Lure color picker
Water filters daylight one color at a time - red goes first, blue lasts longest. Pick your conditions and see which colors a fish can still actually see.
Your water
You can see a metre or more down. Colors behave close to the textbook.
What each color does there
The rules behind the picker
Light fades in order
Water absorbs the warm end of the spectrum first. Red is effectively gone within a few metres of the surface in clear water, orange follows, then yellow. Blue and green travel deepest. Exact depths vary with the water, so treat the figures here as rough guides.
Grey is not wasted
A red lure at depth is not invisible - it turns into a dark, natural-looking shape, which is often exactly what a baitfish looks like. Faded does not mean useless.
Contrast beats color
In dirty water, fish hunt by silhouette, vibration and scent more than by hue. A lure that stands out against the background - dark against the sky, bright against dark bottoms - outperforms the "right" color that blends in.