Hot crankbait lure colors - By Brad Wiegmann

[Slab]

You probably have tackle boxes full of deep diving and squarebill crankbaits just for trolling in the summertime. Numerous vibrant, eye-catching patterns to natural shad or sunfish crankbait patterns make selecting the right one to troll challenging on some days; in addition to having to factor in weather, sun light and water clarity.


“I understand the challenge for anglers trying to pick what color pattern to troll with for crappie in the summertime,” Mitch Glenn the owner of PICO Lures continued, “Back when I painted the first 6 color patterns of PICO Lures INT Deep Diver crankbaits, I tried to make some for clear water conditions to stained water to shad to sunfish patterns. That was okay for a while, but the demand for new color patterns and input from guides and pros was they needed a bigger selection. Now we have 42 color patterns in the deep diving model and 14 color patterns in the squarebill model.”


Summer months are peak time for anglers trolling using crankbaits. The migration of crappie into deep water habitat or suspending over thermocline makes trolling crankbaits an effective way to catch crappie. No casting or forward facing sonar required just let the lines out with crankbaits and troll.




“Typically crankbait sales start increasing in April and will peak towards the end of summer, however, anglers like James Callaway start trolling for crappie in late February for pre-spawn crappie successfully in Mississippi and Arkansas,” Glenn continued, “Even Doug Wynn with Crappie-Gills-n-More has been trolling for crappie with crankbaits for several months already on Kentucky Lake. Normally, you can expect the crankbait bite to slow up once the thermocline disintegrates and a large population of crappie move from the river channel or deep water back to shallow water habitat.”


So how do you know what color crankbait to troll? “Crappie don’t have thumbs so they put everything in their mouths to see if it’s edible. That’s what happens when a crankbait goes by,” Glenn went on, “Some days certain color patterns seem to draw the attention of a crappie in to biting it. I also think that certain color patterns are difficult for crappie to focus on like PICO’s Zombie and that results in a crappie striking at a lure. ”


A good rule of thumb when picking a lure color when trolling for crappie is if you have dirty water conditions, low light or overcast choose a darker color pattern. After the spawn shad patterns are a good choice to match the color of the shad crappie are eating.


“Anglers often overlook the fact that when you are trolling for crappie you are constantly changing color patterns to catch them,” Glenn continued, “For instance at sunrise before there is much sunlight on the water dark color patterns like chrome/black, beach ball or black/chartreuse are good choices to start with and switch to brighter ones like wolverine or any of the shad color patterns once the sun gets up higher. That’s also the advantage of trolling being able to use multiple rods with different color patterns until you find what color pattern is catching them, but be ready to change to other colors once a color pattern stops getting bites.”


Glenn noted the current best selling color patterns of PICO Lures crankbaits are purple splatterback, wolverine, beach ball, geezer clown, wonder bread and Christmas tree, but it’s always changing as certain lure color patterns get hot. “We’ve come out with two new color patterns this year that are hot sellers,” Glenn continued, “One was designed by Doug Wynn a fishing guide on Kentucky Lake called D-WYNN. Yes, we named it after him and it’s also the second color pattern that Wynn came up with joining beach ball as his first color pattern. Joey Mason in Arkansas came up with the other we named pay check that’s going to be a hot color in the summer time trolling or just casting for all gamefish especially on Ozark highland reservoirs.”


One thing you can be sure of any angler that does a lot of trolling will have multiple crankbaits the same color pattern. That’s because once crappie start biting one color other rods can be switched to that color pattern the crappie are biting on.

[SuperDave336]

Good article. “G” always liked geezer clown.

[Ketchn]

BUT WAIT JUST A DARN MINUTE HERE , i thunk color dint matter ....

[BuckeyeCrappie]

Good article Slab! Thanks for sharing with us

[Yak Fish]

BUT WAIT JUST A DARN MINUTE HERE , i thunk color dint matter ....

Color doesn't matter, until it does. I've dang near pulled the paint off some lures with minimal response. Then I switch to an odd or unusual color and they won't leave it alone. Trouble is, you've got to use trial and error to figure it out.

Jim