The REAL Reason that Red Lures Work in the Spring

If you have paid attention to the fishing industry for a while, you have definitely heard that red lures work the best in the springtime.

If you watch any pro angler talk about pre-spawn, spring bass fishing, they will always say that red lure colors just work the best.

Everyone agrees that red works great in the early spring months, but there is a bit of confusion and debate around the exact reason that red works so well.

The Old Belief

For years and years the number 1 reason that people gave for red working so well in the spring was that crawfish come out of hibernation in the spring and the red lures look like the red crawfish.

And this certainly may be true to a small extent in some lakes or ponds around the country.

But these days, that belief has mostly been left in the past for a couple of reasons.

First reason being that the majority of crawfish aren’t actually a bright red color.

Most crawfish are more of a brown color with orange or red hues on small parts of their body.

So deep red colored lures don’t actually mimmic the natural crawfish forage very well in most bodies of water each spring.

The second reason most anglers have abandoned that the crawfish theory is that most of the red lures we throw in the spring are faster moving baits like crankbaits, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, or other baits that are fished fairly quickly, and through the whole water column.

But that isn’t how crawfish move. Crawfish slowly crawl along the bottom of the lakes hugging to rocks, wood, or other cover that they can find.

So if a bass sees a lure swimming through the middle of the water column at relatively high speeds, chances are, the bass doesn’t think that it is a crawfish.

Also Read: Best Crawfish Lures

The New Beliefs

From my own personal experience as well as all the research and conversations I have done regarding this subject, it seems like there are two theories about red lures in the spring.

1. Muddy Water Theory

The muddy water theory seems to be the most popular and I have personally experienced it to be true.

This theory is simply that during the springtime, there is a lot of rain and that dirties up the water.

The spring season is usually the muddiest that water will be all year because of all the spring showers washing mud, dirt, and debris into the water.

Why does this matter for red lures? Well out of all the colors on the light spectrum, red has the highest visibility underwater and is the easiest color for bass to see.

So most anglers believe that red lures work so well in the spring time because the bass have a much easier time seeing them, and in turn, eating them.

Additionally, spring bass are feeding up and are quite aggressive, so they will usually be more concerned with finding food than they are about picking out real food from fake food.

So as long as you can get them to see it, they should be less picky and just eat it.

2. The Cold Eye Theory

This train of thought is a bit less common, but I have heard quite a few guys tell me about it and give some convincing arguments.

The cold eye theory is derived the the idea that bass have a harder time seeing in cold water.

I’m not a biologist, but this has been explained to me by anglers and guys much more educated than myself.

Essentially, my understanding is that because bass are cold blooded creatures, everything in their body, including their eyes, slows down and becomes a bit less efficient in cold water.

So during the spring when the water is still quite cold, bass want to eat but have a hard time seeing, almost like their vision is blurry or simply have reduced light that enters their eyes.

And like we discussed earlier, red is the color that is most visible underwater, especially for bass who only have two cone cells in their eyes instead of three like we do.

So for a very similar reason to the muddy water theory, red works very will in the spring time because bass have an easier time seeing the lures which makes them more likely to attack and actually eat your lures.

This “cold eye theory” also explains why a lot of anglers start throwing red lures all throughout the winter season instead of just in the springtime.

Once the water temps drop below 45 degrees, a lot of guys prioritize the color red in their bass fishing.

Fishing Impact of New Red Lure Theory

Since recent beliefs tell us that we don’t need to mimic crawfish with red lures, that actually opens up a bunch of doors for us anglers.

A few of the top springtime baits aren’t traditionally fished in red because they couldn’t possibly imitate a crawfish.

A jerkbait, for example, is a super popular lure in the springtime, but is almost never fished in a red color because it strictly imitates baitfish.

But now that we know (or strongly believe) that bass aren’t hunting for crawfish when they bite red lures but are just trying to get an easy meal, red jerkbaits can fully be in our rotation this spring.

That thought process can be applied to any lures that you wouldn’t normally fish in a red color.

Personally, I have seen tons of success fishing red colored frogs during the spring season the last couple of years.

And the red frog has actually skyrocketed in spring fishing popularity.

Now, don’t feel obligated to throw red 100% of the time, but keep it in mind for all of your springtime fishing going forward.

Reeling this In

Again, although these are the two main theories in modern bass fishing, I’m sure there are times when spring bass actually do think that your red lure is a crawfish.

So the crawfish theory isn’t completely void, it just isn’t most popular explanation anymore.

Whichever theory that you believe, it is undeniable that red lures catch tons of bass in the spring.