Weekly Musky Tip – Steve Heiting – Musky Hunter
Category: fishing tips
May 20th, 2020 by Keith Worrall 124
Modified May 20th, 2020 at 10:50 AM
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Steve Heiting
My weekly musky tip …
Picking Lure Color
Lure color is one of the most difficult decisions for a musky hunter because the lure with a cool paint job that caught our eye in a tackle shop or at a sport show often isn’t the best for the moment.
Here are my considerations when picking lure color:
1. Predominant forage — Do the muskies in your water eat mostly perch, suckers, shad, ciscoes, or something else? Do I want to “match the hatch” or use something different that would stand out, say a perch-colored bait among a school of silvery ciscoes or shad?
2. Lake idiosyncrasies — A silver/black bucktail doesn’t look like any living creature, and the same goes for a copper/red color pattern. On some waters you don’t want to use anything else. And, sometimes, a certain lure color gets hot for no apparent reason.
3. Water color — Clearer water typically calls for natural-colored baits, whereas stained, turbid or bloomed water may require fluorescents, or color patterns with high contrast.
4. Sky conditions — A lure that looked great in the water under cloudy conditions may look completely wrong in bright sun.
5. Time of day — Midday sun illuminates color deeper into the water column than a rising or setting sun. Bright green or chartreuse seems to glow in the evening. In low light conditions or after dark, you may wish to consider black for greatest profile.
After all of this, choosing the “right” color is still subjective. When looking at my bait in the water, I want its edges to seem uneven or soft, rather than sharp and distinct. If I can’t see the lure very well it’s likely the muskies can’t, either, and the chances of them making a mistake and eating it are much greater. I want the lure to be visible, but not dramatic.