You bet it does. I don't know much about the science of how stripers see or view color. But, based on experience and a lot of trial and error I know that the color you are using does make a difference.
Here are some examples:
1. Just about all my bucktail jigs I use are white with a white head and white bucktail. Thread is white or red. Ditto for plastics with a white body and white jighead. This applies in daytime or nighttime.
2. For my skinny plastics (Hogys), I generally use black at night and white in the daylight, although white also produces at night sometimes. Once in a while, a strange color (pink or electric chicken will work in the daylight), but white will usually work on those times also.
3. All my needlefish are either made with a white base or a black base. On my white models, I might paint the backs in a yellow, green or blue for a little contrast, but the colors are basically light. Use light colors in the daylight and black at night. Once again, white sometimes works at night too.
4. My Deceiver teasers are white or black. White in the daytime, black at night.
5. When using swimmers, I like a black back model at night and a light color in the daytime (same pattern as above).
6. As far as poppers are concerned, I only use them in the daytime, so most of my poppers have a white base. I like all white, or a white one with a green or blue back.
That's about it. Quite a simple choice that boils down to mostly light colors in the daytime and dark at night. Sometimes a wacky color will work but all of the above choices will catch 90% of the time when the fish want to hit.
