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Colors? How important are they?
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The Color of Success: The Pro’s Perspective By Tom Dietz

As dedicated musky anglers, we are often faced with a common dilemma when selecting a lure to use, “What color should I choose?”  This simple question is an integral piece of the puzzle when deciding which lure to throw or troll.  Lure selection is more often than not dictated by style prior to color, yet color is a very important part of the overall selection process.  Many lure manufacturers offer a plethora of color choices for today’s musky hunter.  A viable question at hand here is if all of these numerous color offerings we have at our fingertips are made to catch muskies or made to catch us as musky anglers?   I know in my personal fishing style, I have a lot more confidence throwing a chartreuse and black bucktail rather than a pink bucktail, yet I know a number of successful anglers who nail a lot of nice fish on this color scheme.  I also know that I typically choose my lure colors based on a number of important factors such as the time of day, water clarity, and lake history (personal experiences).   I also experiment with lure colors, going against the grain on the old rules such as “dark water, dark bait” or “clear water, natural bait” and I have had some great success doing this over the years.  As you can see, there are a lot of variables that determine color selection, and in this article, I am going to ask some of today’s best musky anglers what drives their color choice as well as offer a scientific perspective on how fish see color.   Use this great information offered below to help in your decision making when deciding what colors to use or what colors to purchase.

Through the Eyes of the Muskellunge

Muskies can only see a limited amount of light below the lake surface as compared to what we as humans can see.  Many fish are somewhat nearsighted and can see effectively in distances of up to ten to twenty feet or so.  The deeper a lure goes in the water column; there are fewer colors visible to either us or the fish due to the available light being reduced.   There are some types of fish that can see up to twenty four shades of colors.  Jordan Weeks, Research Editor for Musky Hunter Magazine, an avid musky fisherman as well as the Senior Inland Fisheries Biologist for the State of Wisconsin, offers this scientific perspective.  “There is no published research I was able find that specifically targeted muskies and their eyesight.  I think that most anglers today would say that lure color is a critical part of musky catching while some certainly say it is not important.  Science tells us that both viewpoints may be true.  While little research has been done to prove either theory (none has been published on esocids), results from studies on other fish can give us a clue as to how muskies may see their underwater world.”  

Weeks is also quick to point out that there is still some uncertainty as to the amount of colors a muskellunge can decipher.  “Scientists really do not know exactly what fish see, or in other words, what images reach their brains. Most research on the vision of fish is done either by physical or chemical examination of different parts of their eyes or by determining how laboratory fish respond to various images or stimuli. Making broad generalizations about a fish's vision is complicated by the fact that different species may have different vision capabilities and that laboratory results may not represent what happens in the real world of an ocean, lake, or river.  Physical studies of the eyes and retinas of fish show that the majority can obtain a clearly focused image, detect motion, and have good contrast-detection ability. A limited number of experiments have shown that a minimum level of light is necessary before a fish can recognize colors. Another finding, but one that needs more study, is that some fish favor a specific color. This point may contradict or affirm your own fishing experiences, but remember that the attractiveness of your lure is a combination of many things, including its motion, shape, and color, as well as the depth of the water.” 

Muskies eyes are uniquely designed for the underwater environment they live in.  The lenses in the eyes of muskies are round in shape. These round lenses are what let them see clearly under water. If you were to open your eyes under water everything would look pretty blurry to you. This is because the lenses in the eyes of people are flat instead of round. The lenses in fish eyes also bulge out through the iris (the col­ored part of the eye). This keeps a fish from being able to shrink its pupils in bright sunlight.  Fish eyes are best designed for seeing things that stand out from or contrast with the water around them. They also notice movement very well. A lightly colored moving object that shows up well against a dark background of water would likely catch a fish’s eye. Though fish see contrast and movement well, most fish are not able to judge depth well. They see most things as flat, like looking at a picture of an object. People instead can see in 3-D. They can judge distances and shapes because their eyes face for­ward. The eyes of muskies are located on either side of their head. This makes it hard for them to tell how far away something is. Some predatory fish, like muskies, that need to know how far away something is so they can catch prey, have special grooves on their noses. These low areas let them see for­ward more easily giving them some sense of depth for attack.  All of this information helps us better understand how a musky sees its prey, but what do us as fishermen think?  I decided that I would ask the best of the best in musky fishing several key questions regarding their personal selection of musky lure colors.  I received some very insightful responses from several of today’s leading authorities on musky fishing and I also offer my own personal insight to my lure color selections.

What Number One Factor Drives Your Lure Color Choice?

Joe Bucher, Editor Emeritus of Musky Hunter Magazine says that water clarity and weather conditions are his biggest determining factors in deciding what colors to throw.  “Prevalent baitfish in a given lake is also a consideration.  I also like to take into account a lake’s idiosyncrasies.  For example, one lake might have a strong perch forage base.  On that lake, colors with green in them will certainly be an obvious choice.  A cisco/shad/whitefish forage base is most likely to trigger more response from white/pearl/silvery color patterns.”  Bucher went on to add “Time of day for me is also a strong consideration.  For example, Spence Petros and I noticed last summer that the fish in Lake of the Woods were really going on a color that I call “Goldilocks” during the mid-day period.  It’s a gold colored tinsel tail with magnum copper blades on the Bucher Mag Tinsel Series Spinner.  However, by evening the muskies wanted a white pearl tinsel tail with chartreuse blades.  I nicknamed this color “Elvis” since it looked a lot like his outfit he wore during his final concert tour.  Elvis in the evening and Goldilocks in the afternoon was our battle cry all week!” 

Jordan Weeks answered my question this way.  “Nature is the number one factor influencing which lure color I use, or to put it another way, biology.  I know that’s a surprise, huh.  If you look at my tackle box you will see lots of natural colors such as black, brown, white, and perch.  Most of these lures resemble forage fish (yellow perch, white suckers, redhorse sucker, and cisco), and all have contrasting colors.  Nearly all of them have a dark top and light bottom.  Why?  It’s simple.  My goal is to offer something familiar to the fish and at the same time have it stand out from the natural environment.  After all, if our lures match what an actual baitfish looks like out of the water…our lure will also look like the real thing under the water. I feel that this causes the fish to eat the lure rather than follow or “chase” it from a particular area.  Follows make for terrible pictures.”

Musky Hunter Field Editor Tom Gelb offers this interesting prospective that leans towards the same school of thought that Bucher mentioned above, in terms of lake specific color selection. Gelb states “In northern Wisconsin, I fish a multitude of different lakes having varying water clarity and forage bases. Lure color is most often lake specific and only time on the water on each lake will reveal the favorite for that lake.   Unfortunately, once a lure color is identified it may be effective for only that year or a minimum number of years thereafter. It is difficult if not impossible to determine why a color becomes ineffective. Simply, I start the year with the color that worked last year and if it has gone cold, I start the search all over”.  Gelb also believes that water temperature plays a major factor in color selection and effectiveness based on his personal catch data.  Steve Heiting, Managing Editor of Musky Hunter Magazine, answered my first question this way.  “I look for a lure that matches the conditions at hand, water color first and foremost, then sky (I'll choose a different lure for a sunny sky vs. a cloudy sky), and third is time of day (bright-colored top water lures at midday and black in the evening, for example, or chartreuse on a subsurface bait when the sun gets low in the evening). Fourth, I'll consider lake idiosyncrasies and past experience on the lake. My fifth consideration is "matching the hatch" or what prey I'm trying to match. I rank this fifth because a bucktail isn't going to necessarily look like a cisco/tullibee, but this is a more important consideration for a crankbait or jerkbait”.  Heiting also adds “A lot of what drives my lure color selection is based on how a color looks in the water, to me, given the conditions. That's a very subjective call and one that only comes from lots of time on the water. I really like my lure to appear to have indefinite edges. There have been hundreds of times when I've removed a lure after two casts because it just didn't look right”.

When I was the General Manager of Bucher Tackle, I remember Joe Bucher’s sound advice he gave me one night out musky fishing together that has stuck with me to this day.  Bucher said, “Tom, if the water color is green, then you should throw green”  When I am faced with a body of water that has a major algae bloom occurring, I usually throw firetiger patterns or chartreuse baits first, as I have had very good success with these colors in a bloom scenario.  Now, there are times that these same bright colors will excel even in clear water.  My current home body of water is Caesar Creek Lake near Dayton, Ohio.  Looking at my catch records closely, the vast majority of fish caught by myself or my clients in four years of guiding on this lake shows me a strong preference towards bright colors versus natural colors.  This reservoir water clarity is fairly clear most of the time, with the exception of after a heavy rainfall, and it has a huge population of gizzard shad present.  One would surmise that shad based colors would be the best choice, yet my four plus years of catch data on this lake proves otherwise.  I have thrown natural colors often, yet I catch more fish on colors like firetiger, chartreuse/black or chartreuse with black dots.  So it definitely pays off to experiment on any given body of water.  I would strongly agree with Steve Heiting when I say that the water color and clarity predetermines my lure color decision making most of the time. 

What is your favorite lure color, and why?

I asked Bucher and Gelb if they had a personal favorite color over all.  Bucher said, “I don’t really have a favorite overall, it is more a favorite color per lake.  For example, when I was really tagging the big muskies in the French River years ago, a perch pattern Buchertail 700 with an orange blade was clearly the best color pattern.  That color has never produced for me on any other system like it did up there.  “Elvis” and “Goldilocks” are now my favorites on Lake of the Woods for obvious reasons.  They produced.  And that is just in spinner related products.  On hard baits, the deal is completely different again.  I had one heck of a streak with Depthraiders in the night shiner pattern in Wisconsin during the mid 1990's so it was certainly my favorite color at the time, but I've taken a lot of big ones on perch, sucker, and hot colors like firetiger, too”.  Gelb showed a similar approach with his answer to this question.   “One period is the combined pre and post stratification periods (cold water) and the second is the period of stratification (summer months).  Therefore I MUST pick two colors as my favorite, not just one. During the period of stratification the most consistent and overall effective color are those of the perch family pattern. I have a number of colors in this family and they consistently produce during this period. I believe this “pattern family” best replicated the major forage base of the lakes in our area.  During the pre and post stratification periods, lures of the white/silver/blue are most productive. This is not just true of lakes that have a cisco or tullibee population, but holds true on most waters.  Perch patterns do work is some waters in these periods, but they are usually less productive and are usually lake specific.”  Interestingly enough, both of these anglers state that they do not have a favorite color overall, but rather a favorite color per the body of water they are fishing. 

Heiting gives us this rather humorous but very true prospective with his favorite color answer.  “My favorite lure color is whatever they're currently biting on. However, if I had to choose one or two colors, it would be sucker and/or perch, because they're very common food items and thus applicable in so many waters and situations”.  How true is that statement?  Throw what the muskies are biting on!  However, it is up to us to find out what the muskies want through trial and error and time on the water.   

In my own personal experience fishing the waters of Vilas County, Wisconsin, catch records from one of my favorite lakes I fished shows that a Buchertail 700 bucktail with a nickel blade and a natural tail was simply deadly.  On numerous occasions on this particular lake, I had experimented with other colors, both bright and natural patterns, and still not one of these could dethrone the natural nickel 700 Series Buchertail.  On Lake of the Woods, my personal experience up there proves that a copper blade and red bucktail combination is deadly.  Tom Gelb shared that tip with me many years ago while I was running Joe Bucher Tackle Company. Tom has fished Lake of the Woods for twenty-five years and had a great deal of success on this color pattern up there.  After first hearing this tip, I threw this color often, and caught a bunch of nice muskies on it, so now this color remains a staple for my Lake of the Woods arsenal.  For me, a Bullfrog colored Topraider is still my favorite topwater lure, bar none.  This color has flat out produced for me from Cave Run Lake in Kentucky to the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, to Canada year in and year out, and all I can say is that it works everywhere I have used it.  How often do we hear “Throw any topwater lure, as long as it is black”?  Well, I certainly know that a ton of muskies are caught on black topwater lures each season across the country.  I too, have caught good number muskies on black surface baits in the past, but based on my confidence and overall catch data, I always grab the Bullfrog pattern first, whether it’s a Topraider, Jackpot, etc.  A lot of my own color selection is based on confidence gleaned from years of fishing that particular lake, as well as its effectiveness overall in waters across the country.   Jordan Weeks combats my philosophy here with this viewpoint. “What’s the saying?  Any color is good as long as it’s black!  In any water color, at any time of day, black is my go to color.  I feel it provides the greatest silhouette under all conditions.  Plus many of my largest fish have come on black lures.  Even in dark tannin stained flowages black is one of my favorite choices”   Both of our viewpoints are based on are own personal successes, and neither is incorrect.  You simply have to throw what colors you are confident in, and time on the water will assist your selection making process.  

Does the time of year dictate your color selection?

Tom Gelb stated above that he mainly bases his color selection on the time of year based on lake stratification and water temperatures.  Joe Bucher answered this question with a very similar game plan.  Bucher says “Yes.  I have seen summer fish more attuned to perch green patterns than in colder water.  Colder water fish seem to prefer white bellied silvery crankbait or jerkbait patterns.  Perhaps this is baitfish related.   Summer fish sure seem to be turned on to perch style patterns on a lot of the lakes I fish no matter whether the muskies are shallow over structure, or suspended out over open water”.   Heiting adds, “Absolutely. Water clarity can be affected by time of year (extreme clarity early and late in the season, and algae bloom in summer, for example). If fish are aggressive and fishing fast is the way to catch more, like in midsummer, I'll want a color that stands out and is readily noticed. However, when fish are less aggressive, such as post-spawn or late fall, sometimes it really pays to "match the hatch" and choose a lure that matches what they're feeding on”.  I also lean towards more natural colors in colder water, such as a sucker pattern in a crankbait, or a nickel bladed bucktail with a black skirt.

Are chrome colors important in your lure selection?

I have found that chrome colored crankbaits, like blue back silver chrome Depthraiders, can be deadly in late fall or early spring both trolling and casting.  Chrome colored rattle baits such as Bucher’s JB Rattlers simply knock the tar out of the muskies down here in the south both in early spring and late fall.  Why?  It seems that colder water temperatures really seem to maximize the effectiveness of chrome finishes on lures and the muskies respond favorably to them.  For those of you that bass fish early in the year, you certainly know how productive a blue chrome Rattletrap can be during the months of March and April.  Same thinking and approach applies here. 

Joe Bucher has this to say about chrome colors.  “They are totally underrated in the musky world.  Most musky hunters have no experience with them since most manufacturers do not offer chrome patterns of any kind.  The flash of chrome is a killer on muskies at times.  The more musky hunters experiment with chromes, the more they will like them.  I remember the first time Tom Gelb and I played with chrome patterns on the Depthraider.  We had multiple lines out on a trolling pass with only one chrome lure on.  First strike was on the chrome lure.  First fish caught was a super beefy forty-nine incher that weighed at least thirty-five pounds.  Chrome works on muskies.  I am certain of that!”  Gelb offers his wisdom on chrome patterns.  “Years ago tribal knowledge told us that chrome lures (except spinner blades) would not work for musky! By chance due to an error, a bunch of crankbaits were plated silver chrome. Some years later, we found out they did work. But chrome color selection certainly comes under my answer to your first question which is what top factor drives my lure selection.  During the pre and post lake stratification periods, lures of the white/silver/blue are most productive and chromes fall into this category.”  Steve Heiting offers this piece of advice with regards to fishing spinners. “On bucktails, chrome is very much a factor, absolutely! The plating of the blade, whether silver, gold or nickel/chrome, is hugely important.”      Jordan Weeks has this to add with regards to chrome colored lures.  “I’ll use chrome only to provide contrasting colors on my lures, as the top of all my chrome lures are painted a darker color.  I want to maintain a natural look to my lures making them stand out by changing the action.  Chrome is a good choice when the sun is out adding a bit of flash to a lure.  This flash can sometimes illicit a strike when more mute colors will go unnoticed.” 

If you had only one color to choose, what would it be?

The last question I posed to my interview panel was really a tough one. As you can certainly see, there are so many variables that drive our color selections from day to day and year to year.  If I was faced with the dilemma of having only one color to choose from, I would categorize my choices by lure style rather than one color for everything.  I simply cannot imagine not having a color selection to choose from!  For example, in bucktails, I would throw chartreuse blades with black hair, because this color works for me from Kentucky to Canada!  In crankbaits, the Miller Perch pattern (painted by Bucher) would be my top choice overall.  In jerkbaits like Mantas, I would choose the crappie pattern.  With soft plastics like Bulldawgs, I would select the walleye pattern (brown/white belly) because I have caught muskies everywhere on that pattern.  Steve Heiting says “If I had to choose one or two colors, it would be sucker and/or perch, because they're very common food items and thus applicable in so many waters and situations.”  Weeks adds without hesitation “Black, enough said.”  A simple answer, yet he answered my difficult question with confidence.  Gelb answered my question this way.  “Tom, sorry I can’t choose just one. But I guess I have answered this above: “Perch family” when the lakes are stratified, and “Cisco/shad” type patterns before and after lake stratification.  Finally, Editor Emeritus Joe Bucher replied “Probably black in a spinner, perch in a crankbait, and black on a top water lure.”  Extremely simple answer here again by Bucher, but his answer was gleaned over countless guide trips and tons of hours on the water as well as the most detailed record keeping on past musky catches that I have ever seen.  You simply cannot override past success when it comes to arriving at your final lure color selection.

In closing, it is obvious that the color choosing process is truly important to all of us while out on the water, and this article offers valuable insights and suggestions on color selection from a number of today’s leading experts on musky fishing.  As you can see, all of the questions I asked my panel were not easily answered, yet all answers were based on time on the water and trial and error over the years.  Next time you open your tackle box, or hit a local musky show, I hope the advice offered here will assist you in your decision making.  I think we should all be very thankful that today’s manufacturers offer us such a wide variety of lure styles and colors.  It is up to you to try different colors out, keep a very detailed log, and spend a lot of time on the water applying different colors under different conditions. After all of this, you will finally come up with your own set of favorite colors to use year after year depending upon given situations like time of year, water clarity, etc.  Lure colors to me are a lot like musky lakes in Vilas County, Wisconsin, way too many to choose from and not enough time!

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