Different Colors, Different Weights, More Fish
- By The Fishing Wire
By Bob Jensen
Another year of fishing has gone by. As I look back on the past fishing season, I can’t help but remember other past fishing seasons. Many, many past fishing seasons. As I remember those days, I’m reminded of how much I’ve learned about fishing and fishing techniques. And then I’m reminded of how, when I thought I had mastered a particular fishing technique, I discovered that I hadn’t. There are almost always exceptions to a technique. Same with fish species. Just when I thought I had the walleyes or bass or whatever figured out, the walleyes or bass or whatever taught me that I didn’t have them figured out. Lure color and lure weight are factors that can contribute to better fish catches.
There are times when fish, any species of fish, will respond better to a particular lure color. A very successful angler once told me that when it comes to walleyes and color, “walleyes like any color as long as it’s chartreuse”. Another very successful walleye catcher said the same thing but substituted orange as the color walleyes like best. Come to find out, Walleye Catcher #1 only used chartreuse lures, and #2 only used orange lures. That’s why they had the most success with those colors. Much of the time they caught walleyes, but every now and then they didn’t. Eventually #1 and #2 started experimenting with other colors when the walleyes weren’t biting. They started catching even more walleyes. There are times when fish want a particular color.
Another color quirk: If you’ve been catchin’em good on a particular color but the action slows, try a different color. Fish can become conditioned to color.
It’s surprising how jig weight can impact how many fish we catch. It became very obvious to me in my early days of chasing largemouth bass how important jig weight could be. In the lakes that my friends and I fished in central and north central Minnesota, walleyes were the preferred fish. Largemouth bass were mostly ignored, and some anglers even considered bass to be undesirable. My friends and I preferred to chase the largemouth because they were usually very willing biters. When we went fishing, we spent almost all of our time in the summer on the deep weedline casting an eighth ounce jig with a four inch plastic worm on six pound test line. When the bass were really biting, we used a larger worm. The larger worm was more appealing to larger bass.
However, every now and then the bass got finicky. We would work our eighth ounce jig/four inch worm along the weedline and couldn’t get bit as often as usual. On one of those slow-bite days, I picked up a rod that had a sixteenth ounce jighead tied on. I threaded my four inch worm on the lighter head and started casting. It didn’t happen immediately, but eventually the bass revealed that on that day they liked this combination better. The lighter jig made the bait fall slower. On slow-bite days, the bass preferred the slower fall. We learned that we could slow the fall of the bait even more by going to a little heavier line or a bulkier bait. Heavier line and bulkier baits have more water resistance so they fall slower.
When we go fishing, we need to remember that, if we’re not having success doing what we’re doing, do something else. In fact, that’s a pretty good rule for life in general.
Photo Caption—When the fish aren’t eating what you’re using, use something else.