"Don't Get So Wrapped Up In Color Selection!"
By: "The Bass
Coach"....(Roger Lee Brown)
How many
of you anglers who walk into Tackle Shops, Discount Stores, K-Marts,
Wal-Marts, etc., go straight to the sporting goods department, look for the
fishing rods sticking up in the air to zero in on the Fishing Lures and
Plastic Baits section? Then, when you get there you start looking over all
of the enormous selections of all the different baits and different colors
that are offered by the many bait companies that are on the market today,
and you're not really sure of exactly what is really needed, so "The Big
Question" comes to mind; "What colors do I really need?" especially when
looking over all the plastic baits. Well, let me tell you a little secret
that most anglers don't know!, and that is; "You don't need a multitude of
colors in your arsenal." That's right! and let me say it again..... "You
don't need every color that you see!." Now, some anglers may suggest the
comment; "well my partner and I use this certain color on this certain body
of water, and it catches a lot of bass" or others may say; "I saw this
magazine article from one of the top Pros, and he said to use this; yellow,
spotted, half stripped, 7", curly tail, floating, thing-a-ma-jig plastic
made by so & so, and I saw a picture in the magazine of the 14 lb. bass he
caught off of this certain plastic bait, and now I've really got to have
some of these."
Now
before we get started, let me explain something to you. The Bassin' Industry
is a "Multi-Billion Dollar Industry" in today's world and growing more and
more every day. Most of the Pros that lecture these "Bass Seminars" have an
obligation to their sponsors to demonstrate, promote, and to advertise their
sponsored product (Nobody gives anything for free anymore!).
For
example, attend one of their fishing seminars and just see if they don't try
to sell you on a "certain product", or the technique that they may use with
this "certain bait." There are more Outdoor TV Fishing Shows, Outdoor
Magazines (related to freshwater fishing), Bass Tournament Organizations,
Bass Fishing Sites (on the World Wide Web), Bass Fishing Clubs, Bait and
Tackle Manufacturers, Bass Boat Manufacturers, Rod Companies, Reel
Companies, and it goes on and on and on, as there ever was before. (That's
probably why Bass Fishing is considered to be America's #1 freshwater
sport!) And ALL! of these companies are in the market to make money.
Now,
let's go even a step further, okay? What sells all of these products? Hmm,
let's see now, advertisement (Marketing) and promotion are about the two
best ways of selling a product that I'm aware of and I'm sure that there are
more, but first let's concentrate on these two for just one moment. Let's
talk about fishing shows to give you an example!
I've
co-hosted several TV Fishing shows in the past and let me tell you that
"Most,"of the time, (Not All!) but "Most" of the fish that you see being
caught on the show are caught prior to the actual filming of a show. Yep!
now you might ask yourself; "well I saw the guy set his hook and then reel
in the bass." All I can say to you is this; "Don't believe everything that
you see!" with today's editing equipment, professional camera personnel, and
the right camera shots anything is possible. So let me explain how it works;
-
You cast out the sponsored bait product (whatever bait or baits the show
is sponsored by, keeping in mind that the fish were actually caught
prior to the show, and in most cases on totally different bait).
-
While you start your retrieve, you rare back with your rod like you just
got a strike and pretend to set the hook! (on actually nothing at all).
Then the camera will stop filming.
-
Then, you simply reel your sponsored bait back in to the boat, grab a
fish (in the case of a bass show, a bass) out of the livewell and place
the hook of the "sponsored product" in the fish's mouth.
-
Next you place the fish back into the water (with ease, and always
keeping the slack out of your line), then you let the fish swim away
from the boat.
-
Then at this time, the camera starts rolling again and starts filming
you fighting the fish back to the boat!...(Really quite simple!)
That's
how Most! of the filming is done. It's not so much the bait, or color, or
technique used to catch the bass during the filming, they just want to show
you how much bass all of these "certain baits" can actually catch! (but do
they really?), that's called Marketing, OR!, take a look at the packages of
most of the baits today. They have to look appealing on the shelves to the
consumer (this is called Packaging). Just keep this in mind!, most baits on
the market today are made and packaged to catch anglers and not so much the
fish.
Now, I'm
telling you this because of all the different products and especially all
the multitude of COLORS that you must decide on which ones to buy. Okay,
let's get back to the colors...... First of all I want you to understand
that I am NOT saying that a certain color of a plastic bait will or will not
work under any different circumstances, but I will say that you don't really
need no more than approximately 2 dozen colors of plastics to catch bass on
any body of water throughout the United States. Now stop and think a minute!
There are, without exaggeration, on today's market thousands of colors and
combinations of colors when it comes to plastic baits. Remember what I just
said! I said only 2 dozen colors, and not hundreds of different colors!,
whew!, what a money saver, Right!..... And, if you usually fish deeper than
20' depths most of the time, you don't even need to have that many colors.
The reason is, is because the deeper a colored bait drops through the water
it starts to loose the color of the bait itself. That's right, the deeper it
goes down into the water the color spectrum starts to diminish. In other
words, if you had a multi-colored plastic worm and you cast it out letting
it drop to a 25' depth, the colors of that multi-colored plastic worm would
be "Shades of Grays and Blacks" in that depth of water. Just like scuba
diving, when you get down to a certain depth everything looks Black and
White!, well the same goes for colored plastics (Now, how many colors does
an angler actually need when fishing these deeper patterns?) It doesn't
matter what color you throw into 20' plus depths because "All Colors" will
basically all look the same on the bottom. The only difference now will be
is your shade variations. So, why buy hundreds of different colors of
plastic baits when they will all loose their color at deeper depths? (Makes
no sense to me!) So there is a lesson to learned!, probably the most
important factor to keep in mind when fishing with plastics is; "The
Presentation" of the bait is what really counts! and not so much the
color....... I teach my students presentations, techniques, as well as
colors that they can use anywhere so they can be highly effective when it
comes to catching bass on any body of water!
For more information on colors, baits, presentations, techniques, equipment,
and just about anything you might want to learn about bass fishing,
you owe it to yourselves to enroll into my 3-Day "On-Water" Bass Fishing
School. You will not only learn what equipment, baits, and bass related
items are really necessary to have but also how much money you can actually
save yourselves by knowing what not to buy when it comes to baits and
equipment.......Until next time!.....Take Care & God Bless!
" The Bass Coach"
(518) 597-4240
or visit my web sites at:
www.capital.net/~rlbrown
and
www.fishing-boating.com/basscoach
