THE IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR! Posted by Tom Dove

Tom Dove explains why your approach should include various colour options when it comes to hookbaits!

For a fair while now my angling year has consisted of well... everything - short sessions in the UK, longer tips across Europe and around the world with Monster Carp. Sometimes fishing with boilies, sometimes with particles, tackling busy day ticket lakes or pressured syndicate waters. So, I guess you could say that yes, my fishing is pretty varied to say the least, but within all this randomness... there are some things that remain and need to remain consistent within my set-up and approach.

Most of these are simple practices that all contribute to my initial mindset i.e. presenting the right hookbait in the right place at the right time. Things such as feeling the lead down onto the lakebed, a simple process often overlooked despite being massively important. Like a self-assurance list that when applied gives you the confidence that you're probably doing things correctly. Obviously one of the things I place a huge amount of focus upon is my hookbait choice and will it suit my fishing situation. Again, and for most anglers I guess, this choice will hold a common theme in most cases; pop-ups when weed, chod or lake debris is present, maybe balanced wafting baits over silt, and tiger nuts when perhaps durability is important.

All things that's make sense, but yet there is still one element when it comes to hookbaits I think gets slightly overlooked or rather not given quite the amount of thought it deserves and that's colour. For me this is massively important, and begins by simply using a different colour on each rod I'm permitted to use in an attempt to distinguish which, if any colour will produce more bites. It amazes me how often anglers understand that fishing three colours to see which might work better over another with Zig Rigs is good practice, but don't follow this chain of thought when fishing on the bottom? Especially on a new water where you'll have little to no knowledge.

A trip this spring to Embryo venue, Norton Disney filming for Mainline and The Carp Project was a good example of this. I began the session with three different coloured pop-ups on Spinner Rigs (another tick on my confidence list), perhaps my two favourites in yellow and white Milky Toffee, plus a pink as the outsider. Half expecting a the yellow to produce the goods, the white was the first to go. This colour then produced the next two bites, by which time I'd armed all three rigs with white Milky Toffees that then produced three more takes for a total of six fish. To begin with I could have quite easily put out three hookbaits of the same colour or not changed things as the bites came, but I'm certain it would of cost me fish! Because although you may have some idea, you never really know which colour will work on the day. Another day, perhaps with different conditions such as water clarity or light levels the pink or yellow could have been 'the one'.

So, for me when there are so many hookbait chooses available, from match-the-hatch style baits to bright, high attract pop-ups within the Hi-Visual range along with various liquids to give them a tweak - it really does pay to hold a few options and I suggest you do the same.

HOW TO...

Follow this simple step-by-step to tie Tom's Milky Toffee Spinner Rig!

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