Ontario Shore Fishing Forum

What are your favorite colors for bronzebacks??? What how when and why?

Please chime in with your thoughts and experience. I'd like to have a thread topic like this for numerous species, so lets try to keep it to smallies in this thread...

For round head jigs, I strongly prefer black. It works well in clear or muddy conditions.

For grubs, def. the best I've used is a salted, black grub with a silver tail. Again, it works well in muddy or clear conditions.

Spinner baits, I use only two colors, white and black. No other colors seem to produce for me, so its been narrowed to these two colors.

For bass jigs I like a motor oil and pumpkin colors. They seem to produce bites at a good rate, although I don't fish these jigs enough.

Crawfish and creature baits, again, Black, lol. I really prefer black with red fleck, or black with blue fleck.

Cranks, Firetiger, a normal minnow pattern and a strong red crawfish pattern are what I prefer. I love digging a DT 6" crawfish into shallow rocks, in 2-3 FOW.

I got more, I'll post some more after. Please chime in!

I usually go with a white horsehead jig and a silver blade. I run through a bunch of tail colours though. On the islands I normally go with a minnow / shad colour tail on the jig, or something with a two tone high contrast like blood red / white.

Yellow and green surface ..like the frog.

Green/watermelon with chartreuse tail (senkos). Or natural perch colored cranks.

Smallmouth are my favorite freshwater species to fish for.

Things really vary from place to place and tome to time, but overall the most successfull and that I will try first:

Spinners - silver
Twister Tails - black
Tubes - motor oil
Minnow baits (rapala/rebel): blue or purple back/white belly
Cranks- perch , blue chrome, yellows
Top water - any white belly in the daytime, dark colours at night

I like to use bronze or brown colour tubes and for jerkbaits I like natural colours like perch and shiner. I mostly use tubes because the smallies I fish for are usually deep but when they are shallow I use jerkbaits.

(03-09-2012 05:06 PM)OldTimer Wrote: [ -> ]Smallmouth are my favorite freshwater species to fish for.

Things really vary from place to place and tome to time, but overall the most successfull and that I will try first:

Spinners - silver
Twister Tails - black
Tubes - motor oil
Minnow baits (rapala/rebel): blue or purple back/white belly
Cranks- perch , blue chrome, yellows
Top water - any white belly in the daytime, dark colours at night

I've read a lot of things suggesting dark colours at night and in murky water. Would colour make a difference in low-vis situations? I would think something bright would do better than black=P.

I wonder why.

(03-10-2012 02:20 AM)MichaelAngelo Wrote: [ -> ]I've read a lot of things suggesting dark colours at night and in murky water. Would colour make a difference in low-vis situations? I would think something bright would do better than black=P.

I wonder why.

Big difference between low-vis and low light.

I have read, more than once, that black offers higher contrast in low light conditions - both in and on the water.

I have found that my most productive "after midnight" top water bait for smallmouth has been a solid black hula popper type plug. They are also are a hoot to fish with in the pitch black - as it's total touch and sound fishing with no vision to help you at all........

Interestingly enough - I can also say that in my experience fishing for rainbows at night in the Owen Sound Sydenham and Pottawatami rivermouths - that solid black or "skunk" flatfish or plugs out-performed bright colurs and flourescents by a long shot.