How to Change the Color of Bait Fish
Minnows are one of the most popular fishing bait in the country. But when you get a bucket of minnows, they are almost always the same species, the same size and they all look alike. Sure, fish will bite them, but how do the predators single your bait out from the rest of the minnows in the lake? Artificial lure fishermen figured this out years ago: show the fish a bait of a different color. So, color your minnows darker, lighter or even red or green to make them more attractive to the fish you want to catch.
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Things You'll Need
- Minnow bucket
- Minnow tank
- Minnow tank cover
- Light
- Food coloring
- Neutral Red Dye
- Commercial minnow stain
- Salt
Instructions
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Natural Coloring
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Put minnows in a minnow tank for a week or more with a tank cover over the top and keep them in the dark. Minnows in a dark environment will take on a darker hue as the melanin in their skin adapts to the dark conditions.
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2
Put minnows in a light-colored (such as white plastic) minnow tank with a continually burning white light over the tank for a week or more. Minnows in this light environment will fade as the melanin in their skin adapts to make them more inconspicuous in a bright environment.
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Use the dark-colored minnows on bright, sunny days when their dark appearance will make them more visible to hungry predators.
Use the light-colored minnows when fishing on cloudy days or early or late in the day when the light is dim. They will show up better.
Artificial Colors
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Use a common dye called neutral red, which is used by laboratory biologists to stain their specimens with a mixture of 1:100 by weight (one gram of NR to 100 milliliters of water, or roughly 1.3 ounces per gallon of water). In a few minutes, the minnows will take on a decidedly red color which will last a day or more, even if the minnows are subsequently transferred into a minnow bucket containing unstained water. When used in water less than ten feet deep, red is a color easily seen by predators and may incite strikes because of their instinct to bite bleeding baits.
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Use commercially available dyes formulated to stain minnows temporarily to change their color. When fishing deeper water, greens, blues and violet hues will elicit bites. Many of these dyes work nearly instantaneously, but they're toxic enough to the minnow that they will die in a short time from exposure. Dunk the minnow in the dye for a few seconds, then fish with it until it gets bit or dies.
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Infuse the water in which your minnows are living with commercial food coloring dyes. Mixed results have been recorded with this method, from very good to very poor depending on the species of minnow used and strength of the dye solution. Add 1/2 liquid ounce of food coloring to the minnow water, wait a few hours and if the minnows don't seem to be absorbing the color, add another half ounce. It you can't get results with this amount, try adding a tablespoon of table salt to each gallon of water in the solution to increase the uptake of the dye.
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Tips & Warnings
Dyes that stain fish will usually stain human skin as well. Take precautions or be prepared to live with colored fingers for awhile after each fishing trip.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit series object on white: isolated fishing spoon-bait image by Aleksandr Ugorenkov from Fotolia.com
