Clear bait question

Since I and the wife have been laying here half dead with this wonderful flu crap [she has the flu, I have lung issues] I dug out my fishing journal to look over what I accomplished over the last open water season. I noticed part way into last season that clear baits, those without any colorant, hi lite or pearl, seemed to really take a lot of fish. While basically clear in the plastic department they did have uv enhancement and glitter. Some of the baits were made as a solid clear while others had either a chartreuse, hot pink or fluorescent orange tail. By far and away in my journal the solid clear and the clear/chartreuse tail caught about equal numbers of fish and combined put the other two tail colors back in the shadows. I'll note that I really only cook up three of what I call clear colors: firecracker, bluegill, and a clear with fire-opal micro glitter. All three get done as a solid and with the tail colors. The journal showed no one of those colors being better than the other two and basically when a clear color was hot any one of the three would do well.

So, how many of you favor a clear bait? Do you see periods when a clear bait excels, such as early/late day or cloudy vs. sunny? How about warmer or colder water periods? I'll be clear here that I am fishing crappies so try to stay inside those thought lines if you can. I'd like to see if what my journal is showing me is consistent with what others have noted.

On clear or transparent on the fl orange with gold glitter in chartreuse tale seem to work the best for me in the evenings in the summer months water temperature about 65 to 70° and clear water. we have pretty good luck with quite a few of that clear colors but the orange and chartreuse were the best. of forgot to mention air temperature 99° and a little bit warmer. July and August and through September.

Bob...when I said clear, I meant without any colorant. Clear, like in water.

What clarity of water you fishing? I have mud bowl lakes around here and haven't really tried anything translucent.

Most all of our water is stained and most can be run-off prone so muddy spells occur often too. Every once in a great while the waters around us clear up enough to allow a 10 foot secchi, but that's not common. Good clarity on the big river in this area is maybe 3 feet

Going to have to try more clearer bait this year.

sorry about that Tom guess I shouldn't read a little bit more clear before I open my mouth I have never used crystal clear plastic baits to fish with.

We fish the Famous White River which flows through several large Dams,Beaver,Bull shoals and the Norfork river flows through Norfork dam into the white River!! Which means gin clear water!! Some of the best colors or Firecracker,Clear with silver,Clear with gold flake,clear with orange flake!! Opal with glow pigments(makes a light green color) with chart or orange tail (bream) colors are good!! When we fish the border waters of Minn/canada we can take these same colors and do well in those waters!! Barlows tackle has some good opal colors in their plastics we order for these waters!!

Clear with gold flake and clear with black fake has been doing well for me.

Clear palstsol with black metal flake, gold, and silver...(Sand) killer bait in clear water

No clear baits for me. Opaque baits out perform in our water. 6" of visability would be considered crystal clear water here lol

Tom, sorry to hear about you an the wife, hope you both get better fast. Becarefull on the respitory symtoms there is a bad bug down here that requires antibiotics to clear it up. Can you show a pic of your clear baits? they are really intriging to me. I have a lot of gin clear ponds in so il that I fish and am willing to give them a try. Thanks Dave.

Here's a couple Fireman.

http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/a...0e679f77e7.jpg

The one with the heavy glitter is bluegill. This one has been re-heated/re-melted and the blue and green glitters are beginning to leach into the clear, but I caught ton's of fish this fall using the stained clear. The other color is red, blue and silver micro glitter. Hard to see in the picture but its in there. This bait also was met with great success last fall. Normally I make this one with the micro glitter using .015 glitters like the bluegill and call it firecracker. You can sub purple glitter for the blue and make it a purple firecracker and it too is a fish catcher. I did a simple fuscia glitter in .015 glitter for a friend and he did super in that just before ice up.

Clear plastic lends itself to a real wide range of glitters and in many regards the glitter does more than colorant. With the teeth of winter coming down hard right now my fishing will be on hold. But I am planning to expand this clear concept a great deal for my personal use.

Thanks CTom, that explains a lot. I made some clears and the plastic also began to leach but they came out great. thanks for the glitter colors for bluegill and firecracker,I will need to order some more colors in micro. As i said before I fish quite a few clear ponds in so il an cant wait ti use theese new baits. Again thanks. Will post pics later. Dave