By Darrell Primrose, Ballyhood Lures:
“Match the hatch” is an old adage many fishermen have used for ages. It comes from freshwater fly fishing, in which anglers seek to match, with an artificial fly, the insect life hatching off the water to fool feeding trout.
The same concept applies to the fishing world. Offshore, this can mean taking the time to examine the stomach contents of the first fish you catch to see what it was feeding on. Cut that fish open and check the length and size of the current forage as well as its color. Then use that information to choose your lures accordingly.
I get to talk to anglers worldwide on a daily basis. I ask them all, “What colors are most prevalent?” What I’ve learned from them goes into our Ballyhood trolling lures, and the best color combinations change from location to location.
On the West Coast, where anchovies, sardines, mackerel, and squid are the most prolific forage species, the most popular trolling lure colors are used in our Mexican flag, which is green/yellow/red/white. Black/Purple is another color scheme proven to produce in a trolling spread. Squid turn purple, and that could be a reason it is such a successful color. Zuchini is also a very popular color used on the West Coast. It’s a green/orange/yellow lure.
Now, taking a look at the northeast—in the Atlantic off New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey—they catch more tuna than most places in the world. Their top must-use colors are solid green, green/yellow and black/purple.
In Florida, the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands, the No. 1 color is light blue. Colors that are known as Bally Blue and Flying Fish Blue are quite productive. I’ll assume you caught the baitfish reference in those color names. Pink/white and black/red also see a lot of time in the water, but anglers in these southern waters very rarely use anything green. Their water is very clear, which I think has something to do with it.
In the Northeast, as on the West Coast of the U.S., the water is fairly dark. When you start to get farther south in the Pacific around Cabo San Lucas and down to Cancun, the colors used tend to lean toward the same choices as those used in Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The Southern Pacific has the same type of clear water as they enjoy off South Florida.
I can tell you the most overlooked color on the southern West Coast is pink or pink/white, at the same time pink/white is the No. 1 color for albacore off Oregon and Washington. Another guideline to color choices is to use dark colors on dark days and bright colors on bright days.
Now some of this information has to do with matching the hatch, some of it is based on water clarity, but all off it is gathered from on-the-water experience and reflects what produces fish the best. The color is an absolutely critical factor in choosing which lures to include in a spread.
For information on Ballyhood Top Gun Lures see www.ballyhood.com or call 714-545-0196.