Is there something about a pink coloured lure in bright and bouncy conditions?

I have done really well on the two sizes of Savage Gear Sandeel V2 Weedless lures in the bright pink colour when fishing deeper estuary water especially, but for no particular reason I can think of, it’s not a lure colour I would normally turn to when I am fishing the open coast in bright and bouncy conditions. Like we found the other day. Does the colour of your lure make much difference in bass fishing? One day I would say a big fat yes, then the next day I’d say not really, but from time to time something happens which gets my already addled brain bouncing even more……………

Thanks to Dave of Labrax Mafia for this photo

I blanked the other day. I had such a cunning plan to move maybe half a mile away from where Dave was fishing because I wanted to access some rip currents which I knew would be created by the bouncy onshore conditions combined with the state of the tide we were fishing. I was absolutely convinced my moving further along the ground was the way to go, and because the sun was out and the water was green and fizzed up, I started off with a white Gravity Stick Paddletail which I rigged on a 4/0 Decoy Violence VJ-36 weedless jig head. I err towards belly-weight weedless hooks with these particular paddletails, but I needed a bit more grip in the conditions, and I also wanted to be able to bump the lure across the rips from time to time. I was excitedly hoping for a hit at any time, and to be perfectly honest I was simply enjoying being out on the coast in some December sunshine.

Dave and I were connected by walkie-talkies which I usually carry with me, and soon enough he was giving me a shout to say he had just caught and released a bass. Pretty soon afterwards I got another shout about another fish, then a while later he landed a better (third) fish so I asked him to put it in a rockpool and I’d make my way back to where he was fishing to shoot a few photos. My cunning plan wasn’t working very well so a move wasn’t exactly unwelcome, plus I was interested to see what he was fishing with.

If there had been bass in front of me I’d have fancied catching with what I was using, and when you’re fishing more than half a mile apart there is of course every chance that a few bass might be somewhat localised. Either they weren’t localised where I had (cunningly) chosen to fish, or what Dave was fishing with was making a difference. To give the guy a load of credit, he’s been fishing so much with his own Labrax Mafia paddletails and twitchbaits - and catching plenty of good fish on them. His three bass from this session came on his smaller Labrax Mafia Morsetto 115 paddletail rigged on a 4/0 14g Decoy Violence VJ-36 jig head - in a bright pink colour. A bit more weight was required to combat the strengthening onshore conditions, but what really struck me was the bright pink colour of his paddletail.

To be fair a mate rocked up and hooked a bass on his second cast with a white paddletail, but when I catch sod all and another angler catches three fish on a very different lure colour to what I am using, it obviously lodges in my brain. We continued to fish and move and cover ground, but that flurry was it for the session. I only carry two washable lures boxes with me and I know how to stuff as many soft plastics as possible into the horizontal slot version, but with lures I trust implicitly and lures I need to try and so on? I need to find a few more slots! You all have a good weekend…………..

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