Matte Colors Now Extending Their Reach Beyond Hard Baits

Thought I would share something I found in Jay Kumar's latest BassBlaster. He pointed out that matte colors have been around for a while in hard baits...like the Megabass Vision 110 and some big swimbaits. And as announced at the latest ICAST, Rebel soon will be coming out with a line of matte baits, too.

Until last year, though, the idea of a line of matte-colored soft plastics hadn't been very popular. That all changed when Great Lakes Finesse (GLF) burst onto the scene with 100 percent of their inventory in matte colors (see examples at left), including their jig heads.

As GLF main man, Dan Miguel, noted, "We used to rub all of our soft baits on the carpet of our boats and sand the shine off our hard baits before every tournament. I truly believe doing that made me more money in tournament fishing than anything else. Matte finish is a much more natural look.

"As anglers, we sometimes think what these fish feed on...baitfish or whatever...is shiny when we pull them out of the water, because they are wet and the sun is hitting that wet surface. But the reality is almost everything these fish target and eat has no shine or glare underwater. If everything bass ate was shiny, the bait never could hide.

"We shouldn't be trying to make our baits scream 'look at me,' because that's not what happens in nature. Fish in nature always are hunting bait that is trying to blend in and hide.

"If you're trying to trigger a reaction bite, shine is OK. But for big, smart, pressured fish, they need to feel like they found the bait, and that natural matte finish allows the bait to blend into the underwater surroundings, making it look more real.

"This, I believe, is key to fooling those bigger, more-educated fish. This applies to any kind of fishing really...not just smallmouth."

Said Kumar, "Guess that would help explain why green pumpkin is such a great color. I mean, it looks like crayfish, bluegill, baitfish, and...grass. But it might not explain things like pink and chartreuse colors, and maybe blades fishing. Ain't doubting Dan at all...just pointin' out stuff."

Kumar went on to also note that the new Big Bite Baits Nekorama worm (right), designed by Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour phenom Drew Gill, comes in 12 colors...all of them matte. In pressure situations like tournaments, he believes you get more bites with something more subtle...aka matte.

And speaking of Big Bite, you might be interested to know they introduced a stealth color series (left) at the latest ICAST show.

Colors in this series are pinkasagi, ice out, purple shimmer, chartreuse purple, and blue glimmer. They're available in the 3.3 and 3.8 Pro Swimmer, as well as the 4- and 5-inch Jerk Minnow.

As Jennifer at Big Bite Baits told Kumar, "These baits are made completely of transparent plastic, where the only coloring at all comes from small amounts of glitter. This results in the fish not being able to get a good look at the baits."