Hey guys so I have been thinking a lot about crankbait colors lately. Most of the lakes that I fish are stained and sometimes muddy, think like Mackintosh, Randleman, and Graham-mebane. So in muddy water I like to throw cranks that are mostly chart with a contrasting color like blue or black on their backs. However when the water is just stained, and not muddy, but also not clear I seem to struggle with finding a color that I have confidence in. It seems I either pick a crank with a lot of chart on it and then worry that with the water not really being overly muddy the chart maybe to much for the fish, or I pick something that more closely mimics a shad and then I worry that it may not have enough flash or color for the fish to see it. I know size and action is usually considered more important than color, but I still like to have confidence in the color that I am throwing since of course confidence helps.
I have done really well in stained but not muddy water with Chart sexy shad from Strike King. I really like how that is in between being bland and flashy. However I really want to start throwing Rapala Dt's more as I really like the way they break down the different water depths. I have done well throwing the Parrot and Caribbean Shad colors in dirtier water, but I worry those would be almost to bright for the water when it is in that just stained phase. I saw Helsinki Shad and Pearl Grey Shiner but would you throw something like that in the type of water I am describing? Neither to me really seem like they give off much color or enough flash to help, but then again I have not fished colors like that much as I do not have a lot of confidence in them.
I think really my problem is between picking colors based on water clarity and trying to match the hatch at the same time. For example if I am in brownish stained water where the bass are feeding on shad, I would not be overly confident in normal sexy shad as although its a shad color it is not a bright one. Besides chart sexy shad I have not seen any shad colors I liked for stained water, and I dont really see anything that Rapala has that is similar to chart sexy shad.
The same goes for bluegill. To me the Rapala bluegill color is a clear water color. I always think that is a color that since it is so lifelike would only be good in clear water. If you are familiar with it, would you use that in stained water that does not have a lot of visibility?
I know this is a lot of different questions, haha sorry about that! I have just been trying to figure the answers out to all of these over the last couple of days and have not really felt like I have made much progress. Any advice would be really appreciated.
I have done really well in stained but not muddy water with Chart sexy shad from Strike King. I really like how that is in between being bland and flashy. However I really want to start throwing Rapala Dt's more as I really like the way they break down the different water depths. I have done well throwing the Parrot and Caribbean Shad colors in dirtier water, but I worry those would be almost to bright for the water when it is in that just stained phase. I saw Helsinki Shad and Pearl Grey Shiner but would you throw something like that in the type of water I am describing? Neither to me really seem like they give off much color or enough flash to help, but then again I have not fished colors like that much as I do not have a lot of confidence in them.
I think really my problem is between picking colors based on water clarity and trying to match the hatch at the same time. For example if I am in brownish stained water where the bass are feeding on shad, I would not be overly confident in normal sexy shad as although its a shad color it is not a bright one. Besides chart sexy shad I have not seen any shad colors I liked for stained water, and I dont really see anything that Rapala has that is similar to chart sexy shad.
The same goes for bluegill. To me the Rapala bluegill color is a clear water color. I always think that is a color that since it is so lifelike would only be good in clear water. If you are familiar with it, would you use that in stained water that does not have a lot of visibility?
I know this is a lot of different questions, haha sorry about that! I have just been trying to figure the answers out to all of these over the last couple of days and have not really felt like I have made much progress. Any advice would be really appreciated.