Color preception / plastic worms

Question
Jack,

I've just started worm fishing and still not quite sure about what colors to use in stained/muddy water, compared to clear water.  

Thanks a lot,  

Answer
Blaine; This is a tough one these days.  When I started fishing with worms in the late '50s we had choices of red and red and I mean red.  They were those rigged with two or three hooks and a little spinner in front.  I see that they have come back on the fishing gear shelf at the stores.  The important thing is that they caught fish then and will catch fish now.

Next let's talk about water color.  Water isn't usually just clear or muddy.  There are several types of stains that have different effect.  Clear water in which you can see objects on the bottom in 40 feet of water I would consider as being truly clear.  Other water such as some of our swamp fed rivers in South Georgia and North Florida are the color of black coffee yet are not muddy at all. The lake I live on runs from fairly clear in some areas to actually muddy in the river channels after a rain.  Usually along the shore of the main lake the water looks muddy but when you stick a pole down it can be seen for several feet.  A goodly part of the lake where I live has water that usually unless we have had big rains is a greenish color because of the weeds and the plancton.  You cannot see more than a couple of feet yet the water is not dirty.

So you can see your seemingly simple question becomes complex when all the possible colors of worms available today and all the various colors of water are taken into account.

Now let's start with truly muddy water like you might find after heavy reains for several days upstream.  This water is thick with soil of some color.  Again down here it is yellow or red clay in other areas it may be dark brown or gray or perhaps some other color.   Don't dispair the fish are still there but will not act the same as they do in clear water. For one thing they are often out from cover feeding on the great supply of food being brought down the waterway.  I have seen times (not too many however) when most any color of worm would catch fish.  In this case it isn't the color but the sound made by the worm that attracts them.
In more traditional occasions when the water has some color to it but is not muddy  what I would try is taking several different color worms from those you can almost see through to the very darkest of several colors.  String each by the tail on a piece of line  and lower them over the side so that you have a dozen worms hanging like clothes on a line.  Slowly lower them  in the water and watch to see which is the last one or two to dissappear out of sight.  Try these couple of colors for a while.  If that doesn't bring a bite try the next two etc.
Some people like to have boxes or bags full of worms of every color available but I seldom go with more than half a dozen colors.  I bet those who have all those worms fish 90% of the time with half a dozen.

For me, who doesn't fish with worms much anymore) I usually keep a spinning rod rigged with a worm hook and sinker and have half a dozen worms laid out in my gunnell just in case.  There have been times that when nothing else seems to work I pull out my worm rod and go to work.
On occasion I have been surprised.  I caught two 8lb plus bass on a worm by one big tree a few years ago.  The night before I had been in a local country store and saw these 9inch June bug worms and on a whim I bought them.  I haven't caught a big bass on any of them since.

My preferred colors are pure black, pure blue, dark purple and electric blue with a couple of red  and some white just in case.  I usually I use purple in our waters here.  They seem to be easy to see in the color of the water.

Finally, the most important thing when fishing with worms or any other lure is confidence in your lure.  If you truly believe it will catch fish, it likely will because you will fish it hard and in many different ways which is the key to any fishing.

I know I haven't told you to use chartruse worms in mustard colored water, or use pink in black coffee or black in water that looks like coffee with lots of cream in it.  To begin with that would be foolish.  Bass are absolutely not that predictable.  If they were fishing for them would be no fun.  Bass are caught by trying something then something else until you find things that work then be willing to try several of them until you start catching fish.  Experiment Experiment, Experiment.  That is what makes Bass fishing such a facinating game.

I am sorry that I cannot be more specific
giving you the exact color to use under any and every situation.  If I knew that I would be charging for my information not giving it out free.

Anyway I hope this helps and if you throw a worm into water with bass in it you will catch some of them.

I am

Jack L. Gaither
Lake Seminole, Ga.
[email protected]