I guess if you get it all figured out it wouldn't be fun anymore.

bhl (Bruce)

We only run two colors. White and green (I refuse to use the term "chartreuse" - sounds too French for me). It doesn't matter if it's overcast or bright and sunny, those are the only colors we run.

On the big boat, Shawn's thing is to run all white on one side, and all green on the other. I'd prefer to mix it up but it's his boat so we do it his way and we catch fish.

I usually set one side deeper than the other and see what works best and then adust. This is where charter boats have a tremendous advantage; cell phones. The Capt is on the phone with other Captains, the Mate is on the phone talking with other Mates trading info. The conversation usually goes something like this: "how heavy a bait and how many bars off the boards did he come off of?"

I don't pay much attention to the bait head color, I do however pay very close attention to how heavy the chute is and how many bars off the board it is.

If I have two or three fish come off a light bait, four or five bars off the boards. I will pull a side in and reset it to match that bait - light/shallow.

I would caution anyone though on resetting the entire rig based on a single fish. How many times have you caught one on a 8oz bait, 12 bars back (deep) only to have the next fish come off a 2oz bait 4 bars back (shallow)?

Can't go wrong covering the water column. I am confident that is infinitely more important than the color of the baits nose.

To me the colors are more to entice the buyer of the lure, not the fish. In the Chesapeake Bay, I don't think the color of anything matters because, as Skip knows from personal diving experience, even the fish can't see far down there.

Me, I like bling...flash and sound. Fish will react to flash because it occurs naturally when bait is around and it's easier to see in the color of water I fish in usually (above the bridge) and they'll hone in on sound long before they'll ever see a bait.

I also try to put a worm rattler inside the tail of every shad we have out.

Color wise, we run green and white and if we've got an umbrella out, it's usually got a spinner or two on it to add some flash and more vibration.

When we switch to Uncle John's spoons, we have definitely found that running an umbrella or bar with his teasers and lures, we have twice the action when we replace one of the lures with a C/A lure of similar size.

To me, the difference of the action on the C/A as oppsed to everything else makes it really look wounded.

Ed-great idea on the CA. I will definitely borrow that idea. I have a number of Capt John's rigs so it will be easy to compare the 2 side by side.

Some of the baits I have caught stuff off of in the bay make me not want to ever go back in the water. "What the hell is actually swimming around down there that looks like this??":eek: I quickly chalk it up to self defense because it was so scary looking just for my own piece of mind. :D