Jig color

[Earl W Story]

I've been tying crappie jigs for years, but never thought of tying with the thought of targeting BG. Any thought on color or color combinations? I'm pouring some 1/64 oz heads on a #8 hook. 

[John Sheehan]

 White feather ,Bucktail ,Rabbit fur  or flashabou with red thread collars and all  Black for cloudy days are the ones I use most and they work great .Jim Gronaw swears on Pink . I've used them and they work well too.

[josh]

I too would like to hear more ideas on small crappie jig color combos for BG.  Does anyone have a favorite recipe for the fire-tiger combination of colors put together as a crappie jig.  this color combination painted on teardrop jigs seems to be excellent under the ice in my haunts and I think the added flair that a crappie jig brings could end up being that much deadlier. 

[jim cosgrove]

earl i think it depends on where you fish.black/chartreuse/yellow has always been good here in no il.i tie some snall jigs to resemble baby crayfish with brown rabbit gold crystal flash and brown grizzley hackle tips that catch gills and just about every thing else.great in the rocks or sand bottom,like they say the fish will let you know what they want.

[federico del toro]

I fish a lot of clear water lakes, I I've found that the best is natural colors like brown/olive or a natural with a little bit of color like brown/pink. Jim made some for me and so far when I've used them they have worked great for me. I haven't tried them in deep water yet

[Jacob Hill]

I am a HUGE fan of white for redear. When fishing a lake with decent numbers of redear, on pink I get about 10:1 bluegill over redear, on the same size with white I get about 2 maybe 3:1 bluegill over redear but a lot closer. For crappie chartreuse or pink of course, and well bluegill, I swear by chartreuse but I gotta try these browns you guys have been talking about. Smallmouth I will always use white. period. Great discussion 

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I find the bluegill in my area (SC) tend to hit jigs with "bait-ish" colors, along with chartreuse and pink.

-  Junebug, or black with chartreuse.

- White or yellow.

- Firetiger/pink or pink w/ white.

Fact is, jigs alone (of any kind) don't produce really well for me. I do best when worms are added somewhere along the line...

[Vince Fusco]

Orange and brown has worked well for gills down this way. Pink and white in stained waters. Black and green tubes do good here as well.

[Jim Gronaw]

I have done well on pink, olive and pearl with the grass shrimp patterns. I have some light brown ones to try and I have been experimenting with some dark brown and black patterns.

Some waters tend to favor certain color schemes and other waters favor another. If you can come close to the color of some of the forage then you are likely in the ball game.

Good luck!

[John Cachel]

I think color is not important but size is more important. I like natural color, green and black for clear water while bright like white or yellow for dark water. I did for fun in Florida that I use bright orange jig head with bright green glup wax worm and caught lot of bluegills and few over 10 inch! I like size 8 on 1/32 oz! 1/32 oz is easier to cast farther out with my 7ft 6 inch ultra-light rod!

[Jeff Soto]

When I fillet my catch of Bluegill and Redears, I always check their stomachs to see what they were feeding on.  It's always the same- dark, almost black aquatic insects, and once in a while there will be a snail or baby shad, maybe a tiny crawfish or clam.  Because of this black "stuff" in their stomachs, I like using black jigs.  Black maribou with just a bit of red is all you need for giant Bluegill here in Southern California.  But I have to say that sometimes I'll tie on an all gray/silver jig with eyes, if I think they are feeding on shad.  I've done very well with that color too.

[John Sheehan]

Good post Jeff ! I'm suspecting you fish Gin clear water or am I wrong about that?

 

[Jeff Soto]

No John, the water is not clear.  You can see the bottom at maybe 5-6 feet.  I'm talking about my local Lake Perris, which was years ago a very clear lake.  Back in 1990 or so, you could see the bottom at 20 feet!  You could lay on a dock with your polaroid sunglasses on and see huge bass and Bluegill swimming along the bottom.