Most crappie anglers own a tackle box loaded with feather or hair jigs, as well as jigheads, grubs and tubes in every color combination imaginable.

But once you're out on your favorite crappie water in the spring, do you know what color to reach for -- and why? Will slabs readily take one color over another? Do they even perceive the multitude of colors that we put in front of them? Or are all of these multi-hued lures designed to please only the fisherman?

Well, we fisherfolk are smarter than some folks give us credit for: Fish do see colors. Almost all species of fish except those living in the deepest, darkest of waters see color as well as we do, if not better.

The trick is in knowing what color, or combination of colors, works best for varying conditions. The time of day, and how much cloud cover or sunshine there is, affect the amount of light filtering down through the water column. The level of light reaching the depth where the fish are determines what colors they'll see best -- and hopefully, react to.

Most of us know that water clarity plays an important role in your choice of lure color. But the depth of the water you're fishing also plays a part in what hues to choose.

Less light filters down to 20 or even 15 feet of water, and at that depth, crappie see colors differently than they can in shallower water.

So since color does matter, what general rules of thumb do the experts use for choosing a color for a trailer?

And is the color of the jighead important as well?

Wally Marshall has targeted papermouths for 45 years and is a member of Bass Pro Shops professional fishing staff. He's been fishing for crappie professionally in tournaments since 1987. He won the first tournament he entered and has won several more since. In fact, he is widely known as Mr. Crappie.

Through experience, Marshall has become an expert on color selection and says he can know what color lure to use simply by looking at the color of the water.

Marshall believes that color selection is important and that crappie can detect shades such as reds, pinks or oranges. For this reason, crappie jigs tend to be brightly colored.

When fishing on a cloudy, overcast day or in heavily stained water, Marshall goes to darker colors for the body of his jig. A black body with a chartreuse tail is a good choice. In muddy water, the darker colors are more visible.

Other darker colors Marshall uses are blue-and-chartreuse or red-and-chartreuse. These choices also work during the low-light conditions of dusk and dawn.

Marshall also recommended using opaque colors such as chartreuse, rather than translucent colors when fishing in stained water or on an overcast day. Opaque or non-bleed colors have a greater visibility under those conditions, giving a profile of higher contrast than a translucent color would. The latter allows some light to pass through and therefore, tends to blend in with its background.

On bright sunny days or in clear to lightly stained water, blue-and-white or white-and-chartreuse are the color combos that Mr. Crappie throws.