Night Fishing Small Streams

[Guest]

Black is good at night in topwater lures and shallow runners that the bass will be looking UP at. They will be seeing the lure against the background of the water's surface and sky above, which is the lightest part of their nighttime environment, so black stands out against the relatively lighter background. "Bright" colors are not bright at night. You might remember the Moody Blues song, "Nights in White Satin", in which one of the lines was "Cold-hearted orb that rules the night...removes the colors from our sight...red is gray, and yellow white...but you decide which is right, and which is an illusion". That's a near perfect description of colors at night above the water, as we humans see them, and it probably describes the fish's eye view as well. Point is, a bright color like yellow or chartreuse will simply look light gray or "white" to you when you pull it out of your tackle box in the moonlight. So if the fish is looking up at it, seeing the shadowed underbelly of it, the fish is seeing something gray against a gray background.

If you're fishing a lure that runs in mid-depth, or even on the bottom in fairly shallow water, the most visible color you could use would probably be pure white. In that case the fish is seeing it against a dark gray background of the water looking horizontally, or the mottled medium to dark gray to black background of the moonlit bottom of the stream. Black still shows up against that background, but not very well. Medium colors and patterned colors, like realistic crawdad colors for instance, will be more or less invisible against that kind of background, and that would hold true even if it's a "bright" patterned color like fire tiger. The colors disappear into grays, and the pattern makes good camouflage.

Now that just blew my mind.

[Dirtworm]

Wow. A solid moody blues reference that teaches me valuable insights for night fishing and possibly even coordination of my wardrobe. Al you are the king of fishing forums, if I can bestow such an honor. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can offer here is that your advice instructs me in critical thinking, and will help me think more carefully next time I encounter an angling challenge. Gracias.

[Mitch f]

I thought I needed to drop acid to understand those lyrics. I've really never bothered to figure out the meaning of that song, I thought it was about sex only. I'm starting to feel so mediocre. But coming from an artist, I understand the reason you were touched by that song.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah Mitch, actually those lines always spoke to me because every time I attempt a painting with a night time setting, it's always a struggle to decide how much color to put into it. The fact is that EVERYTHING under moonlight is shades of gray to our eyes. Our eyes have rods and cones, and the cones are very sensitive to light but not color, and that's what we're using at night. The only differences we see are how light or dark the gray is, and if the moon is VERY bright, some grays will be warmer and some will be cooler (in other words, slightly brownish grays or slightly blueish grays). But your brain is an odd and wonderful thing. If you're looking at something in the moonlight that you already know what color it is, your brain "tells" you that it's still that color, even though your eyes are only picking up the grays. That's why the line "you decide which is right, and which is an illusion" is so true. Maybe acid provided insights to whoever wrote the song...or maybe they were just very perceptive.

At any rate, my struggle is, do I paint in the color that people are expecting to see, or do I paint what they would really be seeing at night? Paint too much color and it doesn't "read" as a night time scene. Paint too little color and it could look pretty boring. The compromise has to come somewhere in between.

[Wormser]

Night fishing rocks! See my avatar, that was over a 5 pound Smallie caught at 11pm on a cool March night. Like the above said, try the topwaters; my personal favorite is a broken back, black jitterbug (the big one). I also like double bladed buzz baits. If they don't hit the topwater, try bouncing something along the bottom (bigger the better with Smallmouth and rockies). I guess they can detect the bigger plastics? That's what works for me.

And great reference Al. Next time I hear that on the radio, I'll think of Smallmouth fishing.

[Flysmallie]

Yeah Mitch, actually those lines always spoke to me because every time I attempt a painting with a night time setting, it's always a struggle to decide how much color to put into it. The fact is that EVERYTHING under moonlight is shades of gray to our eyes. Our eyes have rods and cones, and the cones are very sensitive to light but not color, and that's what we're using at night. The only differences we see are how light or dark the gray is, and if the moon is VERY bright, some grays will be warmer and some will be cooler (in other words, slightly brownish grays or slightly blueish grays). But your brain is an odd and wonderful thing. If you're looking at something in the moonlight that you already know what color it is, your brain "tells" you that it's still that color, even though your eyes are only picking up the grays. That's why the line "you decide which is right, and which is an illusion" is so true. Maybe acid provided insights to whoever wrote the song...or maybe they were just very perceptive.

At any rate, my struggle is, do I paint in the color that people are expecting to see, or do I paint what they would really be seeing at night? Paint too much color and it doesn't "read" as a night time scene. Paint too little color and it could look pretty boring. The compromise has to come somewhere in between.

I have no idea but I think we are going to need you to pee in a cup.