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Why do black and blue jigs catch more fish?

Posted on by L. Dreeye
Why do black and blue jigs catch more fish?

I pride myself on my generally very logical approach to bass fishing. I’m looking for a rationale. I need data to confirm. If the answer is “because that’s how we’ve always done it,” I’m usually not happy with that.

As I was looking through some old fishing photos recently, I was reminded of a small but troubling point of contention—a real problem. Why do I have so many photos of beautiful largemouth bass with a black and blue jig hanging from the lip? Why black and blue? What are the best lure colors for bass fishing? Of course, there are a couple of photos with variations of pumpkin or purple, but they are in the extreme minority.

And why are black and blue almost exclusively reserved for jigs? Why isn’t it used equally in crankbaits, spinnerbaits or topwaterbaits. Of course, you can buy other baits in black and blue, but it will never be as comfortable as this jig. For some reason, black and blue have long been my number one color for pitching bait. I confidently throw it into almost any water, at any time of year, in any conditions. Based on my perception, memory and photos, it works quite well. And it’s not just me. Many anglers rely on a black and blue jig. But why?

We really liked the beautiful black and blue jig. But it's hard to say why bass like them too.

It’s hard to say why the black and blue gadgets work, but there’s no denying that they work. / Kurt Mazurek

As I said, I like to find answers backed by scientific facts. Early in my in-depth study of bass, I found a book that cleared up a lot of women’s stories and popular misconceptions for me, Knowing Bass by Keith A. Jones, Ph.D. During his 33 years leading biological research at Pure Fishing, Dr. Jones conducted countless scientifically controlled experiments on bass, collecting real-world data and drawing logical conclusions. One of the chapters of the book is devoted to the vision of perch, including its perception of color. Unlike the human eye, the perch’s eye is best suited to distinguish between the mid-red and green parts of the color spectrum. As you get closer to the blue and purple colors, the bass’s ability begins to deteriorate quickly.

In his book "Knowing Bass," Dr. Keith Jones shares a wealth of scientific insight into bass fishing.

In his book, Bass Lore, Dr. Keith Jones shares many scientific discoveries about bass fishing. But in the end, black and blue don’t go well together. / Bass Knowledge | Dr. Keith Jones

So why haven’t red and green baits dominated bass tournaments? In another study described in the book, Jones tested the preference of bass to catch an identical bait painted in different colors. Contrary to what should have been an easy answer, red turned out to be the worst bait color. Blue ended up in the middle of the deck. The only color that showed a significant improvement in performance was the two-tone, silver and black version of the lure. Here it is! Bass love silver and black. Problem solved. Of course, it’s not that simple, and that’s not the whole answer. If silver and black provided a huge and stable advantage, the fisherman would probably already understand this. But then again, thousands of professional bass tournaments have shown that black and silver are not an automatic winner.

The unsatisfactory answer is that we humans don’t actually know exactly how bass make the decision to take a bait or whether that decision has anything to do with color. For us, color is a huge part of our world, so naturally we focus on it when analyzing how things work. It’s a very different world for bass.

In the case of bait color, bass vision and bait selection are difficult to justify scientifically.

In the case of bait color, bass vision and bait selection are difficult to scientifically justify… and maybe that’s okay? / Kurt Mazurek

My interpretation of this data, and how I can feel okay moving forward with my trusty black and blue gear, is that color generally isn’t all that important compared to bass in most situations. I know a lot of you just gasped and tried to figure out the best way to reach me and talk some sense into me. But if the best, cleanest, controlled science we have right now shows that the colors a bass can see don’t match the colors it chooses to strike, then that tells me not to worry too much about it. in my fishing decisions. My rough, anecdotal personal experience has shown that I can catch them very well on a black and blue jig. Contrary to my otherwise logical approach, I’ll let this little part of my bass fishing game slide with the good old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

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