Dec 11, 2022
David Hutton, editor
Palmetto Fly N Fish
When I found this article, I liked the nice graphics. But it was full of ads and phishing links, so I dumped that junk.
Fortunately, this is personal blog; I can protect my readers from that if I want to.
But I don't want to be thought a plagiarist, and those other authors might feel cheated if you don't see their sponsors and affiliate links. Therefore, the original page link is included here (and in the references): https://www.liveoutdoors.com/fishing/214357-how-fish-see-lures-depth/
If you are a glutton for punishment, feel free to check it out.
Edited for content, All source credit due the original authors
Take a walk through the fishing department at any retailer, and you’ll see that fishing lures come in a wide variety of colors. You can close your eyes, reach into any display, and you'll come out with mostly the same kind of lure, across any number of makers. The only real difference just might BE their colors.
But does the color of a lure really matter?
The answer depends not on how they look in your hand, but on depth and clarity of water, and how fish see (<- - - click the link).
A great many lures try to mimic prey items realistically, and most do a great job. The other half of the lure market is made up of vivid lures that DON'T look natural, but which play on a contrast of color.
What is missing, however, is that there is no color without light... and almost nothing addresses the amount of light IN THE WATER.
We don't actually "see color," after all. We see the frequencies of light reflected to our eyes from an object. If green light is reflected, we call it green. If red frequencies reflect, we call it red.
However, the color you see in the store, or when you open the box, is different from what color the fish get in the water.
The Thin Red Line
One guy catches a fish on the color, "Funky Lightshow" and it has to be THAT color that does it from now on. The problem is, that with all this noise, it is hard to put your finger on just what matters.
But it isn't "color" we should focus on - it is color appearance vs. available light in the water.
We can illustrate this concept by examining the popular red fishing lines, such as the original Shakespeare, "Cajun Red."*
The idea behind these red lines is two-fold...
1. The deeper you go, the less available light there is.
2. The visible light wavelengths associated with the color red are disappear first as water depth increases and light diminishes).
In short, as water depth and turbidity cuts out the red light wavelengths, these red lines supposedly become "invisible" to fish. This sounds like marketing hokum to me, but at least the idea has some basis in fact.
On a side note, some like to complain that this Cajun Red isn't the highest quality line out there, or that it is mostly used by rednecks. While that latter point may have some truth to it, I also reckon that something favored by rednecks probably works. So I don't know why THAT would be grounds for complaint.
And yes..., I said "reckon."
* - going by the internet, the Cajun Red brand seems to now be out of production, but, it looks like the torch has been taken up by Zebco (<- - - click the link).
WHAT HAPPENS WITH DEPTH
So back to the concept that water depth decreases available light..., which diminishes color.
In crystal clear ocean water, at one meter depth (3 ft), only 45% of the solar energy that falls on the ocean surface remains.
At 10 meters (30 ft), only 16% of the light is still present.
At 100 meters (300 feet) only 1% of the original light remains. No light penetrates beyond 1,000 meters.
And this is in crystal clear water. This light reducion is worse in fresh water, like lakes.
Why does this happen? For a number of reasons, actually:
1. Its an inherent quality of water - it is a more dense medium than air.
2. The water we fish in is not crystal clear; it has impurities of all kinds, and these serve to dampen the intensity of light in the water.
3. Other factors come into play; The angle of the sun, the amount of surface wind or chop, cloud cover,... and these are just some examples.
This light reduction occurs for different wavelengths of light, too.
Long wavelengths like red, they have their strength reduced first. So a red object in deep water will not appear red, because the red light available is practically gone.
Blues and greens reflect short wavelength light, and they are the most color persistent as depth increases. This is why things appear blue in deep water.
Beyond that, light in the ultraviolet, or UV spectrum has the greatest ability to penetrate water. We can't see it, but we hope fish can.
It stands to reason, then, that very clear water, under bright sun and dead calm conditions will allow more light to penetrate deeper. This means your lure’s color should remain visible for a while longer under these conditions.
Too bad we don't all fish in 2 feet of tropic water, at noon, under dead calm conditions!
TURBIDITY
Among the things that affect light penetration, turbidity, or murkiness, is possibly number one. How will water impurities, aka turbidity, affect lure selection?
Check out this chart...
BY 20 FEET
All colors will gradually dull as they go from shallow to deeper water, but "warm," long-wavelength colors like red are the first colors to fade. To a fish, lures in these colors will remain vibrant up to maybe 20 feet deep under ideal conditions.
But the more impurities in the water, or the deeper you go, the sooner these colors fade to brown, and then gray.
30 FEET
Orange is the next color to fade out. Bright crawfish and firetiger patterns may do well until around 30 feet or so. But, again, this depends on the light at those depths, so there is no absolute value here.
50 FEET
This is where yellow lures will begin to lose their color. Hall of Fame great, Buck Perry, used to consider yellow a NEUTRAL color, because it is bright in shallow water, but once it fades with depth - it becomes just an easily seen light-ish tone.
You can expect that at these depths, in fresh water, most lures will NOT retain their crisp, absolute color as WE see it. By the time this depth is reached, it is more about light tones versus dark tones, over real color.
BEYOND 60 FEET
Blue lures, and green to some degree, will remain visible for as deep as the light will penetrate the water. In waters with current, sediment, turbidity, or pretty much anything else that reduces clarity, they just become "dark."
FISH EYES AND YOU
Aside from how depth, turbidity, and light affect the appearance of color, it’s also important to consider how the eyes of a fish work.
Some fun facts about the eyes of a fish:
- They are very much like ours. They have a retina, as we do, and it contains the same two types of cells: cones and rods.
- The cones are used primarily in the day, and are able to discern relatively simple colors.
- The rods are used for seeing at night and under low light conditions, but they don't discern color.
- Marine fishes have a greater range of color sense than their fresh water cousins.
- Fishes adapted to live in shallow water will have the greatest ability to see color.
Regardless, the fact remains that as depth increases, the available light drops out,... and the fish can't see much in the way of color, one way or another.
In the following video, he says it this way:
"When fishing in shallow water, objects will only appear in their real colors near the surface where all wavelengths of light are still available. So, you might want a variety of lure colors for that type fishing.
But as depth increases, well, most color washes out and becomes just faded shades of something like the color it once was."
My take on all of this, for what it is worth? I reckon that whatever kind of lures lures you use, you should have them in two "tone palettes"" - light tones and dark tones.
Which absolute color hue you choose probably matters very little.
And yes, I said, "reckon."
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Do you have questions, gripes, or suggestions? If so, email me at...dahutist@gmail.com
If you appreciate a no-drama, no-hype Facebook group, follow this link and join us at: Palmetto Fly n FishThanks so much for reading, and...
Tight Lines,
Dave Hutton
https://www.liveoutdoors.com/fishing/214357-how-fish-see-lures-depth/
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