by Jeremiah T. Bagwell

In our world of endless choices, you can walk down the aisles of any tackle shop, scan the pages of lure catalogs or point and click on any tackle website and choose from hundreds of colors available for each and every lure style. While the power to choose is great, it may serve as a huge and overwhelming distraction to novice anglers.

I recommend that anglers who are fairly new to bass fishing and probably more importantly, new to tournament fishing, keep their color selections basic. You don’t need every single color of each bait ever produced to catch a Bass.

Having fewer colors to choose from in your boat will reduce the time wasted and the second guessing involved with selecting the “right” color. Here are some of my personal suggestions for which colors novice anglers should worry about having in their tackle bags.

Spinnerbaits – My spinnerbait selection, even after 30+ years of Bass fishing, still remains extremely basic. I use white 90% of the time. I think this color best replicates the look of shad and other small fish that Bass are known to eat. Sometimes I mix in a little black or chartreuse but white is by far my first selection when it comes to spinnerbaits.

Soft Plastic baits – Whether you are talking about Senkos, Crawdads, Creature baits, Worms or Jerk baits, I would suggest using natural looking colors. Watermelon, Brown, Black and Shad colors are excellent choices that are very effective in a variety of water conditions. These colors will do a great job of matching the forage in just about any body of water on the planet.

Hard Plastic baits – Again whether Topwater baits, Jerk baits, lipless crankbaits or crankbaits with a bill, I would suggest that newer anglers limit their selection to more natural colors that mimic the look of shad, bluegills or crawdads. A couple of my personal favorites are the MS American shad color from Lucky Craft and also Chartreuse with a blue back.

Jigs – Jigs are another bait category that I still keep very limited after all of these years. I use Black/Blue most of the time. I also have a lot of success with Watermelon/Purple and Brown/Orange. It doesn’t matter if you are fishing Gin clear water or the muddiest of rivers, these jig colors will work great.

As you become more and more skilled as an angler, you can add to your arsenal of colors. You can add baits that match a specific forage at a particular body of water you will be heading to. Just don’t let choosing the right color become a distraction. When you notice that having so many colors to pick from is becoming a hindrance, it might be time to scale back a little bit.
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