Regarding the Norman crankbaits, What is the sour grape color supposed to imitate? I can’t figure it out. (Bluegill)????

Lure color patterns dont have to resemble anything! When was the last time you say a firetiger fish swimming around or a redhead. Some colors are seen better in dark water and some get reactions there is a color for every situation these days.

I guess your right. I didn't think about muddy or off colored water. Most of the time I'm fishing clearwater.

sstoad char baits are also good for smallmouth and spotted bass in clear water, for some reason they really like it.

Sorry for ansering your ? Rob.

If the question is directed to me, boy your guess is as good as mine. Chartreuse colors are very popular in crankbaits for some reason. I've never done well on chartreuse cranks myself. 90% of my crankbaits are either shad pattern or crawdad pattern.

As you know, vineyards are very popular in CA, and with each passing day there are more and more vineyards sprouting out of nowhere. What happens is lots of grapes will actually fall off the vine, roll down a hill, and end up in the water. Of course they turn sour very quickly. Well bass, being the oppotunists that they are, have started feeding on the sour grapes! A few very observant fishermen figured this out, started painting their baits a sour grape color, and were slamming nice fish. One of the first pioneers of this new grape thing was sponsored by Norman, and he sold the idea to them. From what I hear, a sour grape swimbait will be introduced later this fall to coincide with the annual "fall" stocking (falling off the vines) of sour grapes. I heard a rumor that Rago will introduce a very nice topwater crankbait that looks exactly like a sour grape complete with a 7 inch long "tail" that resembles a vine.:P

On a serious note, that color is one of my favorite at Clear Lake. Many colors cant be matched up to something realistic. But if I had to take a stab at sour grape, I would say that in dingy to dark water, those colors are more visible and may better imitate a real shad in those dark waters. If you look closely at shad, they do have yellow hues and tints on their bellies and sides, and they do have purplish tints high on their shoulders and backs. Who knows.

And for a true story, as best as I can recall, I caught my first bass on a piece of bubblegum when I was very young. I was chewing a huge wad a bubbleyum, and taking tiny pieces of it, putting it on a hook, and catching bluegill when my first bass slammed me. Honest.

the grapevine lure woulod be hiliarious,theres a pond in los alamos that i pass on the way to cachuma sorrounded by grapevines,anyone who has ever passed it drools at the possiblitily of an unfished pond,i wonder if the bass are eating grapes and each other in there,bassin' you probably have seen the pond what cha think?
sour grapes make wine? not, make the grapes into power bait.
brian-

>Many colors cant be matched up to something realistic.
>But if I had to take a stab at sour grape, I would say that in
>dingy to dark water, those colors are more visible and may
>better imitate a real shad in those dark waters. If you look
>closely at shad, they do have yellow hues and tints on their
>bellies and sides, and they do have purplish tints high on
>their shoulders and backs. >

Bluegill are FULL of color. Lots of blue, green, chartruese, orange. Hitch have blue, green, purple and gold.

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"Hitch have blue, green, purple and gold. "

What hitch are you looking at? I have cought them in clear lake a few times mabey tan/white/brown/greenish.

I reference the hitch I have caught in clear lake.

The colors in hitch vary greatly depending on size/age and season. Damn near any shad imitating rip bait resembles a hitch at one point in it's life or another. The standard green back/blue flash works fine. But if you want to imitate a more realistic look, you need to look further into the colors than some topical shade. There is depth and variation to the colors. What you call grey is really a lot of silver, some blue, a tinge of gold and a hint of purple, etc, etc.

Just like skin. So what color is skin?
Computer animators battled with it for years. It was the holy grail of CGI. As soon as the light changed, the "skin" looked all wrong.


Lucky Craft paints their lures 10 at a time and no more than two colors. So much for realism. Great baits though. They catch fish.

A custom hitch would have a dozen layers/colors. You mix them as you shoot the layers of color. My hitch and blue gill are like that. Both were given away at the Open. I don't have any pictures.