What's the purpose behind the different colored lures?

[Fullnet2]

Yes, lots of crappie fishermen are dyeing their minnows chartreuse .It's said that they catch more and bigger crappie. That said,I'm only use artificial but may change if someone tells me how to shoot docks with live bait. Don't wait too long to tell me because I'm pretty old.
Good Luck Fishing

 

[King.Of.Anglers.Jeremiah]

There's natural colors that generally work better in clear water, really bright or really dark colors that work better in stained or muddy water and then some muted colors that really can go either way. Depends by species as well. Something super aggressive like a bluefish, northern pike, Jack crevalle or Spanish mackerel want the most obnoxiously colored lure you can throw and they want it fished as fast as you can reel. On the other hand, a wild brown trout in the river or a crappie at the local pond absolutely will not touch your bait unless it's a certain size, shape and color presented a certain way. Lots of folks will tell you color doesn't matter but if that were true, everybody wouldn't be able to tell you about "that one time" (normally few times) that one guy was destroying the fish with a certain color and others were not. I've experimented several times with different colors just to see if it makes a difference and most times it does.

 

[King.Of.Anglers.Jeremiah]

Now, if you're asking when to use crazy bright colors, there's generally 3 times I go by. Pre-spawn in the spring, during feeding frenzies to differentiate my lure from the other baits, and in heavily stained or muddy water. If you limit yourself only to a handful of baits however, you can't miss with white, black, Chartreuse, or green pumpkin under really ANY circumstances.

 

[northgeorgiasportsman]

There's natural colors that generally work better in clear water, really bright or really dark colors that work better in stained or muddy water and then some muted colors that really can go either way. Depends by species as well. Something super aggressive like a bluefish, northern pike, Jack crevalle or Spanish mackerel want the most obnoxiously colored lure you can throw and they want it fished as fast as you can reel. On the other hand, a wild brown trout in the river or a crappie at the local pond absolutely will not touch your bait unless it's a certain size, shape and color presented a certain way. Lots of folks will tell you color doesn't matter but if that were true, everybody wouldn't be able to tell you about "that one time" (normally few times) that one guy was destroying the fish with a certain color and others were not. I've experimented several times with different colors just to see if it makes a difference and most times it does.

Glad to see you back, you've been AWOL for too long. Hope you've got some fishing tales to tell.

 

[King.Of.Anglers.Jeremiah]

Glad to see you back, you've been AWOL for too long. Hope you've got some fishing tales to tell.

Got a ton! Just been quietly reeling em in lately. Big numbers of Crappie and bass.

 

[BassMan31]

Interesting read: Largemouth Bass Vision

This doesn't pass muster with me but it's interesting anyway.

 

[Browning Slayer]

I have boxes of Raps, they're a favorite of mine. There are only really 5 colors of the standard Rapala minnow: Silver, Gold, Trout, Fire Tiger, Hot Mustard. I'm sure there are others on the shelf, but those are the ones you want.

Rapala’s suck...

 

[Browning Slayer]

People that say “colors don’t matter” have never been successful at Crappie fishing year round on big Public bodies of water..

Just sayin...