Ask five different anglers if fish are colorblind and you’ll probably get 5 different answers. Yes…No…Sometimes… Only with certain colors…and I don’t know.
Ask those same anglers if color makes a difference when they are fishing, and they almost unanimously say, Yes.
I couldn’t say for sure, so I asked some marine biologists, and their answer was Yes, and No. Some gamefish, especially large saltwater predators, have cones in their eyes. Cones are the things that allow us to see color. Humans have three cones, each discerning red, blue or green hues. Some fish have none, and some fish have as many as five, so presumably they can actually distinguish more colors than us humans.
However, even for colorblind fish, they can still see shades of grey, and if you notice on even the most colorful lures, the manufacturers create the color patterns with some degree of contrast…light to dark… as in yellow to black, or white to blue. The clarity of the water, and the depth of the water definitely has a lot to do with the colors fish can see. We know water affects certain colors of the light spectrum quicker than others, hues of red and orange become ‘invisible’ before blues and greens. So the angler who wants to present a more vivid impression of a baitfish might choose to tie on a lime green and blue chrome lure, which the angler wants a more subtle offering may choose a muted red and black color.
There is also the school of thought that says “Clear water or bright days – use a light colored lure. And for Stained water or cloudy days – use a darker colored lure.”
Well, that has been a practice I’ve followed for years, and it usually has proven true… except for a recent trip to Biloxi, Mississippi.
I was fishing with Capt. Sonny Schindler, filming a Nuts & Bolts of Fishing TV episode. It was a cloudy, overcast, dark day. I tied on a dark, olive colored WhoopAss bucktail jig. Precisely what I had used a few days before under similar conditions, and boated a nice mess of seatrout. The water in the bay was quite stained, and the wind was churning it up even more. We both started fishing, and Sonny started catching trout immediately. I caught nothing. We made a couple moves and each time, Sonny stayed consistently hooked-up; while I remained fish-less. I even changed over to scented plastics on a jig head…still in darker colors. And nada. Well, it didn’t take long before common sense took over and I had to see exactly what Sonny was using. Much to my surprise, it was a clear paddletail, with a little bit of glitter in it. Now this went against everything I had ever known or been taught about choosing lure colors.
When I asked Sonny if I could get one to fish with, he said “Sure you can. They cost 10 cents apiece at the tackle shop, but out here on the flats, they’re 5 dollars each.” Of course he was joking, and as soon as I switched up, I started catching fish. It was amazing, and enlightening at the same time. As my frustration turned to glee with catching fish, I started to notice some things. About 20 or 30 yards away, gulls and terns were working over feeding fish. And what was jumping out of the water were shrimp. And these were ‘white’ shrimp, almost silvery-clear. Sonny had cracked the code long before and was feeding the fish exactly what they were feeding upon. My mind was cluttered with the usual things I have to think about when we’re shooting a show, and I hadn’t bothered to ask a key question, “What are the trout eating right now?”. Lesson learned.
As a youth, when I’d fish offshore with my dad and other old salts, they’d say, “A kingfish will bite any lure as long as it’s blue and white”. And for as long as I can remember, we always caught kings on blue and white skirted rigs. Of course, that’s all I can recall they ever used too. But when you look at a live Spanish sardine or a flying fish, they are predominantly blue and white. Makes sense they’d want to eat a lure that has similar shading.
Probably some of the best examples for ‘matching the hatch’ are with fly fishers. Trout and salmon flies are some of the most colorful lures I’ve ever seen. And most are made with ‘natural’ components like feathers and dyed wool. When dry, they almost look unnatural. But get them wet, and look at them under the water, and those vivid reds become muted browns, and the iridescent mylar flash begins to mimic the scales of minnow or the exoskeleton of a rising nymph. And these patterns have been fooling fish for centuries.
The point to all this is pretty simple. I really don’t know if fish can see colors, or what colors they do see. I’ve never been able to get a fish to tell me. But I do think color plays a significant role in turning on… or turning off a bite. Vivid, bright colors may be exactly the thing that triggers a reaction strike. On the other hand those same colors, if they don’t match the markings and shading of the food sources, could rack up a lot of refusals. So consider color as an important facet of your lure selection, in addition to size and shape. You know there’s the old saying, “Bright fancy lures catch more fishermen than they do fish”, and there may be some truth to that. But when you do your homework and select the color scheme that closely matches what the game fish are already eating, you’ll find out what a difference color can make.
