Choosing the right jig or plastic color is one of the most hotly debated topics in the ice fishing world. Walk the aisles of the St. Paul Ice Show or browse any ice fishing retailer, and you’ll see hundreds of colors, patterns, glow finishes, UV enhancements, and bait combinations. For many anglers, color is one of the most exciting parts of gearing up for ice season—and a great excuse to buy new tackle year after year.

On Episode 206 of the Fish House Nation Podcast, hosts Chris Larsen and Al Escobedo break down what really matters when choosing jig and plastic colors. While ice anglers love talking about color, the truth is a little more complex. Some colors shine in specific conditions. Others are confidence colors—patterns that simply work for you time and time again. And sometimes, the best color is the one you least expect.

This guide takes the insights from the podcast and turns them into a practical, field-tested breakdown of how to choose the best jig and plastic colors for your next ice fishing trip.

Why Ice Anglers Love Talking About Colors

Let’s start with the obvious: ice anglers love gear. It’s part of the fun. Jigs, spoons, plastics, soft baits—every year, companies release dozens of new colors, styles, and combinations that are practically pieces of art.

But color also feels like a variable we can control. When fishing is tough, picking up a different color is much easier than rethinking location, cadence, or how we’re presenting the bait.

Chris shares a conversation from a Great Lakes trolling expert who teaches “eight steps to catching more fish.” In that system, color is the eighth most important factor. But as Chris says, buying a new color is easier than improving technique—so color gets a lot of attention.

The truth? Color matters… but not as much as we sometimes want to believe. Still, making good color choices helps eliminate guesswork when conditions are tough.

Confidence Colors: Your Personal Starting Point

Before diving into nitty-gritty technique, Al highlights something every angler should consider: confidence.

If you have a color that’s brought you consistent success over the years, that’s the first color you should tie on. For Al, that’s pink. Clear water, dirty water, finicky crappies—it’s the color he trusts.

Chris has his own go-to colors, including black, purple, and a deep “Dr. Pepper” shade he relies on in clear water.

These confidence baits work because anglers fish them well. When you trust a color, you naturally focus more, jig more effectively, and stay patient longer—often resulting in more fish.

So while the rest of this guide breaks down technical selection, your confidence color still deserves a permanent spot in your jig box.

Matching Colors to Water Clarity

If you only take one lesson from this blog post, let it be this:

Water clarity is the #1 factor in choosing color.

Different colors perform best depending on how light penetrates the water column. Here’s what Chris and Al recommend:

Clear Water: Natural, Subtle, and Realistic

In clear water, fish have excellent visibility. They can get a long, detailed look at your bait, so subtlety becomes critical.

Best Colors for Clear Water:

• Black
  
  
• Browns and greens (natural forage tones)
  
  
• Purple (a standout confidence color for Chris)
  
  
• Motor oil / Dr. Pepper-style translucent colors
  
  
• White (especially on sunny days)
  
  

These colors mimic the small minnows, aquatic insects, and invertebrates that panfish actually feed on in clear lakes.

Bright colors can still work in clear water at times, but natural tones tend to outproduce flashy patterns.

Stained or Dark Water: Bright, Flashy, and Glow

In darker water, fish rely more on silhouette, contrast, and vibration. This is where colors that “pop” make a huge difference.

Best Colors for Dirty or Stained Water:

• Gold (Al’s #1 pick for all-around use)
  
  
• Chartreuse
  
  
• Pink
  
  
• Red
  
  
• Glow variations
  
  
• UV-enhanced colors
  
  
• Metallic silver or nickel patterns
  
  

Gold deserves special mention. Al calls it the “hammer” of ice fishing colors—if you can’t catch fish on gold, it might be time to relocate.

Bright plastics and glow finishes help panfish target your bait when visibility is low. UV brighteners also make a big difference, especially for crappies and bluegills.

Depth Matters, Too

Light diminishes as you go deeper. At 20–30 feet, even clear water begins acting like stained water. This is where glow and UV colors really shine.

If you’re fishing deep basins for midwinter crappies, tying on a UV-enhanced bait or glowing tungsten jig head makes a noticeable difference.

Choosing Jig Head Colors: Keep It Simple

Al keeps his jig selection streamlined, even though he admits to having “too many options” in his box.

His core color set includes:

• Gold – Flash and attraction
  
  
• Black – Natural profile and silhouette
  
  
• White – Versatile, good in both clear and stained water
  
  
• Pink – His top confidence pick
  
  
• Red – Great for panfish and clear-water lakes
  
  
• Natural browns and greens
  
  

You can cover 95% of situations with just these colors. That’s an important lesson: you don’t need 50 colors; you need a handful that suit a variety of conditions.

Plastic Colors: Match the Situation (and the Profile)

Selecting plastic colors follows the same logic as jig heads, but with one key difference:

Profile often matters more than color for plastics.

Once you’ve chosen a good jig head color, your plastic is mostly about shape, size, and matching the forage.

Still, color plays a role.

Al’s go-to plastic colors:

• Black
  
  
• White
  
  
• Red
  
  
• Purple
  
  
• Pink accent colors (paired with his pink jigs)
  
  

Matching the jig head and plastic can be productive, but contrast often works even better.

For example:

• Black jig head + white plastic
  
  
• Gold jig head + chartreuse plastic
  
  
• Pink jig head + purple plastic
  
  

The contrast creates a larger, more visible profile, especially helpful for crappies.

Hard Bait Colors: Think Like a Minnow

Hard baits such as rattle baits, jigging minnows, and minnow-profile spoons tend to mimic baitfish, so their colors reflect that purpose.

Top Ice Fishing Hard Bait Colors:

• Gold
  
  
• Silver
  
  
• Natural perch patterns
  
  
• Shad colors
  
  
• White belly/glow belly combinations
  
  

Al mostly sticks to gold and silver because they match the flash of real minnows and work in nearly every lake.

When Color Doesn’t Follow the “Rules”

Despite all the guidelines, ice fishing always has exceptions. Sometimes the least-likely color ends up being the exact trigger fish want.

Chris and Al both emphasize:

• Don’t be afraid to experiment.
  
  
• Sometimes the weird color wins.
  
  
• Rules are just starting points—not absolutes.
  
  

If the fish are finicky or you’re marking but not hooking them, switching to an unexpected color often breaks the cycle.

Wonder Bread patterns, mismatched combinations, ultra-bright plastics—none of these are “wrong” if the fish respond to them.

Final Thoughts: Build a Flexible, Confidence-Based Color System

A well-rounded ice angler doesn’t need a tackle store’s worth of colors. You just need:

1. A few confidence colors
   
   
2. A clear-water set
   
   
3. A stained-water set
   
   
4. A couple UV/glow options
   
   
5. A handful of hard baits in gold or silver
   
   

From there, experiment freely. Color doesn’t matter as much as your presentation, location, and cadence—but having the right color tied on gives you confidence, and confidence catches fish.

The next time you stock your jig box, make sure you’ve got the essentials covered… and maybe a couple new wildcards. After all, half the fun of ice fishing is trying something new.

For more ice fishing tips, product insights, and wheelhouse content, visit the Catch Cover Blog at CatchCover.com.