Crappie jig colors(yellow)

[Smoltz]

I was thinking while sitting here tying jigs.
I don't here many guys talking about the colors yellow much.
It's always chartreuse, white, orange, pink, ect.
Before I order some material to tie some yellow, yellow/red, yellow/black combos. Why not mention much of yellow? Just a color I don't here much being brought up.

[CrappiePappy]

You're right, Smoltz ... you don't hear yellow being talked about, all that much. Not sure why

It's not a particular favorite of mine, either. But, there was one year that yellow/chartreuse was the "flavor of the month", down on Watts Bar Lake in East Tenn. My fishing bud & I bought some yellow/char tubes, while we were there, and did catch some fish on them. But, we haven't caught any on them since then, neither down there or anywhere around here ... so we don't buy or use them anymore.

Yellow will catch fish, we proved that, but purple/char - blue/char - pink have outproduced most all other colors/combos for us, so that's what we use.

[Eagle 1]

Yellow is good on Enid at times.See the bottom right jig .

[Crestliner08]

I can tell you why, based on my learning from many, many years ago. Based on the intensive studies of Doug Hannon, back in the '70's. He tried to find out which colors repelled bass the most. Yellow as the number one offender. Consequently, right, wrong or indifferent, I never use yellow with any jig or lure that I'm presenting to any species.

[TeeDee]

Well, back in the pre-plastic days, Daddy and I tied a bunch, moved and used a bunch of jigs with yellow. Nylon material hand tied to a head. Yellow/white, yellow/red, and yellow/black and the other combo's. Realize that about all we had to work with was yellow, red, black and white. Heck, the first plastics were yellow, black, white and purple. Lotta changes since.

[shadboy]

Red/Yellow/white is my all time favorite combo. I've caught thousands and thousands of crappie at many different lakes with that combo.

[huntinslabs]

I can tell you why, based on my learning from many, many years ago. Based on the intensive studies of Doug Hannon, back in the '70's. He tried to find out which colors repelled bass the most. Yellow as the number one offender. Consequently, right, wrong or indifferent, I never use yellow with any jig or lure that I'm presenting to any species.

Wonder why he ordered a Yellow Triton then. Must not have bothered them too much having a gigantic yellow boat overhead. And if I am not mistaken Chartreuse is a variant of yellow. Seems quite a few fish are caught on yellow to me.

[callmecamo]

One of my favorite hand ties is red head/yellow body/Chart tail. I've seen a lot of folks use red/yellow/white too. Yellow is one of those old school colors and not the new hotness. That may be part of why I like it.

[wicklundrh]

Yellow is good on Enid at times.See the bottom right jig .

Bottom right is NOT yellow. It is considered Chartreuse or "yellow Chartreuse" to be more specific.

I get orders for yellow quite a bit. It is one of those "keep it on the down low" type of colors however. Guys that fish it and do well with it do not much publicize things about it. The yellow of today looks similar to the color of "French's mustard".

Many years ago, the standard colors a ton of jigs were sold in were base colors with yellow being one of them. In fact, Mr. Twister pretty much set the standard with the yellow twister tails. As advancements in color, painting, and technologies were improved, older colors seemed to go by the way side.

I get an order for several hundred "School Bus Yellow" jigs every year from a guy in Saint Claire Shores Michigan. He grew up with this color on the Saint Claire river (1oz jigs) and pound for pound has been the best color. I published the recipe on a similar forum and now it seems as though every jig maker in the area is making those colors based off from my recipe. Kind of funny considering that I don't even advertise that color on my site!

The recipe is three parts standard yellow to one part pearl!

Understanding color, spectrum, water clarity, and depth all play a key in colors. One lake a specific color is dynamite, but it tanks on another. It has to do with minerals in the water, clarity, and what the fish see.

An example: I used to run salmon boats on Lake Michigan. I was at the dock one day waiting for a client when I was approached by a fisherman. He asked me why he was NOT able to catch any salmon on his Orange spoons. I asked him how deep he was running them? His reply.... 45 feet. The answer is that chartreuse, orange, and yellow are the first colors in the spectrum to be lost with the penetration of sunlight in the water. In Lake Michigan, those colors are only effective to depths less than 30 feet. On some lakes, that depth can very greatly depending on the visibility and color penetration.

In michigan, we have pretty clear water. Not condusive to spider rigging actually due to scaring the fish. In other states, the water clarity is less than a foot. As a result, sunlight is not penetrating as far and the color spectrum the fish can see or distiguish can be different.

[ozarks ranger]

I use to do a LOT of long lining on Stockton lake before it was called that ( we call it dragging) The best producer for crappie and walleye in the winter was a red head, chartruce chenelle and yellow maribou. haven't done that in years though.