Do you really use all those colors?

I haven't posted here much lately, as life has gotten in the way the past few years. Starting a family, and being married has really made me look at the things I want versus need, and the things I keep around versus sale/toss out, etc that I don't use or need. Now that has brought me to the aspect of jigs.

I notice a lot of people here, heck most that tie, post a wide variety of beautiful, well crafted, colorful jigs. We all know if there is one species of fish that "requires" a lot of different colors, it's the crappie. I got to thinking, I've got a pretty good variety of tieing materials in several colors as well, but I could probably still catch 95% of the fish I catch if I just had white, black, and yellow/chartruse heads, red, white, or black thread, and chartuse/yellow, white, and black tail material, and if I wanted more body, white, red, chartruse/yellow and black chenille.

Pink is another I'd throw in the list of possibles, even though I don't require it.

I've caught on blue, but I think if I had any other color on, I could have done just as well.

Ive caught on orange, actually one of my larger crappies came off of a 1/64oz orange and yellow marabou.

I need to re-up some supplies, get rid of older stuff that is just brittle/dry rotted, and got to thinking, heck I could probably get by with just a couple of colors total and be perfectly happy. Sure they don't appeal to the eye as much or get that WOW factor, but they still put 95% of the fish in the boat that I catch, probably more. I always think though, "they've probably seen this color combo come by them 1,000,000 times. I should probably try something theyve never seen"....occasionally I do, but most of the time, if they're not hitting what I give em, they won't hit it if I change it up.

You can use whatever colors suit you. But I can tell you that some of the guys have posted that the only thing they do is coat the bare jig head so it doesn't oxidize then tie their jigs. We can tie simply beautiful jigs with fancy paint jobs but in the end - it's what the fish want's that counts the most, if what your using works stay with it. If you want to try some other colors you could always mix two colors to get what you want and try em.

I used to just use bare jig heads. Then started painting them, you know, progressing more and more.

In no way am I knocking, and certainly if I sold my jigs, I'd offer up every color I had time to tie and thought would sell and catch fish, but for some reason, and maybe Im just old fashioned, I always draw myself back to those colors I listed, and a combination of them.

I'm a huge fan of a yellow head, plain jane red thread, no chenille, and white marabou or kip tail....and just the opposite on the head and tail colors. Also a huge fan of solid black. Of course I use a lot of solid white, solid chartruse.

I could just throw them all away, and use some crazy colors, probably catch fish, and be a believer in those too lol Probably just over analyzing but it's something I think about to help pass the time.

I agree. 95% of the time, I fish with one of about 6 color(s) that are my go-to baits. But one of the effects of the addiction of jig tying is trying all the different colors and combinations. Vicious cycle.....they come out with new colors chenille, paint, feathers.....I buy!!!

SM is right and you know I hear lots of guys on different lakes and many of them have a special color that is their favorite and they are usually not my favorites at all. I do believe different lakes have different colds that work best on that lake. I live on Toledo Bend and my home is only about 25 miles from Big Sam Rayburn and these two lakes as close as they are have some colors that work well on both, but the best colors on Big Sam sometimes are not near as good here on T-Bend! Big Sam is well known in bass fishing for a big red Rattle Trap in spring to really get after the bass and they will work here to, but not like on Rayburn. It doesn't end there as even soft plastic worm colors over there are different as to which color works best on which lake. SO it stands to reason lakes in other states or even a couple hundred miles away it would be easy that they have favorite colors there that we have never used here. Some has to do with what the fisherman has confidence in and that is a very big part of this equasion!

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Originally Posted by skiptomylu

SM is right and you know I hear lots of guys on different lakes and many of them have a special color that is their favorite and they are usually not my favorites at all. I do believe different lakes have different colds that work best on that lake. I live on Toledo Bend and my home is only about 25 miles from Big Sam Rayburn and these two lakes as close as they are have some colors that work well on both, but the best colors on Big Sam sometimes are not near as good here on T-Bend! Big Sam is well known in bass fishing for a big red Rattle Trap in spring to really get after the bass and they will work here to, but not like on Rayburn. It doesn't end there as even soft plastic worm colors over there are different as to which color works best on which lake. SO it stands to reason lakes in other states or even a couple hundred miles away it would be easy that they have favorite colors there that we have never used here. Some has to do with what the fisherman has confidence in and that is a very big part of this equasion!

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Skip some of your jigs come to mind. Excellent craftsmanship and beautiful. Id just about bite em!....but I always find myself falling back to generic colors lol.

While I don't catch many crappie around here, I have found color to be a small selection of what works and what doesn't. The main thing I have found is the brightness or the variation of the color can make more of a difference than anything. I finally decided to get a custom color combination for tying up my jigs and flies for salmon and steelhead. All 3 colors are proven catchers and the combination has proven to be the best I have ever used.

I believe that finding what works in your area and sticking with it will produce more fish than anything. The fish know what they like and for some reason hit whether it be it mimics natural food or they just can't resist it.

I do however firmly believe that slabs and lunkers will not fall for the same old thing a lot of the time. That is when that special jig that has sat in the box for a couple years has it's time in the water. Heavy fished water that have slot limits are classic examples.

Having a couple specialty patterns along with the old standby's covers most situations. I have a couple boxes full of 3 colors for jigs and flies for salmon along with 10 each of 3 "other" colors that when nothing else works they will.

Sorry I can't help more for crappie but I bet that crappie fishing works about the same way.

Skip's right. I'm in an area that has oxbow lakes scattered around, some of them 5 miles apart, but you won't use the same jig in all of them. In some of them I haven't found a color that works at all. Only minners will do the job. I've even noticed that through the course of the day as the sun moves, you'll have to change to keep them biting. If it rained last night, the jig you used day before yesterday will not work.

I started this for more discussion purposes than anything. Not saying we don't need all these colors. I just find it interesting that no matter what I try, I always end up with some sort of combination of the "basic" colors. One thing I have seemed to notice is the fish in my home lake dont like much change at all. If the water gets too far from the "norm" one way or the other, they really seem to shy away from biting at all, even with minnows. Can fish other lakes in less than ideal conditions, that I don't know as well as my home lake, and do fine, but for whatever reason, they get finicky, and maybe this is when one of those "crazy" combinations will work.

Sometimes nothing works, the fish simply won't feed for whatever reason. Conditioning, genetic strain changes over time or whatever it is.

Then there are times they will hit a bare hook.

i love tying and trying all diff kinds of color combos but truley believe biggest factor is waht you have confidence in be it color, size ,etc.

A wise man once told me that fishing baits are not designed to catch fish, just fishermen... I believe this. I have about 50 color combo's in my tackle box, yet I end up using the same few colors. Red/White/Silver, Chartruse, blk/Chartruse, Red/Rhartruse and Blue/Red/Silver

I started tying a few years back, and love all the colors. Everyone here has to admit, if they're honest, that they have been disappointed in a creation that they had very high hopes for. After no interest they pick up the old standard and catch fish. Hence the question; why all the colors? Once I found a couple of patterns that produced I keep pretty busy tying variations of those. If it ain't broke, don't fix it? I enjoy tying the combinations and have been very surprised at a few that I tied from junk on the bench that caught fish like no tomorrow. That keeps my interest new and fresh, keeps me at the bench.

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Originally Posted by skeetbum

I started tying a few years back, and love all the colors. Everyone here has to admit, if they're honest, that they have been disappointed in a creation that they had very high hopes for. After no interest they pick up the old standard and catch fish. Hence the question; why all the colors? Once I found a couple of patterns that produced I keep pretty busy tying variations of those. If it ain't broke, don't fix it? I enjoy tying the combinations and have been very surprised at a few that I tied from junk on the bench that caught fish like no tomorrow. That keeps my interest new and fresh, keeps me at the bench.

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Yep, Ive been tying for about 15 years...caught some fish on new found colors, but generally end tieing a lot of the same color combinations.

I'm sure this won't win me a popularity contest, but I don't think it makes much difference what color or style of bait you use. If the fish are hungry and your bait is right in front of them, they'll bite. I troll four rods; each has a different jig and one of them is a bare hook with a sliver of fish on it. It gets hit as often, if not more often, as the others.

That said, I'm getting into tying jigs because I think they are beautiful. It's like the art form of fishing.