Most fish do not have very good eyesight, especially when compared to other animals such as hawks or deer. This why they depend on other senses, such as hearing and smell, to find food. Some fish can smell only a tiny bit of scent in the water, while others can hear a distressed prey from a long distance. Their eyesight does not come into play until they are just a few feet from the food source.
This low eyesight does not mean that the color of the bait or lure is not important, it’s just not as important as some people think. Those life-like lures you see in the tackle shop are fine, but when you consider the bait they try to imitate has evolved over time to be as invisible in the water as possible, perhaps you are only making your lure more difficult to see.
Without going into a lot of scientific detail, we can say that while fish can see shades, they probably don’t see much color. This is important, because a lure or bait that contrasts with its surroundings is going to be easier for the fish to see than something that is camouflaged.
One of my favorite lures for catching rockfish is a Rebel WindCheater with a red head and white body. To the best of my knowledge, no baitfish in the Chesapeake Bay has a red head and a white body. So why does this lure work so well? Because of contrast. The red head pretty much turns black just a few feet under the water, so it will contrast well against a light background, while the white body will contrast well against a dark background.
The one thing that is difficult for many fishermen to understand is why a black lure works so well at night. A fish has rods and cones in his eyes. The rods, which are very sensitive to light, come out at night. When the fish looks up, he sees a bright sky where we see a few stars and perhaps a moon. A light lure would not stand out against this background, but a black lure does. That red and white WindCheater mentioned above would work just as well if the head were black. The problem is a black headed lure would not have the customer appeal of a red head.
All colors change as they go deeper in the water column. Red and orange turn black, yellow shifts toward white, while the blues become lighter but still retain their color. Chartreuse seems to remain close to its original color. It is my personal favorite when fishing deep water for sea bass, flounder, or tog.
The reason for this color change is each color has a different wave length. As light passes through water, the wave lengths are filtered out. Because white reflects all the colors, and therefore all the wave lengths, it stays white even at 100 feet or more, depending on water clarity.
While lures or teasers ahead of bait can appeal to a fish, visible line and connectors will only turn him away. Fluorocarbon line and leader become almost invisible in the water and should be used whenever possible. I fish with braid on most of my reels and always tie on a mono or Fluorocarbon shock leader between the end of the braid and the lure or connector.
Connectors should never be bright and shiny. Fish will see the shine and either be turned away or attack the connector, both of which are a bad result. Stick with dull, black snaps and swivels to avoid this problem.
I have been tying my bottom rigs with mono line and no metal except for the hook. I tie a perfection loop on one end and a surgeon’s loop for the sinker on the other. In between, I tie two dropper or surgeon’s loops for the hooks. I could use Fluorocarbon for the rigs, but that would get a bit expensive, and so far the mono has worked very well.
The next time your lure or bait is being ignored by the fish, try changing the color. Keep changing until you find success or prove the fish have left.
by Eric Burnley