Choosing the right color

[Green Pea]

Curious; When you first hit a lake, what determines the color you will start with. If it's an overcast day do you grab something bright and so on.......

I fish for Crappie and Gills but don't have enough experience on the ice to know what jig, blade or color to start with. The easy answer is to just start somewhere and change things up when nothing working but I'm more interested in hearing what conditions determine what you use.

[LeeinOH]

I've always heard dark color on overcast days and bright colors on sunny days...

[slabslayer]

I know this is probably going to sound stupid, but normally its a gut thing for me. I weigh all the factors; water color, clarity, sun or clouds, thickness and clarity of the ice, is there snow on the ice, etc. Then if my first choice doesn't work I go to the by the book choices until the fish tell me what they want. Just like Lee said.

[OhioFisher19]

I think this is a really good article I read today. I personally am not a big believer in color...
http://www.fix.com/blog/view-from-below-lures-underwater/

[davidhoheisel]

Clear water with clear skies I start with a white or neutral color. If the water is dirty I start with a gold color. Before dark I have good success with gold and fire tiger.

[slabslayer]

One thing I forgot to mention, after dark or on really overcast days with lots of snow on the ice, a glow lure makes a huge difference. Experiment with different colors of glow. Orange glow was the best the other night.

[Optfish]

thanks guys this makes sense. when I was fishing in Oscoda Mich. fishing for walleye durring day we would use Rapala's colored Chartruse and white. when it woul get dark out we changed to gold Rapala's caught fish in daylight and at night but Chartruse never seemed to work in the dark and gold would not turn them on until dark. Thanks again

[Green Pea]

Thank you for all the replies. Good stuff here. I just started ice fishing a couple years ago and I although I don't catch as many fish as others seem to catch I'm having a blast.

Well with colors in mind I'm going to place an order. Thanks again for your help.