I often get asked by customers what my favourite lure colour is or what colour I would recommend for a particular area. To answer this in short, every colour will have its time to shine and there are many variables that affect this. I usually start by saying that if I could only take two different lure colours, then I would choose a full natural colour like blue / green sardine or even a black or white colour.

The second choice would be a really bright colour like an orange / yellow or fluro pink or even a zany stripped colour, something that doesn’t really make sense and may be strange enough to a predatory fish, that it gets a reaction bite. Of course, I will always have in the back of my mind the 'match the hatch' theory. It’s always good to know what your main target species are mainly feeding on, for example, Fusiliers for the reef GT’s or Saury's for Tuna schools.

Another factor to consider when fishing the reefs is that there will always be a dominant reef species that inhabits the reef in different locations, like Coral Trout or Grassy Sweet Lip etc, so it’s good to try and match these fish colours as the big predatory fish will always be hunting these fish as part of their stable diet.

Even though you might have found the magic colour and you are getting loads of action, just be mindful that this might change as the sun and moon moves throughout the day. So that blue / green sardine colour that was getting all the bites in the morning, is getting little attention in the middle of the day and that crazy stripped lure you have, is now the hot bite colour. As the sun moves throughout the day, it creates different light levels and this will affect where the baitfish sit and therefore where the predatory fish hunt and how they feed.

As an angler I am always thinking about why something is working or not working, but at the end of the day it’s just my thoughts. Something that has improved my catch rate is that I am always constantly changing my lure choices and colours and when I finally crack the code, I also know it will have its time and there will be a new 'hot colour'. The way I see it is, I pay good hard-earned money for my lure collection, so it’s nice to give them all a run.

If you have any questions about what lure to use when targeting a specific species, please feel free to contact me for a chat.