Bandit Colors

[bubba@1959]

New to spring fishing Western Basin. Need help picking good bandit colors

[cohoho]

I would suggest reading posts from last spring. Generally have chromes, purples, golds and natural colors and you should catch them in most conditions. Or just do what I did, sell the wife’s car, take out a second mortgage and work the street corner for a month and spend it all on Bandits and you’ll end up with 10% of the colors (2% if you include the custom guys).

[fishfinder]

You should post a pic of all your bandits lol and I am sure there a few that you use constantly lol

[Fishing Tiger]

Coho pretty much sums it up lol.

On any given day, any color will catch fish. As a general rule chromes and lighter colors on sunny days and darker colors on cloudy day.

Another good trick is to ask your significant other to pick out some pretty baits and buy them. Then brag about how good her baits were. Then she will be hooked and want to pick out more baits for you.

[itsbob]

Good stock colors are Blue Chrome,popsicle,humble bee,black head wonderbread,taco salad and khaki.Some good custom colors are IB frozen,huff daddy,white perch,Pooh bear purple.Slim shady who posts here has alot of nice custom colors too.

[sherman51]

I have used a few different colors but sunspot has been the best yet for catching summer eyes on the central basin. blue chrome is another great color also with perch being another color. I use the walleye deep diving bandits when using snap weights, inline weights, or no weights at all. but when using them with divers like dipsy, Dreamweaver deeper divers, or the ones I use and swear by is the lite bite slide divers using a 7' fluro leader instead of the slide. but using the slide part might get a few more fish, then you can only use the shallow divers. but on my riggers, I use both deep and shallow divers. a rule of thumb for me is using anything with pink or purple. but there are so many colors I haven't even tried. you just can't use them all. if a color produces then why try another color? just use your good judgment and recommended colors to start. but if a color catches your eye then if money is not a big problem for you then by all means get 2 of them.

I have learned over the years to always get at least 2 or more of any lure I buy. because it really sucks to get 1 and the 1st time out it is the hot lure but you don't have the option to put another one out if you only got the 1.

[cohoho]

You should post a pic of all your bandits lol and I am sure there a few that you use constantly lol

I failed to mention that my wifes car was a 1983 Dodge K car, I live in a tent and I weigh 400#'s so i was only able to raise $50 for lures.... :-)

I see the other two posts with good colors to start with. Good luck this spring to all!

[fisherman 2]

don't get hung up that you need last years hot colors...there's a good chance it won't be as hot this year...get the basics colors as everyone has said...last year white body baits worked very well, this year we'll see if they continue...just keep a eye on posts from here and other sites to see if a certain color starts being hot then buy...one custom color you should get is chrome huff daddy or huff and puff...same color pattern but different names from different painters...it has worked fairly good for the last few years.

[fishfinder]

That sounds like a brilliant plan but what happens if the ones she picked does not catch fish? You have to have a back up plan lol

[sherman51]

That sounds like a brilliant plan but what happens if the ones she picked does not catch fish? You have to have a back up plan lol

if by chance the bandits don't catch fish it may not be the color as much as the depth the baits are running. try any deep diving crank or try changing your leads. back in the mid 80s our hot baits was standard hot n tots and wiggle warts that never dived as deep as bandits do. but at times we tried anything we had. one may we werern't catching fish on anything we was using. so we got desperate and put out a couple of wee warts and tiny tots. 2 hrs later we headed in with a nice limit of fish for 4. back then we just flatlined then and never added weights. some days having your lures at the right depth is way more important than color.

if the bandit colors caught your wife then they should catch some fish if your leads put them at the right depth. the only reason to use weights with bandits is in deeper water and you are marking fish deep or just to run shorter leads.

back when we started trolling the western basin we just used the same spinning gear we had been using drift fishing. but if you have line counter reels you can adjust leads as needed.