Is there Bubble-Gum Pink in your Tackle Box?

Some anglers carry a million different colors and patterns, and some others have three or four stand-bys they stick to. No matter which category you fall into, peek at your tacklebox right now and see if you have any bubble-gum pink.

If you don’t, go out and get some. Pink (as well as pink/chartreuse combinations commonly called electric chicken) is a well-known favorite of speckled trout, and there will be days when it out-fishes any other color hands-down. In fact, many anglers who do carry pink do so specifically for when they’re speck fishing. But pink’s appeal goes way beyond those specks. Some other situation that call for a healthy does of pink include:

• Spanish mackerel, when they aren’t pouncing on the standard gold spoon. For some odd reason, there are days when pink, specifically pink resin spoons, out-fishes the classics. IMHO this seems to happen mostly on calm bluebird days. I don’t have any recorded data to back that up, but the next time you’re fishing for mackerel on a calm bluebird day give it a shot and see what happens.
• Cobia trailers on bucktails and skirted jigs. Sight casting to cobia it’s not unusual to have your offerings turned down, but one the gets hit more than many others is a pink twister tail or paddle tail running on a white bucktail.
• Striped bass in shallow water. The next time you’re in a reservoir with a shallows water striper bite, give pink a shot. It commonly (though of course not always) works just as well as white or chartreuse and sometimes even better.

Of course, we’d always recommend carrying a number of different offerings and swapping out colors until you land on one that’s working well. And standards like white, chartreuse, blue for offshore, and brown for tannic-stained waters, belong in every tackle box, too. But for whatever reason many anglers either don’t carry pink or save those bubble-gum shades in reserve for specks, only. That’s a shame, because in reality pink belongs right there at the top of the charts with those other stand-bys. Start carrying and using it, and we’ll bet that sooner or later you agree.