Key Factors

[snake River]

I also will have to agree with the above dark colors such as black blues dark green work extremely well at times probably one of my favorite colors is black.

[Crappiehappy]

I tie with an Array of colors, and will fish a body of water with the jigs. I keep a journal of what did best of each lake etc. In my experience what does good one outing , does not produce the same the next outing...

[troutingintas]

Crappiehappy, do you examine the stomach contains to also put it in your journal. If so, is the any correlation between the array of jig colors and the color of the fishes stomach contents?

[shipahoy41]

I tend to use proven color combinations like chartreuse and black, chartreuse and white, chartreuse and pink or chartreuse and orange. That will just about cover any water condition. I make sure the tail is not so long as the crappie cannot bite the metal hook and I usually tie with flat waxed red nylon thread to give a little gill simulation. Add some krystal flash to imitate scales and take along a boatload of confidence that what you have created is what the fish want to eat.

[Redman]

troutingintas Yes I personally know the good doctor Keith Jones and you have to remember the he does most of his work in a Lab. He in my opinion does a better job on scent than color.

My way of thinking which is my own is to make the jig match the bait fish that the fish are currently feeding on. Keep a bait fish profile and Remember sometimes they will take a attractor pattern over every thing else.When you get these fish figured out please let all of us know. Most of the time it is a educated guess at best.

Redman

[fish_4_all]

Find what works, tweak it, try it again, tweak it again and again and again........ It is personal preference and what catches fish along with a healthy dose of confidence. I have patterns I have fished for years that never fail me but I spend a lot of time tying them slightly different to see what might get more bites at different times.

My biggest discovery was a salmon fly I use that has always worked really well. Fished it and tied it the same way i was shown for many years. I then decided to try a shorter hook and improved my success quite a bit. Even the smallest tweaks can make a huge difference. Adding some flash, leaving it out, tying a short body, adding eyes, removing eyes, adding another color in the tail. Most of the fun in tying, for me, is making small changes and seeing if they work. Once in a while you hit a great pattern and find all the tweaks. Then you get out another pattern and do it all again.