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MICHIGAN BASS: STOP PICKING YOUR LURE COLOR BY WHAT LOOKS GOOD TO YOU
- Brian Szafran
- Aug 25
- 7 min read
By Brian Szafran
Most bass anglers have a handful of colors they trust.
Green pumpkin.
Watermelon.
Black and blue.
Chartreuse.
White.
Maybe a little red when the water gets dirty.
And there’s nothing wrong with having confidence colors.
I have them too.
But here’s something I’ve been thinking about lately:
What if we’re choosing some of our lure colors based on what looks good to us instead of what the bass can actually see?
That’s a bigger deal than it sounds.
Because bass don’t see a lure the way we see it sitting in our hand.
And neither do walleye.
In fact, the way those two fish perceive color is different enough that I don’t think we should automatically use the same color logic for both species.
That’s especially interesting right now.
We’re heading toward the end of August in Michigan, and bass aren’t necessarily doing one thing all day anymore.
The sun changes.
The water changes.
The fish change.
And sometimes I think changing the color of the lure is more important than changing the lure itself.
Your Favorite Color Doesn’t Matter to the Bass
Here’s the mistake I think we all make.
We open the tackle box.
We look at five different colors.
One looks great.
Another one looks boring.
We pick the one we like.
I’ve done it.
Everybody has.
But the bass isn’t looking at your tackle box.
It’s looking at what’s coming through the water.
And that water is changing the appearance of your lure.
Light penetration changes with depth.
Water clarity changes.
Cloud cover changes the amount of available light.
And the farther your lure gets from the surface, the more the water starts filtering the light that reaches it.
That means color isn’t just about color.
It’s about light.
Bass Don’t See Color Exactly the Way We Do
This is where things get interesting.
Research on largemouth bass shows that they have color vision, but their visual system isn’t simply a smaller version of human vision. Bass have photoreceptors sensitive to different parts of the spectrum, and behavioral testing shows that they can use color to distinguish objects.
One particularly interesting finding is the bass’s sensitivity to red.
That makes me think differently about some of the lures I throw.
A red craw pattern isn’t automatically a magic bass color.
But I also wouldn’t dismiss red as just another paint job.
There may be times when that color provides a visual cue the fish can distinguish extremely well.
That’s different from saying, “Bass see red best, so always throw red.”
I don’t believe in that kind of fishing.
Conditions still matter.
Now Compare That With Walleye
This is where I think anglers can really get themselves thinking.
Walleye are built for a different visual world.
They’re famous for feeding effectively in low light, and research has found that their visual sensitivity is different from that of bass.
That’s one reason I don’t treat a walleye color recommendation as automatically being a bass color recommendation.
The fish aren’t looking through the same set of visual conditions.
They’re not hunting in exactly the same way.
And they don’t necessarily interpret the same lure the same way.
That’s important when we’re talking about colors like chartreuse, green, orange, yellow, gold and red.
We sometimes treat lure colors like they’re universal.
They’re not.
This Is Where Late August Gets Interesting
Late August is one of my favorite times to think about this.
The bass are dealing with changing conditions.
Early morning might give you low light.
Then the sun climbs.
The angle of the light changes.
Water temperature can be different from one area to another.
You might have clear water in one lake and stained water in another.
And the bass may be using completely different parts of the water column.
So why would I expect one lure color to work all day?
I wouldn’t.
That’s when I’d start changing colors before I start changing everything else.
Not necessarily the lure.
Not necessarily the retrieve.
Not necessarily the location.
Sometimes just the color.
The Color I Start With Isn’t Always the Color I Finish With
Let’s say I’m throwing a soft plastic early in the morning.
The water is relatively clear.
There’s still some low light.
I may start natural.
Something that resembles what the bass are already eating.
Green pumpkin.
Watermelon.
A shad-type color.
Something subtle.
But now the sun gets higher.
The bass are still there.
The bait is still there.
My presentation is still good.
But the bite starts slowing down.
That’s when I start asking myself:
Did the fish stop wanting the lure—or did the lure stop standing out?
That’s a completely different question.
And sometimes I’ll change color before I change anything else.
Don’t Automatically Go Brighter
Here’s another mistake.
When a bite slows down, anglers often reach for the brightest color they own.
Chartreuse.
Hot pink.
Electric orange.
Something that looks like it belongs in a neon sign.
Sometimes that’s exactly what the fish want.
But not always.
If the water is clear and the sun is bright, a natural presentation may be much more convincing.
If the water is stained, increasing contrast can become more important.
And there’s another option people overlook:
Go dark.
Black can create a strong silhouette in conditions where a lighter lure simply blends into the background.
That’s one reason I like having both ends of the spectrum available.
Natural.
And extreme.
Think About Contrast, Not Just Color
This is probably the biggest thing I’d take away from all of this.
Instead of asking:
“What color do bass like?”
Ask:
“What color will stand out against what the bass is looking at?”
That’s a much better question.
A green pumpkin bait over vegetation may look completely different from the same bait over a dark bottom.
A white bait over a light bottom may disappear.
A black bait against a bright sky may create a completely different silhouette.
A red accent may be subtle in one situation and much more noticeable in another.
The lure didn’t change.
The background changed.
That’s something I think about a lot more now.
Why I Carry More Than One Color
This is why I don’t like having one color of a lure.
If I really like a particular bait, I want options.
Maybe I have it in:
Green pumpkin.
White.
Chartreuse.
Black.
A shad pattern.
A craw pattern with red.
I’m not carrying them because I think six colors are necessary.
I’m carrying them because I don’t know what the water is going to look like when I get there.
And I don’t know what the bass are going to want that day.
That’s the whole point.
Here’s My Late-August Color Experiment
Here’s something I’d actually try.
Take one lure you have a lot of confidence in.
Don’t change the size.
Don’t change the action.
Don’t change the retrieve.
Don’t change the location.
Change only the color.
Fish it for a while.
Then change colors.
Watch what happens.
If the natural color produces, you’ve learned something.
If the brighter color suddenly produces, you’ve learned something.
If black starts getting bites when everything else stops, you’ve learned something.
You’re not just catching bass.
You’re learning how those fish are responding to the visual presentation.
That’s information you can carry to the next lake.
And This Is Where Bass and Walleye Become Really Interesting
I’ve caught enough different species to know that I don’t want to treat every predator the same.
A color that I have confidence in for walleye isn’t automatically going to be my first choice for bass.
And vice versa.
Walleye’s low-light visual capabilities are one reason color and contrast can become especially interesting around dawn, dusk and deeper water. Bass, meanwhile, are also using color information but have a different visual system.
That’s why I think anglers should stop talking about lure color as though there is one universal answer.
There isn’t.
The fish matters.
The water matters.
The light matters.
The depth matters.
And sometimes the background matters more than the color itself.
My Late-August Bass Color Rotation
If I were putting together a handful of bass colors right now, I’d want a mixture rather than six variations of the same thing.
Natural
Green pumpkin and watermelon-type colors.
These are where I’d start when the water is relatively clear and I’m trying to imitate the forage naturally.
Shad
White, pearl and baitfish patterns.
Especially when the bass are feeding on smaller baitfish.
Dark
Black or black-and-blue.
Not because bass magically love black, but because a dark profile can stand out when the light and background make lighter colors difficult to distinguish.
Bright
Chartreuse or another high-visibility color.
Something I’d reach for when I want to make the bait easier to notice in stained water or changing light.
Red
This is one I’d keep around.
Not because I’m going to throw red all day.
But because bass have demonstrated an ability to distinguish red, and sometimes a red-accented presentation can give the fish something different to key on.
Gold
Another color I like having available when I want flash and a warmer baitfish look.
The point isn’t to carry every color ever made.
It’s to have different visual presentations.
My Go-To Gear
I don’t need six completely different lures just because I’m changing colors. I want a handful of proven bass baits that give me different profiles and different visual presentations.
A confidence color and a simple starting point when the water is reasonably clear and I want a natural presentation.
A clean baitfish presentation I’d keep ready when bass are feeding on shad or other lighter-colored forage.
My darker, high-contrast option when I want a strong silhouette around cover or in lower-visibility conditions.
A darker color I’d keep in the rotation when I want something different from green pumpkin without going completely black.
A natural finesse option I’d want when I think the bass need a more subtle presentation.
My brighter option when I want to change the visual presentation without completely abandoning a hard-bait approach.
Final Thought
I don’t think bass anglers need more colors.
I think we need to understand the colors we already have.
That’s the difference.
We see a green pumpkin bait.
A bass sees something different.
We see a bright chartreuse lure.
A bass sees something different.
We see the same lure in our hand at noon that we saw at sunrise.
The fish doesn’t.
The light changed.
The water changed.
The background changed.
And the way that lure appears to the fish can change with it.
That’s why the next time the August bass bite slows down, I’m not automatically reaching for a different lure.
I might reach for a different color.
Because maybe the bass didn’t stop eating.
Maybe they just stopped seeing my bait the way they were seeing it an hour ago.
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