When you head to your local sporting good store to look for the best fishing lure you can find a key aspect is also picking which color.  There is always the option to go find a custom painted fishing lure, but as a general rule we still need to know which color(s) we are trying to mimic in order to maximize a lures effectiveness.  The two key things to keep in mind here are the clarity or color of the water and the conditions on the body of water itself.  To me it really leads to the same idea, being that what is the amount of feet that you can see a given bait into the water.  A windy day will stir up the water and lead to less clarity as will obviously the actual clarity of the water itself.  I tend to lean towards water clarity being the #1 aspect, but conditions in terms of wind, clouds and sun angle all play a role as well.

For clear lakes and days when the water isn't so churned up, the best idea is to mimic the color of the bait fish whenever possible.  Stay with generally darker colors.  Black is good in clear water as is brown color.  Both of these are natural colors that represent what is seen below the water.  I have had great luck with motor oil Berkley Power Worms over the years, as well as the Zoom Centipede in a pumpkin color.  For crankbaits I have written many times on here that I am firmly in love with the black/silver Rapala Shad Rap SR7.  All of the above are great lures to use in lakes with good water clarity.

On lakes with algae bloom (a dark green color) I have had the best luck with a colorful pattern.  The clown color of late has been good for me, but I have had great luck over the years on the firetiger pattern on crankbaits.  The firetiger color has been my best producer in these type of water conditions.  It literally outfishes black colors 3-1 in my experience.  However, when used on clear lakes it will get outfished badly by the standard colors mentioned above.

When picking a lure for your next cast, choosing the correct fishing color can make all the difference in the world.  What are your experience with fishing lure colors?

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So you are sitting at home with that newly acqured custom painted crankbait and now you are wondering what is the best line for crankbaits.  The answer to that depends on what type of fishing you are planning on doing.  As a general rule the thinner diameter the line the deeper the crankbait will dive.  For that reason as a general rule a smaller diameter line such as 8-10 pounds test is a staple of most crankbait fishermen.  I really try to avoid going any smaller than 8 pound test line when fishing with a crankbait because it seems that breakoffs are a lot more common.  It wouldn't seem to be a big difference between 6 and 8 pound test, but in my experience it is huge.  So, for my best line for crankbait fishing lures it would have to be 8 or 10 pound test monofilament.

That said, if you are fishing shallow water filled with submurged stumps / wood or heavy vegetation in places then I would beef up the line you are using.  In shallow water losing dive depth can actually be a very good thing and in addition should there be any places that the fish would swim into that would be hard to pull them out of I have some extra umpfh to heave them towards the boat.  Similarly, if I am trolling a crankbait in rock laden water I would also beef up my line.  When I say beef up line, I mean move up to 14-17 pound test line for these applications.

So, how much does line diameter affect the dive depth of a crankbait?  Well, after doing some research it seems to me that the right answer is something in the neighborhood of 10% per 2 lb test.  So if you are trolling a size 7 Rapala Shad Rap behind your boat, it would be expected to dive to a maximum of 11 feet with 10 pound test line.  So if 8 pound test were used instead, it would be expected to dive to 12 feet.  Likewise, if 12 pound test were used the maximum depth would be expected would be 10 feet.

What do you think is the best line for crankbaits?

It's spring again, so time to break out your tackle box and take inventory.  I would suggest that you don't wait until the last second to ensure that your best fishing lures are safe and sound.  Spring clean your tackle box now to ensure smooth sailing once the fishing season begins in earnest.

If you tackle box looks like this it is time for a spring cleaning intervention

I did this exact thing over the weekend.  Now perhaps it is my ADD nature, but it actually started out as a bring donations to goodwill/make my garage livable again this weekend.  After I had dropped off my donations to the local Goodwill I got back to my garage to assess the situation.  Much better, and my life seemed much less cluttered.  But what is that over below my workbench?  My tackle box of course.  I should check it out.  So off I went.  Well, it always amazes me every spring at what extent I allow my fishing lures to intermingle for their winter hibernation.  It is a very sad state every year after I get back to it.  Crankbaits intertwined together with their treble hooks apparently in a permanently locked together state, it isn't a pretty site.  I'm jesting to some level of course, but you get my drift.

Hopefully you are not one to have a messy tackle box come spring, but if you are, take the time now to organize it to a point that will allow for safe, easy fishing come summer.  To that end I gathered up all my purchases from the great deals I found this winter and set them next to my disaster of a tackle box.  Lures were strewn everywhere, making room by first taking them out of the box and separating them by type.  One of my favorite lures to use in the size 7 Rapala Shad Rap.  Over the past year I had accumulated 4 of these in silver/black and 1 in firetiger in addition to what I already had in my tackle box.  I guess I don't need any more of them for the time being!

Take time to inventory what you have.  Throw away plastic worms that are dried out or are of no use to you.  Check out your crankbaits for severe signs of wear and discard as necessary.  At this point it should be evident if you are sufficiently stocked with the lures you need to head into the season or not.  If you aren't, make sure to make a list of what you want.  We all know that we can get to be kids in a candy store that first trip to the sporting good store when that shiny new fishing lure catches our eye.  Just make sure that you also grab ahold of that old standby that you are running perilously close to being out of as well.

Hopefully this will allow you to spring clean your tackle box and be ready to hit the water running when you start to fish in earnest.

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