Does lure color count.

[MichaelGA]

Funny how the entire article is based off one days fishing in one area with one type of soft plastic.

..... alternate conclusions could be:
- when fish are eating worms any color will do.
- when fish are biting they will bite any color.
- when fish are being caught on Senko's you might catch more on a spinner.
etc. etc.

[TheMaverick]

Attenuation of light
When light enters water, it’s intensity quickly fades (color changes). These changes are called attenuations.
Attenuations are either scattered or absorbed.

Scattering
The more particles found in water (Ottawa River) the more light scatters, hence, light penetrates to a lesser depth.
Clear water, less particles (Big Rideau Lake, Franny) light penetrates to a greater depth.

Absorption
The influence of water on the absorption of light.

Wavelenghts
Colors within the visual spectrum are determined by wavelengths of light.
Shorter wavelengths Blue, Green and black, Longer wavelengths Red and Orange.

The result to combining wavelenghts with attenuations is; colors are absorbed differently.

Longer wavelengths are absorbed very quickly (red and orange) hence shallow waters.
Complete opposite for shorter wavelengths (blue and green) deeper waters.
Same applies horizontally.







What do fish see

Scientists/physical studies (not students, actual scientists) has shown that a fish’s eye can focus on an image and have good contrast detection abilities.
Fish hear, sense (lateral line) and smell to initially perceive, and then vision to attack.
Near shore waters (shallow) get hit with many colors longer wavelength, offshore (deep) lots of scattering light, shorter wavelength.
The majority of fish has developed their eyes to detect the type of colors typical to their environment (foliage).

Attractiveness is a combination of many things, motion, shape, color, scent and depth.


Food for thought!

Dr. Hawryshyn is a professor of biology at Queen’s University and obtained a PHD in Vision science and Biology at the University of Waterloo.
Says BASS can detect UV lighting.



Home experiment, holding a topwater lure up to the sun (light fixture), one’s white, the other’s black.







All this being said, I don't get to chose my colors, I buy whatever is left in the bargain bins.

[Sourdough]

Thanks for putting up the article smitty. I often wonder about this sort of thing, but there is a real lack of hard research that I can find. I often find authors saying things like walleye can see yellow-orange colors, or that crappie have excellent eyesight (there is a nice article on this and other aspects of crappie behaviour in the current panfish issue of in-fisherman, but there are no sources cited so I am unsure of who worked this out and how). What I have not been able to find yet are the studies behind these statements. So, if anyone has any leads, I would be very happy to hear them.

Just a note on the study the Gord Pyzer was talking about for anyone who does not remember their statistics. At the end of the article, in talking about preferences, Gord Pyzer notes that indications of preference related to where and how deeply bass were hooked showed no statistical difference. This does not mean that all colous are equal. Rather, it should be interpreted as given the lure colors used (6 of them), in that lake, during the study period, for the type of fish examined (bass), the hypothesis that bass prefer one color cannot be rejected using the data collected for the study. In other words, the data for the study suggest differences in the way bass took different colored lures is due to random chance rather than a preference from the fish.

This is different from saying that lure colour is irrelevant. That type of statement can only be made under very strict circumstances where all (or virtually all) factors can be controlled for (things like wind speed, weather contitions, inter-year water fluctuations, season and seasonal varaition, composition of the fish population in the lake including forage species, predators and competitors, size of the lake, characteristics of the bass population like size and age distribution, etc). Since it is all but impossible to control for all these conditions, a more fruitful approach is to repeatedly test the same hypothesis (that colour is irrelevant) over and over again in different conditions. Gradually, over time, a consensus will emerge.

It is interesting that the same type of results can be found for walleye. This is an article from In-Fisherman that does a statistical analysis of jig colours for walleye. Their conclusion: colour differences are not statistically significant, but jig sizes are. It's a good read, and I commend Ryan Haines and his clients/colleagues for taking the time, energy and resources to make a solid contribution.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/walleye/wal ... periments/


I will finish with a couple of links on colour in water. I found them very informative, particularly the first and third videos and the last link by Uli Beyer.


For an explanation of how colour moves through water, this series of videos by Dr. Greg Vinall (a lure maker from Australia) are very well done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpQTh_tnJ6c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTi5nJqEzvo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTqyVX3oZk0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5P6UMGiT7o



And here are a couple of articles by Uli Beyer who has done a number of things to play with color (incidentally, I find his use of a multi-coloured secchi disk quite interesting)

http://www.esoxhunter.com/ColorsInWater.php

http://www.uli-beyer.com/en/monster-tec ... ter-wasser

Cheers,
Sourdough

Btw: TheMaverick, your tackle boxes are sickly well organized

[whoodatguy]

Thats pretty much word for word what I was going to say....

[TheMaverick]

Question, if I can't detect the subtle bite, and a Bass inhales my turquoise senko in the depths of her gut, and then I set the hook.....does that mean i've found the magic color as hooking depth is somewhat deeper then my baby blue powder senko

[Bass Addict]

White rules !!

White Senkos

White spinner bait

White Big-0

Enough said.

[StarTzar]

Question, if I can't detect the subtle bite, and a Bass inhales my turquoise senko in the depths of her gut, and then I set the hook.....does that mean i've found the magic color as hooking depth is somewhat deeper then my baby blue powder senko

The Baby Blue Senko was inspired by this song ...

[banjo]

I would love to read a bit more into why they would use University time to study this... the Undergrads were either geniuses to find a way to get school credit for fishing, or they were checking for possible survival rates for fish caught with certain colours, with the emphasis being on whether certain colours instigated deeper hook ups, and therefore greater chance at motality. I am sure the stat about 'colour doesn't matter to catch fish' wasn't their goal report, but more of an incidental observation. And anyone who has used stats for studies knows that it is how you manipulate your data to get the results you like. Oh... and like many other FishHawkers that have caught more than 120 bass knows...colour matters, location matters, vibration matters, and yes... size matters.

[TheMaverick]

... size matters.

I thought it's how you work the bait

[Yannick Loranger]

Too often when guiding, I've seen everyone on the boat except one guy, or vise versa, only one guy, catching fish. Switch the colors so they're all the same "hot" color and everyone is catching fish. One glaring example: Twice a couple seasons ago, the one guy on the boat using a lead colored bottom bouncer had gotten 0 fish while everyone else on the boat was slaying them. Switch him up to a colored bouncer, and he's caught up to his buddies in no time. I also agree with Relic that some colors are just big fish colors. I've caught my top 6 or 7 largies on the Ottawa on the same color, same goes for walleye on particular colors of worm harnesses. Color 100% matters, but it's not the #1 thing to consider. Location first, presentation 2nd, then color.

Yannick

[Oneeleven]

Even if colour has no effect, if you have a lucky coolur and you feel confident with it, confidence can make the difference between catching and not catching.

^ This!

Who doesn't love some bubblegum from time to time

All the pretty fat ladies love pink!

... size matters.

I thought it's how you work the bait

It's a little bit of both!

[zeke13]

Question, if I can't detect the subtle bite, and a Bass inhales my turquoise senko in the depths of her gut, and then I set the hook.....does that mean i've found the magic color as hooking depth is somewhat deeper then my baby blue powder senko

Actually, it has nothing to do with color, and everything to do with your "hands of stone"!

Of course being a bit of a techie ... loved your response on color, attenuation etc ..

For me, I try to limit my colors as for the most part it's the last component I think of when developing a pattern and I usually try to stick with one color in each of the light, dark and natural realms for each type of bait I use. I found that it simplifies the equation for me and I don't get to distracted from what I think are more important factors. I pick a confidence color in each of the light, dark, and natural spectrum .. it's all about the confidence.

A mentor of mine told me recently when I was chatting about narrowing the scope of what I purchase .... he said, you can normally tell where someone is in their fishing career by what they buy .. early in your career they'll likely go in to the store and buy a few of a lot of colors/brands, but watch out for the guy that goes in and buys a few colors .. but clears the peg of the things he buys.

[StarTzar]

A mentor of mine told me recently when I was chatting about narrowing the scope of what I purchase .... he said, you can normally tell where someone is in their fishing career by what they buy .. early in your career they'll likely go in to the store and buy a few of a lot of colors/brands, but watch out for the guy that goes in and buys a few colors .. but clears the peg of the things he buys.

So Ed is wrong when he says: "Buy a pack of each color."
What he should be saying is: "I've got you pegged for this color."

[BradGuenette]

A mentor of mine told me recently when I was chatting about narrowing the scope of what I purchase .... he said, you can normally tell where someone is in their fishing career by what they buy .. early in your career they'll likely go in to the store and buy a few of a lot of colors/brands, but watch out for the guy that goes in and buys a few colors .. but clears the peg of the things he buys.

Couldnt agree more....until it comes to Vision 110's, I have 3 go to colors but for some reason I cant help but to buy more, and more.....

[StarTzar]

Couldnt agree more....until it comes to Vision 110's, I have 3 go to colors but for some reason I cant help but to buy more, and more.....

LOLOLOL ... The 110's can be addictive. I have two favorites and 18 others that have never been used.