For trailers or Texas-rigged plastics, bass pro Greg Hackney keeps it simple on the color selection. Black/blue or Okeechobee Craw gets the call for cloudy days and darker water, while more vivid patterns work best in clear water and brighter conditions.
“If I’m confident that they’re on a bream pattern, I’ll go with gator craw or sexy craw, which has some orange in it. If crawfish are the dominant pattern, I’ll stick with the natural colors like green pumpkin and sometimes I’ll put a little orange tip on the claws with Dip-n-Dye, because in the fall, if you get around crawfish they’ll be greenish in color and have a little orange on the tip.
“Even though a fish will bite a solid black lure if what they’re feeding on is white, I find you get more bites if you stay as natural as possible. As for those orange tips, I just think that sometimes it’s the little things that make the difference. Will it get you 10 more bites? No, but it might get you two or three and one of them could be the fish of a lifetime.”
Trailer style generally comes down to two main criteria, action and profile. When fish are hot to chew in stable fall weather, a slender body trailer with a lot of action in the appendages will fall fast to entice those aggressive feeding strikes. If the bait happens to make it to the bottom without getting hit, the wiggly appearance might coax a late taker.
Conversely, if a fall cold spell has the fish a little slow on the trigger, you might want to ease back on the fall rate with a bulky chunk-style trailer that has more mass than action. In this scenario, making a bait easier to catch is more important than making it visually enticing.
