Shirt Color When Trout Fishing

[ness]

I suppose it's a carryover from my days as a sniper in 'Nam, but I typically wear a ghillie suit. Here I am fishing Little Piney Creek:

[FishinCricket]

That was funny, Ness.. Kudos!

I wear bright pink whenever possible, just to scaore off the homophobic fish..

Plus my wife thinks I'm hot in pink...

[TroutRinger]

I suppose it's a carryover from my days as a sniper in 'Nam, but I typically wear a ghillie suit. Here I am fishing Little Piney Creek:

lol

[snagged in outlet 3]

Speedo and a wife beater for me in the summer.

Don't ask about winter fishing.

SIO3

[Justin Spencer]

Ness

I'll admit I did scan the picture for a second just to see if you were anywhere, funny shift!

[Al Agnew]

I wear light, drab colors as well, but really I doubt that it makes much difference. As others kinda said, movement and shadows scare the fish more than shirt colors. And since we can't stay perfectly still when fishing, if the fish can see you in a blaze orange shirt, they can see you in something drab as well as soon as you move a bit. And big moving things near them are going to scare the fish no matter what color they are.

Here's something to think about. Because of the refractive and reflective qualities of the water surface (which works not only for us looking down into it but the fish looking up out of it) the fish can see above the water only to a certain angle. (Just like we can see below the water only from a certain angle...lower than the angle of reflection, the light entering our eyes bounces off the water surface instead of penetrating it.) But although they might only be able to see above the surface only to a 45 degree angle or so, because the light also bends as it enters or exits the water surface, that 45 degree angle from the fish's eyes to the water surface bends to a much greater angle above the water. Which means that the fish can see in a wide cone area above the surface. But here's the real kicker. As long as the water is clear enough for the fish to see above the surface at all, the DEEPER the fish is in the water, the wider the area it can see above the surface! It's like the fish has this circular window of the water surface inside which it can see whatever is above, but the deeper the fish is the bigger this window is. So we may think that fish in very shallow water could see us if we were farther away and crouched lower than fish in deeper water could, but actually the opposite is true.

But...for all practical purposes, if YOU can see into the water and see the bottom, any fish in that spot can theoretically see you as well. So "sight fishing" may work only because the fish is either deep enough to feel secure even though it can see you, or it's concentrating on eating (or guarding the bed in the case of sight fishing for spawning bass) and doesn't care that you are there. And shallow fish are often skittish not only because they "know" they are vulnerable to aerial predators, but also because they "know" that they can't see as much of the area above the water surface as they could if they were deeper.

[jdmidwest]

I have observed that the fish stompers that most people wear scare more fish than anything else (waders). Most use them to stand out in most streams right where fish were laying and feeding before they enter the hole. It makes them impervious to water over their balls and allows them to wade into most of the best fish water.

I have not really had many problems with the shirt color, if a fish can see me, it is usually coming in on the end of the line or getting ready to look for something else to eat. Fishing out of a boat or a kayak and having fish explode on a lure next to the boat tends to make one believe that color and shapes does not really bother them. Shadows do, movement does too.

[taxidermist]

One a serious note, I wear my lucky shirt!!!

No really it is amazing what a fish can see, even in 12 inches of water you can toss a bug in and fihs will come from 20 feet away.

But I vote gray and having looked from the water side, light gray faded out fast underwater.

[ness]

Ya beat me to it, JD. Prolly way more fish scared away before you're even in view.

Stealth includes shadows, reflections, vibrations, sound and colors. I'm of the opinion that doing anything that let's the fish know something's out there lessens your chances. Fishing small creeks I try to be aware of the sun, what's behind me (sky or trees), and I stay out of the water as much as possible. I keep my rod low, and I try to keep as low as these freakin' knees will allow. Drab colors fer sure.

I was fishing a small creek in the Driftless area a couple weeks ago, and bushwhacked in to a low riffle below a nice pool doing all the things mentioned above. I poked my head out, everything looked good, so I came on out onto the little gravel edge. A nice trout darted through from down below (I wasn't too worried about things down that way) and right into the pool. You know he was yelling "Hide, Hide, HIDE!" the whole way. Screwed that whole section up.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I think it depends on the fish. On some waters, the NFOW would be one, they see so many colors and movement that I believe they learn to ignore it. On waters that don't have a lot of traffic the angle their view would dictate something common such as green, brown, or light blue I would think.