I don’t know what it is about the color pink, but I love it. And the fish love it too. I’ve been lucky enough to travel around this wonderful country of ours, fishing gear in tow. It seems that no matter where I’ve gone—freshwater or saltwater, I’ve caught fish on pink lures. And most interestingly to me—all were in clear water environments.
I’ve spent time fishing the Cape Cod area in both the spring and fall for striped bass. Pink Sluggos were key bait for the stripers—jigging them down deep or sight casting cruising stripers up on the expansive Monomoy flats surrounding the Chatham area. During a fall trip to fish the area, we used pink flukes to target false albacore. Jerking these flukes as fast as we could produced tremendously vicious strikes from these gorgeous fish.
I’ve fished for mahi mahi in the Florida Keys trolling pink teasers and squid imitations to great success. Heck, I’ve even used pink to fish for snook around the mangroves. Somehow snook get irritated enough at a hot pink lure flashing by them that they’ll chase it down with reckless abandon. Barracuda don’t seem to mind pink, either, for that matter!
Bonefish in the Bahamas seem to like a bit of pink in a fly cast delicately in front of them. Perhaps it’s the slight pinkish hue of natural shrimp that make this a solid choice. No matter the reason, bonefish tailing the flats will track down a fly with a pink accent, drag screaming soon to follow.
In freshwater, smallmouth bass love pink at times, absolutely going bananas, chasing a pink lure with ferocity. Often, this is during the post spawn period when the smallies start to school for the summer. Packs of smallmouth will all chase down a soft jerkbait fished quickly near the surface. Steelhead are fans as well. Pink mesh in spawn bags, pink worms and hot pink jigs are staples in my box, regardless of whether I’m fishing for fall, winter or spring run steelhead.
So in short—even though the pink bubblegum color may seem odd to our eyes, and unnatural, try one. It might just make you a fanatic like me. The fish already are.