Clear lures? When, why?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jordan Doucet on March 18, 2009 at 6:38pm

Hi Seung,
I like clear or more transparent lures in lakes that are extremely clear particuarly when the bite is tough with no chop and bluebird skys. Examples would be Chelan, Whatcom, Stevens, etc... Personally, I think the clear lures resemble stickleback, salmon smolt, bass fry and juvenille perch.

One of my favorite colors to fish in clearer lakes is the Lucky Craft Ghost Minnow, or a number of roboworms that have a transparent finish. Those Vixens are the real deal, even the tranparent colors. And if you don't like the tranparent, run a strip of white paint on the belly and you are in business!

Just my 2 cents.

-J

Permalink Reply by Ken Day on March 18, 2009 at 8:41pm

I like clear baits in clear water when the fish are just following or bitting other crank baits short. Lake Washington and Columbia in summertime.

Permalink Reply by David Parnicky on March 18, 2009 at 8:42pm

I agree with everything Jordan said about transparent lures. They really can shine in very clear water. Ghost Minnow lucky craft baits are AWESOME on places like Banks, the Columbia, Whatcom, etc. My favorite translucent Roboworm color is Hologram Shad when its bright out and Prism Shad under low light conditions. Also, in very clear water I like to throw a smoke colored tube with red and black flake. Yamamoto used to make an awesome one but they discontinued the color. The more of a transparent smoke color it is, the better I think it will be in clear water as opposed to the darker "smoke" plastics that look more black. A cool trick for a smoke tube is to take this thing called a puff ball (used by steelhead fisherman to float their hooks off the bottom) in the chartruse color and stick it inside the bottom of your tube. This will float the tentacles off the bottom and looks really cool through the translucent tube. Caught a bunch of big smallies doing this over the years.

Permalink Reply by Aaron Christel on March 18, 2009 at 10:11pm

Seung, clear baits can be very effective because of the reflection the baits have. In the wild, most prey animals are colored the way they are to camoflauge themselves. The predators are also camo. This can explain why you catch a smallie one place and he is almost black, and at another lake or another condition (depth, sunlight, ect) the fish can be very light brown. A translucent bait reflects the light from under it. If you are throwing a clear bait in grass, it is going to look green to the fish, or over rocks it may look grey or brown. So, a clear bait is mimicking the surroundings just like a bait fish or a crawfish will. Many marine animals have the ability to change colors like this. From above, the bait looks silver or blue like the sky, from below it looks like its surroundings. And don't think bass can't see colors like we can. In fact, their eyes are even more sensitive than ours to colors. So, a bass doesnt' hit a clear bait because it's clear, it hits it because it looks like most other food sources in the water. The clear water idea is right because in stained water a clear bait will show less reflection and may be more difficult for the fish to see.

Permalink Reply by Ronald Hobbs, Jr. on March 18, 2009 at 10:38pm

High pressured clear lakes, I don't think they resemble anything too much but the fish can't see them as well and identify them as a lure since there is no clear profile, they just see something moving blending in with the environment, must be something to eat, Everything in Nature blends in for the most part, most of the time the preyfish, unless spawning colors are there to attract mates. A clear lure does the same, I have great success on clear rattle baits jerk baits and topwaters, btw I bought a few more to add to my stash at 3 rivers, They are almost not clear enough for me though. I like all clear no paint at all just eyes and I use one red hook on the belly of my bait to give the fish a target, kind of like a matador and a bull.

Permalink Reply by Jerry on March 18, 2009 at 11:07pm

Good info. I fish a few lakes that are crystal clear. Another tool to add to the arsenal.

Permalink Reply by S Hwang on March 19, 2009 at 1:56pm

Great stuff guys - i'll be breaking out my ghost baits a lot more this year!