Jackson: Color or no color, the real question for bait

Everyone in the fishing business has an opinion. At least that's the way it has appeared to me for so many decades.

One "expert" says this type and brand of spinner bait is the best because it can dance the flammadoodle. Another maven with his sun-beaten brow swears he literally found the angler's fountain of youth when he uses a plug (crankbait for you newbies). And a dozen or more self-declared pros will speak the words of their sponsor's mantra as to how good a particular bait will perform and even catch fish under certain conditions-like heavy lightening storms.

It took dozens of years for me to separate the "wheat from the chaff," so to speak, regarding a lure's performance and catchabiity.

Take a walleye jig as one example.

Voluminous chapters have been written and rewritten about the usefulness of a walleye jig.

Looking to make a name for themselves in the fishing world, a few souls built a soapbox and placed it in the middle of Chicago's Bug House Square. They climbed aboard and began their rant about the necessity of using a colored jig head, claiming that this piece of hook and lead is the surefire trick in getting a walleye or smallmouth's attention.

Before you reach for your keyboard to argue with me, please read on.

Twenty years ago, I put myself through the tiresome trial-and-error testing on a Wisconsin lake.

One rod was rigged with a 3/8 oz. chartreuse-colored jig head and a leech. Another rod had a plain, dull-colored jig rigged with a leech as well. I brought with two tackle boxes stuffed with new and old lures. There were crankbaits; jigs; top-water noisemakers; buzz baits - you name it, all neatly stacked in the boxes.

This was a day to test and record the results with both old and new attracters. It was also something I had promised myself I would undertake for years but never pulled the trigger.

The results were even in that I nabbed four walleyes on each setup as well as two smallmouth bass. So I changed colors. The next test was with a glow-in-the-dark jig head with a minnow rigged on the hook. And again, the other rod stayed rigged with a plain jig head and minnow.

I expected the glow-in-the-dark jig to outperform the plain setup, but the end result appeared to be the same.

I let each rig sink to the 15-foot depth and slowly swam the contraptions around in an up-and-down motion.

The result was the same only with a bag comprised of all walleye.

There are gaggles of pros who get paid to sing the praises of the products they use in their boats or on shorelines. But in reality, the real test comes in the hands of Joe Average Angler who spend a few extra bucks so as to expect a fishing miracle based on the company's hype.

The same kind of testing was done with crankbaits.

Different colored cranks are supposed to mimic forage or frogs and even wayward mammals that jump in to the water to cool off.

Each bait is supposed to wiggle and swim a different way from its cousin. There is a tight wiggle, a not-so-tight wiggle and a lazy, arching wiggle built in to the body of the bait. And there's also the color scheme as well. So I ask all you knowledgeable anglers have you ever seen a real, live fire tiger in the flesh. When that color was rolled out I practically choked on my lunch.

Spinner and buzz baits are practically the same in many cases, so we can expect similar results.

I stopped going to the big tackle show, the place where new products appear on the scene and writers are supposed to get excited when they gaze upon the wares.

I'm likely to do that when I'm enjoying a tasty pastrami sandwich.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.