Quick Color Reference Guide for Musky Fishing

Quick Color Reference Guide for Musky Fishing

Jodie Paul April 22, 2024

Musky fishing is hard enough when it comes to condition, location, pattern, and gear, so we thought it might be a good idea to come up with a color chart that might help some anglers new and old decide on a starting point when you get out on the water in terms of color choice.  Color choice and muskies have been long debated.  Pattern vs Solid or light vs dark is always at the forefront of a musky angler's mind.  This quick reference table once explained is a great jumping-off point for those who don't know where to start.

Let's break it down for greater understanding.  Please understand that this is not the be-all end-all, but a quick reference for later fine-tuning based around all of the other conditions at play.

Dark Colors: Solids of blacks, browns, grays. etc.

Light Colors: Solids of white, bone, muted colors etc.

Naturals: Natural colors and patterns matching the local food resource (limit flash)

Solid Bright: Neons and hot colors

Unpatterned Solids: Any solid color without pattern

Colorblock: Simplified patterns (ex: Bucher Depthraider in Night Shiner or Northland Rumble Beast in Tenn Shad)

UV: Ultraviolet activated paint jobs

This chart will give you a good jumping off point on days where you don't know where to start.  Obviously there are many more types of lakes and conditions, but for a basic color jumping off point, we hope this might help you find the ever illusive muskies.

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