression of a colour's effectiveness.

Give a good lure with say a gold colour to a beginner and see what they catch beside you even when you are using a red, brown, pink with purple stripes painted by your grandaughter???? Experience with technique will always outweigh the colour theory!

Anyone got any more????
Threads like this I feel should be carried on as long as possible to warrant as much feedback and personal opinions and evidence as to help all of us learn from our efforts. Two replies on any topic I feel is a bit of a waste.
Just my thought,
Johnny M

[still_water]

Sorry Johnny I have been busy of late, But my favourite colour is the one that actually hooks up to a fish. I don't believe colour has anything to do with it except make the Fisher open his wallet more often and to help quickly Identify the lure you may be looking for in the dark by torch light.
Size ,Shape and Action and how you work it are what cause strikes.When Barra choose to attack they don't give a stuff at what colour it is , if it's in their terrirtory they will either come out to headbutt it to scare it away from home or if hungry it will be engulfed.Most facial hook-ups come from a fish that is trying to scare it or work out what the thing is near them. As mentioned I have lures that have no colour left whatsoever and are still nailing fish {when we can bloody find them of late ;D}
But if I had to choose a colour to help along the topic , go as Natural looking as you can, Silvers, Silv/Gold , Gold/Black. Their Eyes are placed on the top part of their heads for a reason , they are surface feeders and rise to a lure be it at any depth but will not drop for one. I for one have got that so called hand painted lure from my youngest Daughter that looks more like Crusty the clown on Acid and she cleaned up with it, Lure to start off with was a Bomber , {ex Gold}. I also have some very Natural looking Soft Plastics that work extremely well amongst the trees.
At the end of the day everyone will have a colour that works for them, personally I don't care to much for colour only action and sometimes a rattle.
Hope this gives you a bit of an insight into my tacklebox.

[Pash67]

I like gold, gold with stripes; silver, bleeding mullett & fluro colours. These are my 5 main colours. I have these colours in about 4 different brands of lures. Predetek, Classic Barra, Richo's & Arafurra. I also have a few other colours but these are my main ones. As you can see the lures are some with rattles and some without. I have caught barra on all these brands and colours. Always seem to start with the gold then move to the fluro's ( they are the one's that catch my eye when I first open the tackle box).

As far as technique goes, that confuses me just as much as lure colours does!!

Adrian

[goddy100]

JUst for another direction, I like black lures. Have caught heaps of barras on them, as well as other colours, but black is a bit of a favorite. What tends to happen is when I first start to fish, I like to try something new each time, see how it goes. If it catches fish, it stays on, but if the fishing is slow, one of the favorite black lures is eventually tied on. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, but they probably spend more time on the rod than others, so they have to catch more.
On another note, I make my own lures and on one trip I was rushed, so never got to paint some that I had just made up. Gave them a quick two pack coating over the bare wood. Still caught heaps of barras. To me this showed that action is far more important than colour, but if the fishing is really tight and shutdown, then maybe colour could be a turning factor to get them to strike.

[macca]

Well I started today with some purchases. :)

Just six atm :)

I have gone for two natural colours, however I have thrown some bright ones in like multicoloured fluros and two golds.

Being a bass fisherman I think colour has alot to do with it when fishing for bass. I have alot of success with bass with lures/plastics with flash and sparkle. So I will be applying same theory to barra.

I have taken note of all your ideas and I will see if it works out.

The test will be when I come to use them and see if they work.

Thanks for help :)

Macca

[BlitzBaga]

I believe that colour has very little bearing on catching fish, and if you did find that one colour works better that another check the action and tracking of the lure, I have made thousands of different combination in lure colours, they have all caught fish. If you have a lure of the same type it can be fairly common for one lure to have different swimming characteristics to the other, this is caused from either the maker or damaged from catching fish. Depth and action are your 2 main needs in a lure, the action is a result of fluctuating water pressure and surface tension over the bib and body surface, this also results in a vibration that sends out sound waves through the water.

Cheers
Murray

[LOUIE]

NT guided fishing trip on the Mary R was a waste of space until we copied another guides use of gold bombers and migrated to night fishin.

Cant comment on impoundments as my other catches have been in the salt using live gar.


;)LOUIE

[macca]

;D ;) ;D

[laz]

I don't think that the colours of lures matter all that much as long as you have confidence in the lure that you are using at the time. i've found its more about the placement, depth,action,and speed you put in to your retrival of the lure

[killitfillit]

ok here is my theory. i have had situations where fish follow lures and refuse it and a colour change turns followers into takers. i have seen beat up lures with no paint left on them catch fish and i have seen days where the gun colour combo left all others untouched.when i started making lures on a reasonably large scale i did a lot of testing and let me tell you there is no thing like confidence to make a lure work.subtle differences make identical lures a lot different to the fish i.e snap clips.line class,age of the lure,wear and tear,boat speed etc,you can't buy confidence at the tackle store but you can on the water or at the camp fire.if your mate caught his biggest barra on lure x buy yourself one identical to it and fish it hard.some of the best lures i have used have been ones that i have found floating in dams or at flea markets with lots of fish damage on them.at the time i would never have used anything like them but got a big surprise after i did.you know you take a mate fishing with you and you lend him a lure that you aren't worried about losing and would never use yourself and when your mate catches more fish or bigger fish than you you tell him that's because he is using your favourite lure.i personally like naturally coloured lures and i have a soft spot for chartreuse.the biggest money winning lure colour in the usa is chartreuse with a purple back.many times testing home made lures in white primer they caught fish.so basically use the locals advice use your favourites and use something that won't work.

[WHITTO]

G'Day Murray, Had an old wooden Blitz Baga of yours without a speck of paint on it, the Bass loved it,all to do with action and noise, the new Bagas are almost as good, Cheers Whitto

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

Well put killitfillit. -A lot of good , often overlooked aspects there that many forget or don't recognise. Water clarity is a big issue, but certainly I think evidently the 'any colour' theory can be a strong basic rule of thumb for many, without getting too in depth and confused on the topic. Cast a great coloured lure out and don't move it,,,,,and see how it scores compared to a boring colour that is 'worked' correctly.
Good topic this one!!
Johnny M

[BlitzBaga]

HEY Whitto

The only difference now is that when you lose all the paint they aren't red cedar coloured, they'll be white. In the past post I did forgett to elaborate on shades, colours don't matter but shades do.

Cheers
Murray

[fish_outta_water]

different fish species see more or less color , some see colors well others see details well . the one thing they all see is contrast between differing colors , dark back light belly, dark head light body. that kinda thing
im not a firm believer in color but will use a mostly dark lure when sky is over cast for maximum silouette against the sky and mosly light lures on sunny days
glowing sp seem to work really well dusk and dawn or low light (british winter :'( ) for some reason mullet are atracted to glowing lures , have caught em on trace feathers with glowing beads , 3 inch sp and a 5inch sp! they just mob it , slapping it with there tail as well as mouthing
agree with everyone else about action speed and vibration
happy experimenting

[bundy1]

Hi
Just lately i have been having a lot of luck with an old boomerang 75mm in white with
crayfish pattern...when nothing else would work it did , dont know why , i have more lures
than i care to admit..but technique is what will help with the overall result...lots of fish.
Also there would have to be a few fisherman in your area sus them out & i am sure if you asked them they would show ya what they got.
GOOD LUCK
CHEERS.....SHANXZ

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Can't say I have the experience to comment on a particular colour. Seems to me that there are so many other more important variables to get right first, that colour choice, would have to be the last thing to consider.
The only way you could find out for certain is if you and a mate fished 2 different coloured but otherwise identical lures at the same time and same place with the same tackle and knots and kept swapping lures to control for different action or retreive style, and then see if one colour caught more fish than the other.

The only vaguely scientific thing I have ever heard about fish and colour was on a discovery or NG show that quoted a study that was done on a certain type of little freshwater fish (can't remember which type, but small one; guppy, gudgeon or the like). It said that they found that the fish saw yellow better during the full moon phase and purple better during the dark moon phase.
Whether this is applicable to any other fish or not, I don't know, but would be interesting to try and verify it (or disprove it). But since I'm sitting in Manila and my fishing gear is in aus, I'm not going to be able to do it any time soon. :'(
Would be interested to hear if anyone else has a go at it though.

Cheers
Jeff

[Mak579]

Some more food for thought on lure colour and choice...
Caught a young barra on the weekend which decided to regurgitate it's previous meal, the similarites between the lure and previously digested food are quite striking.

As the fly fishos say "match the hatch"!!

[Blinky]

I like black lures.

Gotta agree on that one, especially on a bright moonlit night, makes a good silouhet against the moonlight.

Favourite colours for daylight in good vis water: Gun's & Roses, Dogs Donga, Nitro in either Classic Barra or Reidy's.

For the water that's just a might too thin to plow:Elton John, Bleeding Mullet, Orange Tiger in either Classic Barra, Reidy's or Scorpion.

On saying all of this; my favourite alltime lure is an old original timber Killalure that started life as a Black Tiger, it now has not a skerrick of paint on it and has been retired to the Study for fear of loosing it!

Colour, Action, Noise, Size, Smell..........I reckon it's what's on the end of your line and you have the confidence levels up!

[fish_outta_water]

mack that really is un canny what sp is that?

[Mak579]

fish_outta_water,

It's a storm suspending shad with a VMC treble upgrade, works really well in shallow water or when slowly retrieved above weedbeds a couple of foot below the surface. (especially at night)

I was fishing very dark 'tannin stained' water at the time.

Cheers
Matt

[killitfillit]

did i mention that most fish are fierce siblivores and you should match the lure to the colour of the fish you are targetting ie;fresh water barra/bass white pearl belly and an olive green/grey back lure.

[pmartyna]

I'm not so sure on the Colour debate either. Though the number of times I've been in a tournament and fish were being caught all around on a Chamelion jackal, but no others, or a smoke yellow core, but no others makes you wonder.

I have also changed to a chartruese and green shad in the middle of a melee and pulled two bass in a row when no one else wase catching enything.

The one that I can't figure out is red and white lures. It is a killer barra combo, good in the salt, catches more Northern Pike and musky than any other combo, but it doesn't make much sense. Red is supposedly the first colour in the visible spectrum to disappear under water so why would it be so successful?

I do tend to think it is more to do with lure size, shape, sound and presentation (and good ole luck to put it close enough) than colour. But than my best two barra were caught on a 3 inch $5 gold jarvis walker intruder when every other expensive lure in a couple of big tackle boxes wouldn't produce.

Paul

Ps liked the match the hatch photo so much I had to include this one. A couple of Trevor McCall boney Bream flies and the regurgitation of a sommerset bass that took one.

[wobbygone]

Afriend of mine spends a lot of his time guiding at weipa and heis not the slightest bit concered about colour. He would pull fish while washing up in the kitchen sink. To him it is a about timing, placement and presentation.
Hard body, softy or fly, this guy is good. And in his words the same 3 principals always apply.
Cheers,
Wobbygone ;)