I have my favorite colors for fishing when the sun's out, but I never thought that color patterns of lures would really make a noticeable difference fishing in the dark at a pond with dingy water. While I still haven't figured it all out, I'm now somewhat convinced that colors do seem to matter in certain conditions at night.
The way I came to this conclusion is that after being skunked for quite sometime fishing late afternoons into the early evening after work, my fishing buddy came up with the idea of trying a color pattern that is popular for saltwater nighttime anglers in Japan in areas where there are lights hitting the water such as around boat docks, marinas, and piers. The color we tried was called laser green head chartreuse. And, believe it or not, I caught two nice sized pond bass on this color. The first one was fouled hooked on the tail, so I wasn't that convinced. However, the second one I caught was in the mouth and after catching that one, it got me thinking. Of course my first response was why? It makes no sense. There was a full moon out that night, but I still had a hard time believing that the combination of light from the moon and the green head and reflective laser-chartreuse finish was the main factor in catching fish that night. The fact that the lure was a very small tight wiggling silent mid-diving crankbait (Lucky Craft SKT Mini MR) and not a topwater bait or a jig with rattles dragged along the bottom made it more intriguing; that is, the fish most likely did strike the bait using sight more than anything else.
I've read about the blacks and blues being good nighttime lure colors because the fish can better locate a dark silhouette against the night sky and the effectiveness of glow-in-the-dark paints. These concepts make sense to me. But this is the first time I've heard about a non-glowing green and laser-chartreuse being a "nighttime" color. I should reiterate that this color is said to be popular for saltwater night fishing where there are lights around. Although the only light on the pond was from the moon in my situation, maybe the moonlight hitting the reflective laser chartreuse paint was enough to make the magic happen.
The best thing about all this is that I learned something new and it opened my mind to concepts that I used to not think too much about. It's always fun when trying out new things you've heard or seen produces positive results.
