Does Color Matter?

[stretcher66]

Here is a very informative article i ran across that helps explain the never ending question, "does color matter"

http://www.salmo.com.pl/en/czy-kolor-ma-znaczenie/  I hope it helps.

[Travis]

Yes it can matter but not near the extent to which most anglers worry about it.  Really the last part of the equation in my fishing. 

[SW Lures]

Another good read on this subject is Doc Vinall's. Being a marine biologist I can't dispute his facts. Actually in laimen's knowledge I've see it. This is like Travis stated, it's another part of the equation. I personally believe in the action and the correct presentation, size, then the scheme.

Have you ever seen a bait maker throw a blank and get a strike? I've have seen it before, quiet a few times. On video's and in person.

JMO...take care,

Dale

[woodieb8]

color is huge here on l.st clair. after the wobble color dictaes how many and how big.

[SW Lures]

I stated the last post to see what people really thought. I'm surprise you were the only one Woodie so far. I think there are so many conditions that changes the strike. Water temp., water colour, cloud cover, speed of retrieval, etc, etc.

Being straight forward I do pick certain colours/scheme for certain areas. I do think it's a BIG part in getting a strike if you think this way. What is the forage bait that you are after and mimicking that prey? Basically the same size that is normal in the water that you are in. I've seen pink bucktail spinner works really well in an area and go 400 miles away and a chartreuse crank does better for the same species.

Presentation, geezzzz I'm still learning this and having fun doing it.

Take care,

Dale

Edited November 14, 2016 by DaleSW

[gliders]

Had this discussion with with reasonably good competition fly fisherman during a comp when fish were not feeding so using attractor patterns,invited him to attach 3 blue lures to prove it matters not, thrashed him into changing his mind. Obviously depth,action,size,presentation of prime importance but colour can and often does make a huge difference. If you doubt this then fish against some top competition anglers .

Edited November 14, 2016 by gliders

[stretcher66]

Well this season fishing the saltwater for rockcod (mainly targeting Lingcod) my eyes got opened to using the right color over my previous beliefs that at deeper depths colors disappear.  i believe they do for our eyes but not so much the fishes eyes.  in previous years to this, it seemed that most colors i used, chrome, blue, and a few flourescents always worked great. But this year we had a abundance of pelagic crabs and 90% of my fish came on Red.  whether it was a jig or swimbait it had to be red. and this was true from 30' of water to 240'.  Where i live near the central coast of california, you had troubles finding anything in red all season at the tackle shops.  so this is what inspired me to post this thread.  To see if anyone else has had the same type of experiences.

[Vodkaman]

I found the discussion on rods and cones in the article very interesting, highlighting the differences between different species. The trout eyes having good sight made a lot of sense, as they can be very finicky and difficult to catch. My best trout days have always been with live minnows which makes sense.

Personally I do not like painting, and so all my baits are unpainted. The ponds that I fish are very murky and so direct sight plays much less of a role. My neighbor is starting a catfish pond, so I am looking forward to trying that out. Again, for cats, color will not matter, so that works for me.

 

Before reading the article, I would have said that color was not important, but the article has changed my mind.

 

Dave

[andy1976]

We fish the same waters. I've been making red jigs for myself for someany years . I did that because so many people orders red jig heads I figured I would try a jig. Worked great. At the beggining of this year we were only getting bit on stuff that had glow in the dark. Later it was neon orange and then red when the crabs were around. Now it's been a baitfish pattern.

[andy1976]

I remember a few years ago fishing Cambria. There was a guy that offered me a dorado pattern swimbaits. I declined and said I had several hundred swimbaits. He insisted and actually tied our boats together. He ended up changing to another color and giving me his Swimbait. Crazy but I hooked up all day on that color and no other color would get bit. There was another time when a baby blue top and silver bottom was just about the only thing catching fish for a number of months. A local turned me on to that color.

[stretcher66]

i can see why the baitfish pattern would work now with all the anchovies in the area. the ocean has been pretty rough lately so i have not been out. hopefully it will give us some calm days before the end of the season. i think my boat is getting lonely sitting on land this long.  i will hit you up if we get some calm days so you can come over and chase some lings with me. And actually this coming saturday does not look to bad.   only 3-6 foot swells.

Edited November 15, 2016 by stretcher66

[jigginpig]

Yeah, color matters. But so do lots of things. Humans are a species that have unusually good vision compared to most other animals, and so we are heavily biased towards the visual aspect of the lures we select. 

The importance of color is extremely variable from day to day. I happen to think the importance of color becomes elevated as the mood of the fish tends toward negative. When the bite is wide open it has far less impact. 

I am adamant that one of the primary mistakes we as anglers make is becoming dogmatic. Keeping an open mind is a tremendous asset. 

[SW Lures]

"I am adamant that one of the primary mistakes we as anglers make is becoming dogmatic. Keeping an open mind is a tremendous asset".

I agree with you about this Jigginpig. The ones around here when I start making cranks know that I mainly paint in natural colors of forage baits. I even have been playing around with natural shapes like craws, newts. Every so often I'll go abstract like tigers. I like natural colors and they have done well for me.

I feel light blues in a minnow in clear water is a killer. In little stain the tigers do well. Craw done in darker colors do well in more stained water if I can keep the bait just off bottom.

Then I've said some choice words while I just kept cranking, getting nothing. I do believe what the colors do in different water conditions after I read Doc's article several years ago.

This thread has been interesting and a good read.

Dale

Edited November 15, 2016 by DaleSW

[woodieb8]

years back when we manufactured walley/salmon spoons,we did lotsa white backs. plated/chrome only shows as light penetrates water depths. . oranges go brown and chartreuse goes white. in shallow lakes like l.st clair any belly patterns show as deepest point is 21ft. on upper bodies contrast is a major key.. in gin clear waters naturals are good. in off waters such as algae bloom/pea green frog patterns pop. fish don't see the body color but the bright dots show greatly. on alpha predaters its reaction hit or gone. trolling baits at 4 mph baits move feet per second..these are our observations in building and fishing the great lakes.

Edited November 15, 2016 by woodieb8

[SW Lures]

That's interesting Woodie, I've notice that some of y'all's baits have the dots on dark body baits (purple, etc). Just to let you know, that's why I started working on a newt body. The scheme that I'm going to use is a light purple body with yellow or white spots. This is a natural color of some newts/salamanders in my region. I believe that pattern has a chance of doing something.

I mainly fish rivers, but will fish small lakes or back waters of large lakes (TVA) unlike the Great Lakes. Smaller lakes are like Briery Creek Lake, central Va. After the state record for LB.

The point I'm making is that water color, forage baits of the area, water depth, etc all changes what works for each of us. That's why this thread is interesting to me, reading the differences.

Dale

[gliders]

Lots of people have all sorts of theories regarding lure/attractor colours,usual advice is try all sorts to see what works on day. Fish dont suddenly wake up one morning and decide we are only eating such and such a colour for today. There is always a reason why one colour or pattern is working,i am talking about attractor /reaction lures only and not imitative patterns here. Because i have a competition fishing background it is imperative to be able to deduce colour/ pattern very quickly. If it takes an hour then you have lost. Becuase of this I spent a huge ammount of time testing one colour against another in different conditions ,light,water colour ,time of year,temperature etc.to acieve a logical understanding of what colours will be best under various conditions.It amazes me more anglers don't do simple logical testing of one colour over another and rely more on the try everything and see tactic. Again if you had to do that in a comp then unless you get lucky you have lost. A simple test for those who think colour is not too important,paint say 10 lures in different colours e.g all blue,all yellow,all orange etc.and test on well stocked water one against the other and see what happens.

[RayburnGuy]

I've seen it happen both ways. Have seen days when color didn't seem to matter one little bit. As long as you could put it in front of them they would eat it. Have also seen it where if you weren't throwing a particular color all you were doing is exercising your casting arm.

 

I look at it this way. If fish didn't use their color vision then they probably wouldn't have both rods and cones in their eyes. I'm not saying that fish perceive colors like we do. Nobody knows exactly how fish see color and the fish ain't talking.

 

just my

 

Ben

[gliders]

Think your spot on there mark,don't know how you could make a fish talk though.......maybe show it a picture of a grill ?

[Travis]

I don't think anyone will say color doesn't matter but think the more I fished the less importance I put on it.  Most novice anglers color is the first thing they worry about.  Why?  It is the only variable they really have control of.  When I first really started to fish 25 plus years ago,  I didn't know anything about fish movements, what attracted fish, what baits effectively fish where I though fish should be, how to really present those lures, etc... but boy could I switch out colors or take a boat ride to a million places.   Guys grow up fishing asking what color you catching them and just sort of gets molded into folk lore regarding the importance. 

 

Yes there are some differences in physiology between our eyes and fish and even differences between fish species to see/distinguish color.  Yes we don't know exactly what fish see but plenty of research has been done to give some very sound data on the issue.  We have to discuss these topics in regards to what we know scientifically as really only way to do so.  Anything else is sort of saying it is because you say it is (may be right out of coincidence but usually not the case).   The important thing one really has to accept is some simple facts related to this subject that trump all else:   1)  In order for something to be a given color it reflects that wavelength of light.  2) Wavelengths of light  travels a given distance in water  (Beers-Lambert law? been too long since reservoir ecology) based on absorption and scattering of light in water.    

 

Using red as our example:  a red wavelength of light is absorbed higher in the water column due to wave chop, turbidity, etc..   Red wavelength can make it to around twenty five feet in the clear waters of Lake Michigan on a calm sunny day, no algae blooms, etc... and around 5 ft in your typical southern reservoir.    At depths passed these you can not  have red as the color (an exception coming later).  It may be a different dark hue, it may look different because of UV light, etc but it can not be red due to it reflecting that wavelength of light as it has been filtered out at that depth.  

 

UV brings up the exception: fluorescence.  If the bait has the right components that are actively excited by UV wavelengths and some other shorter wavelengths (less extent) it may fluoresce red.  However fluorescing red works completely different that what this thread has been about and not common.  On top of this debate whether fish such as bass has capability of detecting UV light as disagreement to the physiology of their eye of if they have another rudimentary form of detection.   Scientists vary on the opinion especially if working for one bait company or the other.  Take any information from these sources as subject to being skewed towards the source that writes the check. 

 

At one time red line was the rage as it "disappeared" in the water and was undetectable.  Then not too many years later red trebles were a must as it worked fish into a frenzy and they leaped into your boat.  Both were backed by lure makers experts in the fields.  I am sure in the long run we will get closer to knowing how a certain fish species eye is capable of detecting and how it is processed. Currently most base color on what they see and directly relate it to the fish as that is how most process things.  I think that is one of the things that makes it an interesting topic. 

[jigginpig]

 

 Take any information from these sources as subject to being skewed towards the source that writes the check. 

 

 

[RayburnGuy]

Here's something else to think about. As we all know red is the first color to disappear as depth increases, but many anglers swear by red plastics fished at night. With no UV at night they sure aren't seeing a red worm as being red.

 

The color of a lure is just part of the equation. Especially with moving baits a bass can be well aware of the baits presence long before it sees it. Vision comes more into play as the bass closes in for the attack. Especially in water that isn't crystal clear. This isn't downplaying colors part in catching fish since they can be in full attack mode and still turn away at the last second. There have been many times I've seen a bass following a bait, but not taking it. Sometimes all it takes is a color change in the same lure to make that fish commit.

 

I'm not a scientist so these are just my opinions based on personal experience and what I have read over the years. Combine that with a couple dollars and you might be able to buy a cup of coffee.

 

Ben

[SW Lures]

I feel your pretty much dead on Ben. At the beginning of this thread I made that statement. However I'm very much reading what others think and respect their thoughts.

Travis made a comment in his post, that as he gets older color is not so important. I feel the same way and your thoughts about color and a fish knowing that the bait is in the water. Action makes a soundwave in the water. A rattle changes that sound and color completes the strike if I don't think I'm so smart and change the speed.

Dale

Edited November 18, 2016 by DaleSW

[stretcher66]

i feel kind of the same way when it comes to Bass or most freshwater fish.  but i am leaning more towards color as a very important part of the equasion in the saltwater after my experiences this season.  a few years ago i think it would have been the other way around for me.  I think more of my bass are caught off reaction bites than hunger.  Still am doing research  on this.  So many different theories...

[Musky Glenn]

I did a lot of trolling for Stripers this summer at night. The hot lure for several weeks was the #18 original floating Rapala. The best two colors was Hot Steel and Purplescent. Many nights we would usually start catching them on the Hot Steel as it first got black dark. An hour later the Purplescent would be catching about as many. An hour later the Purplescent would be the only one getting hit. There were four of us trolling with five rods (3 lead core and 2 down riggers) We would usually get our limit of 20 by midnight. This was on Lake Murray in SC. The limit said you had to keep all you caught up to 5 per person. That color choice went on for many weeks.

[Braided Line]

Do I have favorite colors ?  Absolutely.     The "favorites" are used in certain spots/places.  

 

 Do they produce ?      Some times yes.   Some times no.