Looking at the Original Culprit Worm lure color chart can be intimidating. I attempted to count them all, but was overwhelmed at the vast color selection. Have I tried them all? No, but I sure want to. Is there a reason to have so many? Yes! Many Professional anglers try to keep it simple sticking with a few basics that they know will work. I know this because I was one of them, traveling across the country no knowing anything about the body of water in advance. With limited practice time, the last thing you want to do is get confused by too many colors. Find the fish first, then tweak. Usually its not until after the tournament starts does any experimenting take place.
Sticking with basics is the the most efficient way to Find fish — but is it the best way to catch them? I’m in a different, more enjoyable place now — fishing for fun and filming Carolina’s Perfect Cast TV Show. I have much more time to really fine tune what makes bass bite. Now when I find fish, I don’t nervously look around to see if another competitor is watching. Now, I get to smash them — right then and there. I love to experiment with different colors and lures. For example, I might be fishing with a 10″ Culprit Original Worm in one of my “confidence colors”?Red Shad and be catching fish only to switch, all together, to a
9″ Fat Max Grape Dazzle color. Sometimes the thickness of the Fat Max Worm will catch bigger fish. They other day I was fishing really muddy water where I like to use dark colors and/or bright colors, but I decided to see if it really mattered to the fish so I tied on a 5” T-Rex Worm in the Watermelon color. The T?Rex in Watermelon maybe the best lure Culprit makes for clear water. Guess what? First cast one about 2 1/2 pounds. Not bad for the little creek I was fishing.
The time to experiment is after you have figured out where they are holding and feeding. Sometimes you will find they will eat almost any color and other days you will find they are very selective. Start by thinking about the places you fish — is the water clear, stained or muddy? Is there a certain type of forage the fish mostly feed on in that body of water? A basic rule of thumb is to use natural colored or translucent colors in clearer water and darker or brighter colors in muddy water, but as shown above, the rules don’t always apply. My advice on color, specifically for Culprit’s vast selection, is to build a base of confidence colors and then branch out — you might just find a magical combination that drives bass crazy under a certain set of conditions.
If you are just starting out, keep a log of everything to include weather (including cloud cover), water temperature, water color, time of year, cover, depth, weight of the bait, etc. Go back and look for patterns in effectiveness and try to duplicate it. That’s what I did as a kid and I learned a lot about bass simply by taking notes for about 3 years in a row. It is good to read and watch fishing, but nothing compares to the experience.
DUSTIN WILKS