Sunburst Golden Bass. Bleeding Purple Shad. Tequila Sunrise. The infinite array of colors to choose from when selecting a fishing lure is mind boggling. Blue Shad or Black Shad? How do you know? Even more important, will the fish know? Do I need to buy them both? These questions have occupied the minds of serious muskie fishermen since the moment lure manufacturers began offering multiple color patterns. If you page through an outdoor mail order catalog, you realize that certain manufacturers offer more color combinations than others; one popular lure is available in 52 different colors! Do you need to be so selective, and once again, are the fish this selective?

As a muskie fisherman, you need not purchase each of the 52 colors available for that particular bait, because many of the patterns are very similar. Presenting a particular style of bait in water containing plentiful fish is a muskie hunter’s foremost endeavor. However, when you feel that you have honed your patterns to the point where you are seeing fish (in the form of follows) or getting strikes without hooks (semi-interested fish?), color might be the factor that determines whether you go home with fish pictures or fish tales. Knowing that you should not throw each color available of a certain lure is simply a matter of time constraint. For each time that you change a lure, you must remove the bait from the water for a minute, and maybe, in that time, your boat partner has completed two casts. Two casts may not seem like much in the quest for "The Fish of 10,000 Casts", but it adds up. It adds up over the fishing season, and certainly over the course of several seasons. Keep you bait in the water, and pre-determine your lure color patterns, basing your decisions on three different schools of thought regarding color.

You may have heard the expression "match the hatch" before, regarding lure selection. It was originally dubbed by fly-fishermen attempting to mimic the most prevalent insect species available at a particular time. Smaller fish key in on insect hatches, and may exclusively feed upon the most common bug in a system, for a certain time frame, until another insect hatch takes precedence in their diet. Muskies do the same thing, to a certain extent, the difference being that smaller forage fish would be the interest of these predator fish. Muskies will often feed exclusively on the most available forage in a system, simply because they develop a technique for ambushing and capturing this forage type. In rivers, this forage may by shad, suckers, carp, or shiners. In small lakes, walleyes, perch, and suckers will fill a muskie’s meal ticket. In larger or deeper lakes, ciscoes suspend over main lake basins and muskies often feed exclusively on these fish (more so than fish not associated with the main basin).

Wherever you intend to fish, shallow or deep, certain groups of fish will utilize certain forage types. You might say that this complicates muskie fishing. I say that it simplifies the sport considerably, if you take time to study the system you’re fishing. Think about the forage types available. Are you seeing following fish at boat side? Whatever you are offering is not quite right. My experience indicates that weed oriented muskies are keying in on walleyes, bass or perch. These should be your primary patterns. Open water fish that are suspended should be cast to or trolled with cisco patterns (white/silver with darker backs). Give them what they’re eating – match the hatch.

Time and again at sport shows, people ask me what colors I prefer, in regard to bucktail selection for muskies. What colors should I buy? Before I respond to this question, I need one piece of information to get them pointed in the right direction. I’ll ask them, "Is the water in your lake clear or stained?"

Stained water systems, whether tea colored or just flat out muddy, may require the use of florescent colors in order to provoke muskie strikes. These colors simply stand out in a dark environment. Metallic gold, copper, and nickel finishes have not proven effective in dirtier waters. You’re better off going gaudy, especially during algae-blooms in these types of waters. Florescent orange and chartreuse are my top choices, whether you are fishing bucktails, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, or jerkbaits.

In clearer systems, a spectrum of natural patterns (those that closely mimic forage fish to the human eye) tends to be superior. Clear water affords muskies a larger strike zone, so it’s able to see a lure from a longer distance than in colored water. This is to your advantage, but it also gives the fish a certain edge as well. With its increased visibility, the fish is able to better distinguish your lure as natural or imitation. Under this scrutiny, I believe natural patterns in gold, silver, brown, black or combinations of these are the most realistic. Solid white and black patterns can be the most successful choices for muskies in any system, regardless of water clarity. If your are uncertain whether your lake is clear or relatively stained don’t hesitate to give white or black a toss to a known muskie location.

Another classic school of thought is as follows: Light lure = Bright days, Dark lure = Dark days. This theory can be true by itself, as I originally used it as my basis for muskie lure color selection. However, when used in conjunction with the "Match-the-Hatch" system, it can be your best means for narrowing down the vast array of colors at hand.

For instance, say your favorite muskie lake contains perch - lots of perch. You conclude that at least some of the muskies in this lake eat the perch. Many of the crankbaits on the market are available in both a "hot perch" and a "dark perch" pattern. As an angler educated in the school of color, you pick up both patterns at a tackle store (you ignored the cisco and bass patterns because it’s perch the muskies want). Now you have a lure that matches the appropriate forage in your water system, in slightly different colors. One is your lure for bright days, and one is you lure for dark days. Either way, the bait is still representing a perch to a muskie and all you have done is refined your color scheme to account for light conditions.