Custom Baits - Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Les Young on 03/15/25 20:23 UTC
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Will be using these in very clear to heavy stained water so i'm wondering about colors. Do you guys make mostly natural looking colors like arkanses shiner, shad lookers or what? What color would you use on both bright & dark moon light nights? Thanks
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If you're fishing during the new moon, even in very clear water, black is hard to beat.
Clear water in daytime? I'd go with more transparent natural colored baits.
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For me, night time = black 99% of the time. Day-time I switch over to a two colored bait if possible. Belly is clear with small amount of glitter and top is either chart, black, green, or blue. Another daytime for me is a bluegill color.
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Here in SE Minnesota we have zero natural lakes. Everything is either a retention pond or a reservoir. Water color is seldom what we can call clear but if we enter a long stretch of dry during the summer and winter we can get water with clarity down to maybe 8 feet but its still going to have some stain to it. The lake I got these fish on is fed by three different branches of a primary river. The largest branch runs thru town right behind the house by about three hundred yards and is influenced by tannic acid from rotting leaves in the hil country forests the wrap around the town. The other two branches that affect the lake come in from the west thru farm country where silt laden water is very common. These two are also heavily stained. For the most part, every bait I fish will have a chartreuse tail. Ans as a rule in the everyday water we see, if the tail isn't there, nothing hits. Which goes to the idea that visibility is down right hyper important.
I make some 2-14" minnow baits in split colors, some without the chartreuse tails and some with. When we do get the clearer water I tend to go in the direction of the split colors that are less vibrant in color and often the crappies will hit without the chartreuse tail. In the usual water thou, that bright tail better be there if fish are expected. The Mississippi River backwaters and river proper are about the same way with the chartreuse tails, from very early spring, thru the summer and right up until ice-up.
Bass in the river backwaters are another story. With the usual silt and stain load in the water they really prefer swim baits with a lot of bright silver glitter in the bellies and tails. Watermelon with heavy red glitter in it is a super good color on top of the silver glitter as is a heavy blue/purple glitter top. Fished on weighted hooks high in the water he Quakin Shad in these colors is absolutely our best. The 4.5" Swim Toad and the 4" Caney Creek Croaker are dynamic in watermelon red with the silver glitter belly too, especially when fished on bare 3/0 wide gap and swum over the weed mats. I have also done some 4.5" Rippers in the silver belly blue/purple top and the Watermelon red flake. These will be fished on 6/0 hooks, maybe weighted, maybe bare hook. Gotta try'em to know what is best.
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I tried to get a picture of some of these baits but the sun is so bright right now the camera's filtering blocks much of what I want to show. I'll try later when the sun is at a lower angle.
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Thanks guuys. I figured on doing laminates for light stained to clear water. Was thinking a medium smoke back with green & gold glitter , a light brown based green pumpkin back to sort of resemble Tn shad or black back & all with either white, pearl or monkey milk bellies with about a 1/16 tsp of black glitter for a little body. Both back & bellys would be done on 4 oz. batches. How's that sound & do you guys have any other suggestions for shad looking colors?
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I like the pearl with either color and maybe a tad bit less of the black in 4 0z.
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;D
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One color I like is a watermelon back with black .015 flake and a pearl belly. It’s a great shade imitation in clear water.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3sTWnmQf_U
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One color I like is a watermelon back with black .015 flake and a pearl belly. It’s a great shade imitation in clear water.
Good idea. Thanks Mike
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I also like the Marsh Grass colorant. Makes a great back color in swimbaits. I also use it for worm or sinkos.
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I didn't catch the maker of the marsh grass colorant. Who offers it?
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(https://i0.wp.com/deadonplastixllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/MARSH-GRASS-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1978&ssl=1)
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Thanks Mike.
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Those who have te essential series xl ripper mold at what temp do you shoot it to do laminates? I tried right around 350 & got quite a bit of mixing. Do i need to let it cool to around 320 or so? Other than the mixing I never had any flashing & it shot great.
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Les for me, I shoot it around 320-330. I haven't had too many issues (every once in a while but I figure that is me). Overall I like the mold and the ability to shoot from the top.
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Trying to get the same temp on both plastics can be a bear sometimes if one has a mess more of colorant or heavy glitter load than the other.
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Thanks guys. I’ll try it at a cooler temp to see if that helps. I usually don’t have this problem so I figured it was heat related.
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I did colors sort of like the link provided here makes and it's not a bad match for clearer water. I'll carry it and try it the next time we hit the back waters where the water hasn't seen a lot of silt load yet from run off.
With snow depths very low in the northern part of the state the Mississippi's water levels likely won't get so wild this spring and water color might stay half decent without runoff as a factor.
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Man those are clear Tom.
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Hey Tom, can you give us the recipe for that color in the above picture?
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The belly is 4 ounces of Essential plastic with three drops of Essential pearl and just a bit of black.008 glitter. The back is 4 ounces of Essential plastic with two drops of Essential Watermelon green and then toned with X2 brown. The brown is added slowly using a toothpick dipped maybe 1/16" into the colorant and stirring in. I just wanted enough brown to tone it so it wasn't watermelon and wasn't watermelon brown. When I was happy with the plastic color I added green hi lite, about a paper match head and bronze hi lite, about a stick matchhead size dollop. The Essential watermelon is a potent color and very little gets a decent watermelon in 4 ounces. The hi lites work with each other nicely to add some shifting sheen to the back. The Essential pearl is another strong one from the bottle and in this case makes a really nice transparent silver belly. Of course the phone's camera's filter won't allow the real "pretty" to show well in a picture. These are real close to some of the minnows we encounter in places we fish that seem pretty transparent.
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Thanks Tom, I'll mix some up and see what I come out with!