"Qué Color?"

One of my all time favorite debates is also one of the longest running ones; I know you've heard it a couple of hundred times too the one about the importance of lure color and how it may or may not impact our success on any given day.

Among my dearest friends are any number of very opinionated long-term Texas saltwater fishers and one of those holds a doctorate in Marine Biology and is the head of the Marine Science Department at a local university. We have had lots of passionate debates on the subject for many years. Perhaps fiery would be a more appropriate description. I have always found it interesting how unusually important it seems to all of the above mentioned individuals that their opinion on this particular subject be the one accepted by the others, and of course we all know that ain't going to happen. It does make for lots of fun though.

As for me, the debates are strictly sporting events as my mind was made up many years ago; just as theirs was. Ha!

I've listened to every viewpoint, theory, and acknowledged scientific fact as open-mindedly as possible, but the opinion I value most is the fish's. In my mind the fish have made it perfectly clear to me for over 40 years that the color of the lure is one of the major, if not the single-most important concerns.

Trust me that I am well aware that fish see in varying shades of grey; so what. If one shade of grey leads them to attack above any other at a particular time then the same purpose is served whether or not they are seeing the same color I am. They are seeing the shade of grey that the color I have chosen is representing to them and that particular color/shade of grey is provoking them to attack in the conditions present at the time.

Some of the lures and lure colors of my youth are still in use very successfully today, while countless others come and go. Certain color combinations are deadly in rather small locales only and these are often dropped by manufacturers as the overall sales on them are not of high enough volume to continue making them. A prime example of this is the 51MR Mirrolure in the old pattern they termed #807 (black/gold/black). Often deadly on speckled trout in the winter surf of PINS but apparently overall sales was very low and it was discontinued. Oh well, as long as they keep making 51MR808's and black fingernail polish we'll get by.

When Ralph Wade fine-tuned my winter surf techniques and tactics for speckled trout many years ago he passed on to me a long-established set of rules of how the trout played the game. Ralph said, "Trout in the winter surf will hit primarily one color on any given day. Sometimes, if there is a really good bite on, they may hit two colors. Once in a blue moon they'll hit any color coming their way."

You would be amazed to know how many anglers on my charters, over a period of many years, have become rock-solid believers in this concept. I have found many times that after we'd figured out the color for the day; the trout would accept completely different types and sizes of artificials - so long as they were all the right color.

I am meticulous in my record keeping and I use that logbook as a resource regularly. One of the facts I include religiously is the lure color that was most successful on each trip. Prior to 1995 our winter trout "season" typically ran from mid October through early February. After several years I observed a distinct pattern emerge wherein the specks showed a tendency to hit the same color lures during the same months of the year from one year to the next. And if they didn't hit the same one then they either hit the color before it or after it.

Talk about a gold mine; my typical MO on charters was to give two anglers the lure they usually hit during the time frame of the charter, and then I started going through the other options until we caught trout.

A second rule Ralph taught me was, "If you catch one fish on a lure it might be a fluke, but if you catch two using that color then stick with it the remainder of the day."

The color choice may remain the same through any number of weather and water conditions for days on end, or it may change dramatically from one day to the next. Start with the color that worked yesterday, but unless it produces fairly quickly, I recommend you begin rotating through other colors as well.

Although I was somewhat skeptical for some time, I have become a believer in utilizing the solunar tables while fishing our bay systems and offshore, but I have not found them to be as dependable in the surf. I figure there are too many other factors involved in the surf that don't come into play in the bay or offshore. Likewise, it is mind-boggling how many times I have experienced an immediate full-fledged blitz after hours of fruitless grinding, simply by reaching into that tackle box and trying one more color that hadn't been on the hook yet that day. And when that happens, I already know that I am fixin' to catch them in every likely spot, for they have been there all the time and I simply wasn't throwing the color they wanted.

A case in point comes to mind and I'll share it with you; and I want you to know that it is only one of many such accounts I could relate.

I had eight very nice trout late in the day and two fellas drove up. One is a well-known Upper Laguna Madre fishing guide and the other a lifelong fisher. They stopped to chat and I advised them that the small pocket of deep water in front of me was filled with trout and that they were welcome to join me in catching a few. They were throwing black/gold/black 51M Mirrolures and I told them the fish were only going to hit black/gold/orange, but they felt confident in their lures.

I stood in between the two as they cast and I pulled five or six nice trout without them getting a bite. Then I walked to the south end of the hole and told one of them to go where I had been. I caught three more nice trout and no one else got a bump. I then walked north of the pair and pulled two fish in two casts.

The guide walked up to me laughing and wanted to know how much those black/gold/orange Mirrolures would cost that far south of the pavement. I laughed and sold him two lures at store prices. Then I climbed up and sat on the hood of my truck and watched them quickly catch several nice trout. Satisfied, I went on to the house.

Funniest thing of all is that over the years some of my ol' pals have begrudgingly allowed as how it seemed the surf trout did have something different going on when it came to lure color. Heaven forbid I should ever mention that quite often I see the same type behavior exhibited in the local bay systems. Reminds me of the frigid morning over in Nueces Bay when I asked this young Corky addict what color they were hitting and he replied, "Well, I thought they wanted the day-glow till I threw an 808."

Texas saltwater fishing, huh? Gotta' like that. Come on down to Corpus and spend a winter's day chasing big trout on the beach or in the bay.

Be Careful, Be Courteous, Be Kind - Capt. Billy L. Sandifer