Using the right color pays off
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Using the right color pays off
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There are so many questions and secrets about coulours under water, that it took a while for me to understand them using research and experimenting under water. Most of my collected knowledge I introduced into a new book, which should appear next year in the german language for the german market. Some of the things in my book I want to share with you...
The first important question for anglers is: What can fish see under water? Can they see colours? Is it possible to see colours under water? These and many similar questions pre-occupied every lure-angler thoughts, mine included!
To understand colour-vision under water, we have to distinguish two factors:
Light travels differently under water! It all began many years ago, when I checked first looked at colour changes under water. I found initially found the prevailing information about light-absorption in destillated water, where first red, than orange, yellow, green and at last blue disappeared in progressively deeper water. I spoke on this subject at several fishing shows and had to mention that there seemed to be some funny exceptions with a special yellow and green colour. These colours seemed to be much more visible than other colours. At that time, I couldn´t explain this effect.
Colors that are bright in ultra violet light are very good for good catching fish in murky and very deep water. I had already knew about the “strange yellow and green” but could not find the difference to other yellow and green colours. I knew that in clear water blue and purple colours penetrate very deep into the water, but later I heard about fluorescence and the excellent visibility of these colours under water. I quickly understood the important difference that that flourescent colors could make and I started to use them on my lures. It didn't take long to realize, that all my good producers under low-light condition were high contrast colours and especially fluorescent colours. I had a brilliantly coloured, high visibility lure that was orange-chartreuse lure. I decided to do a field-test in Sweden using this color, where pike were feeding on herring. At the time everyone thought it was crazy You can believe it or not, but a fluorescent – orange lure was my best pike-producer in slightly murky water. All of my collegues were confused, because normally we tried to fish with black/white, blue and purple colours for pike, while the pike were feeding on herring.
My employé Jörg found another lure with fluorescent orange and was successful too:
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| Uli's Flourescent Orange Pike | Jorg strikes with orange too! |
An ultra violet light showed me very easily the best possible colours to use under bad visibility, and it those that were not so brilliant under the ultra violet light were very good in clear-water. Since this experiment, I now carry a UVA-torch with me to detect the right colours.
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| Under Day light | Under Ultra Violet Light |
I also wanted to check the visibility of the colours under water and on a diving trip to Indonesia I made my first check. Everybody was laughing, when I jumped with my “shad-map” into the water.
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| Full-colour | 5 meters down | 15 meters down | 25 meters down |
Sea-water is mostly much clearer than freshwater. Therefore I did the same experiment also in my home lake. A colour plate was dropped up to 3 meters deep into the water and there was a significant colour change.
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| Colour Plate | 1 meter down | 2 meters down | 3 meters down | 4 meters down |
Fluorescence is a fascinating trait. Normal colours reflect only light of a certain wave-length, but fluorescent colours start shining very bright if they are hit by the right light and it seems that under most conditions enough of the right light is available under water to make fluorescent colours much more visible than regular colours. I would choose to use lures with fluorescent colours any time I fish murky water or low light conditions. They are also a perfect choice if you are fishing in very deep water.
Not only fluorescence! Please note, in freshwater there are many particles that suspend in the water which influences the amount of light under water. I learned, that CDOM (Chromic dissolved organic matter), phytoplankton and SPM (Suspended particulate matter) change the absorption of light very much. Mostly in our waters regular yellow and green colours penetrate better than other colours in the summer – time, while there is a lot of organic material suspended in the water. Maybe this is a good explanation for the big change of colour-preferance by our predators in autumn. Pink and organge colours become much more productive during this time of the year!
What fish sees: From biologists I learned, that a fish's eyes are rather similar to our eyes. Also fish have rods and cones to detect light. Rod cells, or rods, are photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye that can function in less intense light. Cone cells, or cones, are photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye which function best in relatively bright light. The cone cells gradually become more sparse towards the periphery of the retina. Cones are less sensitive to light than the rod cells in the retina (which support vision at low light levels), but allow the perception of color. Actually there have been several studies about colour perception in fish and we know that most fish, which live in shallow fresh-water can see colours. Colour vision can change between the species. Unfortunately I could not find exact information about colour-vision for pike and muskies. For me, this knowledge has several consequences:
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Last updated on ...January 4, 2009