When you go to a local tackle store or look for walleye lures online to prepare for your next fishing trip, you’ll see what appears to be an infinite number of color possibilities to pick from. So, if you’re looking for the most excellent lure colors for walleye, go no further. Colors like purple, dark green, and chartreuse will make your lures shine in low light and overcast circumstances, allowing you to capture more fish.
In this walleye lure color guide, I will tell you about the good colors for walleye lures, how to choose the appropriate color, and some valuable hints that will save you time and money and, most importantly, help you catch more fish.
How To Select The Good Colors For Walleye Lures?
When choosing a lure color, water clarity, light penetration (sunny vs overcast), and accessible walleye forage are the three main things to consider.
These three characteristics give you a good idea of what color lure and bait to use while fishing for walleye. Let us take a closer look at each of these and explore them more.
Water Clarity
The quality of the water may have a significant impact on how effectively the fish see your lure. The purity of the water you’re fishing in might help you figure out which colors will give you the best chance of catching fish.
Natural colors that imitate little bait fish or other walleye feed will be the most fruitful in clear water.
Bright-coloured lures like chartreuse, orange, purple, and red will work best in stained or muddy water. These colors will make your bait stand out and be easily spotted by any surrounding walleye.
Walleye Forage
Matching the hatch is a frequent fishing expression that refers to choosing lure colors that resemble the food that the fish are eating. Anglers often overlook this when choosing a color, yet it’s one of the most effective ways to determine which color to use.
You’ll have a lot of luck and catch a lot of eyeballs if you can figure out what the walleye are eating and match it as closely as possible with your lure selection.
Light Penetration
Light penetration is another crucial thing to consider when choosing a lure color. It’s preferable to utilize darker hues or brilliant, intense colors in low-light settings (cloudy, early morning, and night) or while fishing deep. These colors will make your lures stand out by generating contrast, making it easier for the fish to find them.
Natural and shiny hues are the most effective for fishing in direct sunlight. You may “match the hatch” by using colors similar to the forage or chrome and metallic hues and blades.
As the light passes through the water, colors like chrome, gold, and copper will give your lure some flare. Silver looks best in bright sunlight, whereas gold and copper look best in dim light. The light bounces off the scales of the bait fish, and most fish are accustomed to seeing this sort of flash. Here’s a color chart for walleye fishing lures that shows what we’ve spoken about. Please remember that this is only meant to be a guide; you should always experiment to see what colors work best for you and your specific fishery.
The Good Colors For Walleye Lures Guide
- Sunny & Clear Water: Natural Colors, Chrome, Metallic, Ghost, Flashy & Reflective
- Cloudy & Clear Water: Chartreuse, White, Red, Dark Green, Dark & Natural Colors
- Sunny & Stained Water: Chrome/Metallic Flashy & Reflective Purple, Pink, Chartreuse & White
- Cloudy & Stained Water: Pink, Purple, White, Chartreuse Black & Blue, Black & Red
Now that we’ve gone over some fundamental rules for choosing the correct walleye colors let’s move on to the next step. Let’s examine some of the most popular walleye lure colors and how they may be employed in different scenarios.
The Good Walleye Fishing Colors
There are hundreds of distinct color schemes and patterns, each with its period and place. Here’s a rundown of the most popular and successful walleye fishing colors and when to utilize them.
Ghost
The ghost color category includes lures with transparent/see-through colors, ideal for clear water and high visibility settings. This color scheme closely matches and imitates the tiny baitfish walleye-like eating. This is a fantastic alternative to employ, especially when walleye hunt baits fish.
Fluorescent Colors
If you ask any walleye anglers what color lure they like, I’m sure most of them will reply with chartreuse. Chartreuse, orange, pink, and purple are popular and effective walleye hues. These color patterns shine in low light when the water is discolored or murky. They’re also excellent for eliciting a reflex strike and energizing fish.
This is the best option when the water is dirty and murky or when the fish aren’t reacting to natural colors.
Metallic Colors
Metallic hues are also a terrific alternative when it comes to walleye fishing. These reflecting hues are very effective on bright sunny days in clear water. The light will reflect and generate a flash when it passes through the water and reaches your lure. Because the light reflects off the scales of other fish, fish are accustomed to seeing it. That’s why using colorful or shiny lures is a terrific technique to get walleye to bite.
When the light may reflect and generate a natural flash, bright sunny days on clear water are ideal.
White
White is excellent all-around color and will work in almost any water-clarity country. Because most bait fish have white on them, it’s a natural hue that also shows in murky or damaged water. Throwing a white-colored bait for walleye is a sure bet.
Best for:
- Mimicking baitfish and other walleye forage
- Performing well in all water conditions
- Being an excellent color option
Yellow, Red & Orange
This color group is comparable to the neon-colored lures, although it is slightly more subtle. Walleye lure colors like yellow, red, and orange are also popular and effective. These colors are complementary and are often used in combination with other colors.
Best for low-light situations or muddy water fishing, it also has a nice secondary color.
The Good Walleye Crankbait Colors
Now it’s time to speak about the precise lures and color patterns that will most effectively while fishing for walleye using crankbaits.
The following is a list of the most popular walleye crankbait patterns:
- Firetiger Shad Raps
- Purple & Ghost X-Wraps
- Husky Jerk Tennessee Shad
- Husky Jerk Blue Chrome
- White Shad Raps
- Clown & Rainbow Trout X-Wraps
- Natural Perch
- Pearl
What Is The Best Color That Walleye See Best At Night?
When it comes to nighttime walleye fishing, the color of your lure is crucial. White, blacks, chartreuse, and luminous baits are the most acceptable colors for walleye at night. These dark and dramatic hues will make your lures stand out in the dark.
Throwing lures and baits with a lot of water vibration and displacement is another beautiful night fishing technique to explore. This will assist in attracting fish from even further out.
Can Walleye See In Muddy Water?
While walleye have exceptional eyesight in low-light circumstances, a study has found that their retinas can only distinguish a limited range of hues, including orange, yellow, and green, and a faint identification of violet.
However, this does not imply that they can see those colors clearly in tainted water. It simply means that these colors stand out more in low-visibility water, making them easier to notice for the fish.
According to the studies cited above, walleyes generally disregard other colors, which explains why many fishermen struggle to capture them in dirty water. However, as you’ll see in this article, employing the right colors in combination with the right lures, locations, and fishing approaches can be quite beneficial in such situations and frequently result in more fish being caught.
So, let’s take a deeper look at the lure colors fishermen have found to be the most effective on the water!
What Is The Best Lure Color For Walleye In Muddy Water?
I conducted an extensive online survey of 200 walleye fishermen to determine their best lure color for muddy water walleye fishing. More than half of them chose chartreuse as their favorite hue.
Here is the complete result of the survey:
- Chartreuse: 51%
- Orange: 30%
- Purple: 19%
It becomes clear that the highest-performing muddy water walleye lure colors are those the fish’s retinas can absorb and perceive the best.
Both chartreuse and orange, a bright greenish-yellow, are in the middle of the walleye’s color spectrum, and 81 percent of the fishermen I studied catch most of their fish with these color variants. This isn’t surprising because these bright colors stand out even in very dark or dirty water, especially fluorescent ones, a popular color choice among walleye anglers.
Purple, a deeper shade of violet, was chosen by the remaining 19 percent.
And while this hue deviates from the norm, there is a lot of rationale behind it!
Darker hues are more challenging to discern underwater, particularly in low-light situations, but they can cast a striking silhouette. As a result, the profile created by the purple hue is what the walleye appear to notice in the dark. However, one may argue that this lure color is only effective on walleye near the bait. Now that we’ve covered color selection, let’s move on to the most acceptable fishing tactics for walleye in dirty water!
What Are The Best Lures For Walleye Fishing In Muddy Water?
Crankbaits
The finest crankbaits for muddy water walleye can be trolled at a slower speed. The iconic Hot’n Tot is as close to a crankbait as you’ll get! It performs effectively at slower trolling speeds and wiggles more than other cranks.
As a result, it will provide a lot of movement and vibration underwater without running too fast, which is excellent for eyes in dirty water! The Hot Tot is also available in various vibrant colors for stained water fishing, including orange, yellow, and chartreuse. It isn’t easy to imagine a finer walleye crankbait under these conditions!
Related post: What Are The Different Types Of Crankbaits?
Jigs
Trolling cranks don’t always work in muddy water, and if the walleye are stubborn, carefully jigging a 1/4-3/8oz fireball topped with a live or dead minnow may be lethal for cloudy water eyes! Try leeches or nightcrawlers if live minnows aren’t allowed on your lake.
Slowly jig that fireball over the bottom, and don’t be afraid to pause longer. When the jig touches the bottom, it sends out waves of vibration that attract the walleye’s attention even from a distance. However, for the fish to take up your bait, it must typically remain on the bottom for a short period.
You’ll usually feel a bang in your lifted rod during those somewhat lengthier pauses. Strike as soon as you feel a knock, and the battle begins! The fireball’s effectiveness stems from natural bait and a highly conspicuous jighead.
Bottom-Bounced Spinner Rigs
The spinner rig is the third excellent approach for walleye in murky water. The spinner rig is a devastating weapon for low-vis walleye fishing when used with a 1-1 1/2oz bottom bouncer.
When everything else fails, this procedure has shown to be quite effective in severely muddy or discolored water. When the visibility underwater is poor, the fish tend to stick near the bottom, as it is their sole navigation source. If that’s the case, a spinner rig trolling at 0.8-1.5 mph is unquestionably the best option.
How To Fish For Walleye In Muddy Water?
Trolling, bottom bouncing, and jigging is the three most successful strategies to catch dirty water walleye. All three ways allow you to cover a large area of water, which will assist you in locating active walleye in murky water.
If you have trouble catching bites, an excellent piece of advice is to try all of them out when out on the lake. One strategy may outperform the other two on any given day, so trying with all three is your best chance! But, whichever one (or ones) you select, take it slowly!
Bottom or troll, You’ll get those walleye bites if you bounce as gently as possible and jog as slowly as possible. The fish may become confused in low-visibility situations, and since they can’t see, they won’t swim or hunt as quickly or precisely as they would in normal conditions. As a result, if you don’t rush things, you’ll have a far better chance of getting them to accept your lure! Allow them to find your bait and strike with a bit more time.
Conclusion
Choosing the best colors for walleye lures is critical based on your fishing conditions and the available forage. The appropriate lure color can significantly improve your chances of catching more fish and make it stand out. I hope you found my walleye lure color helpful guide and that you put what you’ve learned to good use the next time you’re out on the lake.
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