Best Colors for Bass Lures (Every Season, Bait-Type, etc.)
Knowing the best colors to select for bass fishing can be a very simple thing. Seasonal impacts do play a part, but the two biggest factors are water clarity and sunlight conditions.
When water is clear, fish with natural “ghost” colors that are translucent and will resemble baitfish in that clear well-lit water. As water visibility is reduced, go with solid patterns and less flash. In murkier water, go with white or chartreuse colors that will be visible to bass and draw big bites.
Please check out this very helpful guide to the best times to fish for bass. It contains a ton of helpful information about the best seasons for bass fishing, how bass fishing changes throughout the day, and tips for bass fishing times.
Best Bass Fishing Colors
Just about any color lure will catch bass but I prefer to break them into 3 categories: natural, solid, and bold. Always start with natural “ghost” colors, then try solid colors, and then whites or chartreuse if the water is stained and they aren’t responding to the first two color categories.
When I am talking about natural color, I am looking to trick fish. I want the most natural looking presentation I can find. Ghost colors are the best. These are those translucent “see through” colors that really do mimic a baitfish in clear water.
When fishing in clear water, bass will study your bait. This is especially true in finesse baits. You want to trick them into believing your bait is the real thing.
Solid colors are your colors where there isn’t a ton of dimension to the bait. You have those solid blues, greens, blacks but they aren’t “ghost”. You can’t see through them.
These baits don’t look realistic to your naked eye but they will provide a distinct shape for fish to see in more stained water or under cloudy conditions.
Solid colored baits work best for bass when water clarity is reduced in the lake and they are no longer hitting ghost patterns. When water clarity really peters out in stained or dirtier water, go with white or chartreuse.
These colors will be easier for bass to see in stained water. Something like a chartreuse shad color is ideal. Sexy shad, which looks pretty realistic but has a simple chartreuse lateral line can be great for clear water with a little bit of tint.
Click here to learn about night bass fishing. You may also be interested in learning about morning bass fishing.
Realistic vs. Bold
Realistic lures work best when you are trying to trick a fish into biting. Your goal is to present a colored bait that looks and moves just like the real thing. Natural colors like greens, watermelon, and translucent ghost colors are prime examples of natural colors.
These realistic colors can catch a ton of bass, especially in clear water or when finesse fishing. Finesse fishing especially requires a natural look because bass have a ton of time to study a bait before biting. Bold colors are your brighter colors. I’m talking about oranges, chartreuses, whites, and pinks.
Many of these colors are not found in any natural bait but still draw bites. These bolder colors really can stand out in stained or muddy water and also on cloudy days.
More importantly, these colors can be used to incite strikes from bass. Use bold colors on reaction baits like jerkbaits as they get a bass’s attention and can help draw out that attack instinct from the school.
Bass don’t have hands so when they see these weirdly colored baits, they are curious but their best way of figuring out the weird bait is by using their mouths. Now when you are talking about reds and some oranges, these are crawfish colors.
These can be really realistic if the red or dark brown is “ghost” with detail or can be bolder like a firehouse red or orange. The latter works great in murkier water but when bass are really targeting crawfish, especially early spring before the bass shift focus to school baitfish.
Conditions: Best Colors for Bass
Water Clarity
Water clarity is the most important factor when it comes to color selection. Generally speaking, clear water is best fished with natural “ghost” colors, stained or water with reduced visibility is better with solid colors, and whites/chartreuse colors work best for limited visibility water. Now, remember that water clarity is relative.
If you are fishing on a waterway that has water normally in the 1-2 foot visibility-range, then ghost colors can work really well even if you can’t hardly see your bait right beneath the water’s surface. Fish adapt to their normal conditions and they will react to that baseline water clarity condition.
Sunlight
Sunlight does play some impact on the color of bait you select. If you were to watch baitfish swim underwater on a sunny day, you would notice a good amount of light reflecting off those fish, especially shad, shiners, and silver-sides. On the other hand, under cloudy skies, you would notice very little if any flash coming off.
Bass are definitely not dumb. They will be looking for those tell-tale signs the bait is legit, especially on lakes that get a lot of fishing pressure.
On bright sunny days, you want to throw something that puts off flash. American shad, for example, is an excellent jerkbait color.
If you are fishing with soft plastics, look for flakes and iridescent coloration that will put off some sparkle and imitate natural fish. Now when it comes to bladed baits, you need to be careful.
A little bit of flash goes a long way. Use silver blades in clear water and gold blades are better for stained or muddy water.
In clear water with a bright sun overhead, a big blade can put off way too much flash and turn fish off. Instead, start fishing first with smaller blades and up-sizing if you need to. A little flash is natural, and swimming LED light is not.
How to Choose the Right Color
There are some gorgeous colors on the market among crankbaits, jerkbaits, and spoons. There are also some goofy looking ones. But the truth is with so many countless colors and paint jobs out there, selecting the right color can seem daunting.
When you get on the water, check water clarity first and the available sunlight second. If the water is crystal clear, go with more natural colors that closely mimic natural food and baitfish.
If the water is stained or clarity is less-than-perfect, go with solid colors that will better show up to bass.
Chartreuse and white are two colors great for stained or muddy water where bass have a hard time seeing prey.
On sunny days, opt for baits with a bit of flash as that sunlight will reflect off baitfish just the same. On cloudy or overcast days, flash is useless and could look unnatural.
Match the Hatch
It is important to match whatever it is bass are naturally feeding on. Most lakes and ponds have some dominant baitfish species like shad, ciscos, shiners, fathead minnows, or pin minnows. There could also be crappie, bluegill, carp, and perch.
In many western lakes and reservoirs stocked with trout or kokanee, those will be huge bass producing baits. Bass grow huge feeding on trout and kokanee. Of course, frogs and crawfish are always going to be good bass baits regardless of body of water.
If you are fishing on clear days and going for that realistic bite, you need to match what bass are feeding on. If you’re going more for that reaction bite, sometimes going bold with more unnatural “jarring” colors can be what it takes.
Color Categories
Natural & Ghost
Natural colors are my favorite to fish with. I love tricking bass into biting. When fishing with premium hard baits like jerkbaits, crankbaits, and lipless baits, you can find some $100 paint jobs on baits costing less than $15. They look good.
Go for ghost translucent colors, where in water, you can imagine the true outline of the bait would be harder to make out. That is exactly how baitfish look in clear water under sunny skies. Paint jobs out of Japan are especially striking and realistic.
Look for color names like ITO Wakasagi and Wabi-Sabi. These paint jobs look incredible. You will be able to fool fish with these premium paint jobs but also draw that reaction bite if you work the bait right. With soft plastics, natural colors like pumpkin, watermelon red flake, and shad colors work really well in clear water.
Solid Color
Solid colors are great for bass when fishing in murkier water or under less than bright sunlight. Solid colors show up a lot better to bass in dirtier water. I’m not talking about reduced visibility, not necessarily dirty water.
Just like a shad or minnow shows up translucent looking in clear sun-coated water, those same baitfish show up more solid with defined outlines in murkier water or on cloudier days. These fish are also a lot easier for bass to see and hunt.
Some really solid colors include browns, green, blue, and black. You could also go with natural colors like watermelon but try to avoid baits with a ton of flake which reflect light. Also try to avoid ghost colored baits that are partially see-through. It won’t show up as well and won’t look nearly as natural.
White & Chartreuse
When the water has reduced visibility, it may be time to switch to a white or chartreuse colored bait. Chartreuse is simply a fancy word for greenish yellow color that is often just yellow looking but anglers get bent out of shape if you call it yellow.
It is a color that shows up really well in darker water, in muddier water, or when the clouds are out. It also catches a ton of fish.
One of my favorite bait colors is the sexy shad which is a natural solid looking gray with a thin chartreuse lateral line. It looks great in the water and is a little bit of chartreuse bold with a lot of natural shad coloration.
Craws
Craw coloration work well in any water clarity level and under any light condition as long as bass are feeding on or near crawfish. Crawfish are one of the very best bass colors. Period.
Pretty much any red, brown, pumpkin, watermelon, or orange color is patterned after crawfish. The general rule of thumb is to throw natural ghost craw patterns in clear water and bolder oranges or firehouse red colors in muddier water. Late winter and early spring is the best time of year to fish for bass with craw patterns.
The best advice I can give you is to throw ghost craw colors that are more translucent in winter and into very early spring. There will come a time when bass will switch off that ghost craw pattern and bite heavily on orange or bright solid reds. You will notice the change.
Bass will keep hammering craw patterns until the shad and other baitfish start getting corralled into trap-zones by schools of bass and the bass shift their focus onto shad. Once this happens, stop throwing craws and start throwing shad baits.
For a complete article on how and when to throw craw patterns for big bass, this article I wrote will really open your eyes.
Now one bonus tip for you. If bass are pinning shad against a rock bluff or rip-rap, there are still crawfish there. A red craw pattern can draw big bites from bass even when they are focused on shad or shiners.
Specific Bait Color Guide
Worms
Bass bite plastic worms because they look like baitfish most commonly. Sometimes they bite them because they look like a small trout, small bass, or bluegill. Now obviously to the human eye, a plastic worm looks absolutely nothing like a deep-bodied bluegill but you aren’t a bass looking items in 15-feet of water.
Your goal is to mimic whatever fish it is that bass are feeding on with your worm. The general color rules do still apply. Go with natural colors on sunny days and in clear water.
Go with solid bold colors in reduced visibility and overcast conditions. I love watermelon red flake, green pumpkin, and emerald shad color in clear water and purple or morning dawn in murkier water.
Soft Plastics
The above rules really apply to all soft plastics but they have some specific caveats. Creature baits are any kind of crazy floppy, dense, or tentacle-y bait that mimics some kind of water creature on the bottom.
Most commonly, they mimic crawfish. Treat them like crawfish. I almost always recommend fishing watermelon red flake or green pumpkin in clear water and in murky water, go with a soft plastic that has watermelon red flake mixed with dark blue.
The less visibility, the more I want you to put that blue side facing upwards towards the bass. You can dropshot or ned rig creature baits but my favorite way is on the trailer of a jig.
When you go this approach, you are going full-blown craw pattern and bass will hammer them.
Swimbaits & Glide Baits
These are the big bass catchers. In this category you can have realistic and bold. Bold is there to draw a reaction from bass and realistic is there only to trick bass. I prefer fishing realistic baits for bass because you can usually target the biggest females.
If you are fishing on a clear reservoir out west that has trout or kokanee, that is the color pattern you need to go with. If your lake gets rainbow trout stocked in it frequently, go with a darker trout. If they don’t stock the lake often, a lighter trout is better.
But if your lake has kokanee and trout, fish with a kokanee pattern. If you live elsewhere and don’t have trout in your lake, you probably have bluegill and some type of baitfish like shad or shiners. I know shiners are the baitfish for bass in Florida.
Match whatever it is your bass like eating. When you are talking about soft swimbaits like a Keitech, I recommend going natural in clear water and bolder in muddy water.
Pro Blue Red Pearl or Natural Shad are great natural colors and there are a variety of Chartreuse colors that work great when the water visibility is down.
Blade Baits
For bladed baits, make sure you match the water clarity of the water with the color of the actual bait. I’ve covered that plenty by now so I want to focus on the blade itself. Match the blade size with the sunlight exposure.
If the sun is bright overhead, go with a smaller blade. I have found poor results fishing with large silver blades on sunny days. I think it is just too flash and spooks bass. Dial down the size of the blade until bass start smoking that bait.
Now on cloudier days, you can upsize your blade a bit. I prefer silver blades over colored blades and golden blades most of the time.
Golden blades can work better than silver blades in muddy water though. I don’t care for colored blades unless they are red and you throwing a craw pattern spinnerbait.
Frogs & Topwater
If you are fishing topwater baits mimicking shad breaking the surface, go with a white, black, or natural coloration. Don’t waste your time throwing ghost colors. Instead, select solid grays, whites, or blacks. Frog colors are really only important when you’re referring to the belly color.
Bass don’t get a great look at the body of a frog but they do see that belly. For me, it is a white-bellied, yellow-bellied, or black frog. I prefer white-bellied frogs but a lot of bass anglers claim that a pure black frog works best in the dead of summer. Experiment for yourself.
Best Color for Cloudy & Overcast Days
The best color for cloudy or overcast day bass fishing would be a more solid color like black, gray, white, or chartreuse. These colors will really stand out against the backdrop and even in limited visibility water, bass will find them.
Translucent ghost colors work great on sunny days in clear water but go for solid colors in cloudy conditions. Personally, I would still stick with more natural colors like green pumpkin or watermelon red flake but I would avoid ghost colors or anything with a ton of flash.
Best Color for Nighttime Bass Fishing
For night fishing, I like dark blue or black. I have heard of other colors working, but for soft plastic worms or jigs, nothing beats a blue and black color. At night, you really shouldn’t be fishing any moving baits.
You need to slow down and go finesse so the bass can find the bait. The only moving bait I recommend would be a chatterbait or buzzbait because the pulsations and noise can draw bass in and give them enough to locate the bait. I still recommend worms or jigs in blue or black 100%.
Seasonal Guide: Bass Lure Colors
Spring
I like to break spring down into 3 time windows: early spring, pre-spawn, and spawn. In early spring, bass are likely still in deeper water keying in on crawfish. During early-early spring, you should be throwing translucent ghost craw reds or browns.
As spring progresses, bass will flip a switch and start hitting bolder oranges or firehouse red patterns better than the natural ghost reds.
Bass will begin schooling up and pushing baitfish into bottlenecks whether that be against ledges, into deep coves, or into the backs of shallow bays where they can dismantle the schools and feed.
Once this happens during the pre-spawn, go with the baitfish colors like natural shad, sexy shad, or emerald shiner. During the spawn in late spring, bass will be in shallow water and will respond best to bed robbers.
Bluegills, crawfish, and salamanders are the primary culprits that bass want to kill. My favorite pattern is a bluegill pattern. Either go with a bluegill-colored jig or a bluegill-colored swimbait and creep that thing into the bed. The aggressive male will be the first one to bite the bait but you are really after that big female that will take a little extra convincing.
Summer
Once the spawn has ended, bass will do one of two things. Some will branch off and head deep. The rest will remain shallow and stay there all summer. Bass that head deep will be feeding on shad, trout, and kokanee.
Fish these bass with big swimbaits in early spring and then deep diving crankbaits, flutter spoons, or swimbaits the rest of summer. I prefer to fish these bass with natural patterns that have realistic paint jobs.
For the bass that remain shallow, think about what other bait remains shallow. I think primarily bluegill, crappie, crawfish, and frogs. Those are the patterns I recommend you throw at them. Those colors will be awesome all summer long.
Fall
During fall, bass are eating mostly schooling baitfish. Now let me say this, in early fall some bass will key in on crawfish. But most bass will be feeding heavily on shad and other schooling baitfish as soon as that fall transition happens all the way until the end of autumn.
Go with natural ghost shad colors. Also, throw some larger jerkbaits and flukes. I recommend Smoking Shad if you are fishing with Zoom Super Flukes.
Winter
During winter, you should slow way down and fish finesse. I really like fishing with ned rigs and blade baits. For ned rigs, go with morning dawn, green pumpkin, black, and translucent shad depending on the water clarity and sunlight conditions.
For blade baits, go with gold or chartreuse in muddy water and natural baitfish colors in clear water. That should be the pattern you follow most of the winter. Once February rolls around, start tossing craw patterns. Go with natural ghost reds and browns to catch those bass feeding on craws.
