How Bass see colors

[176champion]

A couple of chats ago a couple of us where wondering about how bass see colors or whether they saw black and white...so here's a couple of articles i came up with in searching.

A biologist's look at bass senses, part 1 | Bassmaster

How Bass See Color - Are Bass Seeing Red? - World Fishing Network

 

[Old plug]

How they see it and how much it really means are by far a different thing. I tend to think most times in the light or dark vein. There are too many other variables to  put all your faith in color. Fish have a high sense of vibrations and also smell. Then when you throw in the  right time, right place and right way color seems to be pretty far down the list in the presentation. i am not saying it does not maybe work to some degree. In 65+ years of doing this though I have seen uncountable times it just was not all that important. 

 

[Al Agnew]

Interesting theory that bass are attracted to red because the gills of feeding and excited fish flair and show the red...but I think it's pretty much bs.  Lots of questionable stuff in that same article, especially about red, though he got one thing right.  Red very quickly turns to an appearance of dark, almost black or dark green, as you go deeper.  The article mentioned that red loses all its color at about 17 feet in perfectly clear water...but in the real world of freshwater fishing, almost NO water is anywhere close to perfectly clear.  In reality, in the kind of clear water you see on lakes like Table Rock or the clearer Ozark streams, red turns dark at just a few feet of depth.  In the typical fishing situation, if you're using red on any lure that runs deeper than 5 or 6 feet, you might as well be using black or dark gray or dark green.

The article also mentioned that red line doesn't "disappear" in the water, but said that it gets difficult to see because most line is translucent.  True to an extent, but a dark green line would do exactly the same thing if it has the same level of translucency.  Making fishing line red to make it less visible in the water makes absolutely no sense.  In shallow water it's going to be more visible than a line that blends into the mostly greenish or bluefish environment of the water, and in deeper water it is no more invisible than any dark blue or dark green line.

[fishinwrench]

Totally agree, Al.   There is a huge difference though between a piece of dyed or painted red plastic and a shiney red clump of mylar tinsel, or maybe a red hook.    You may not be able to distinguish RED rubber but I bet they can absolutely distinguish something red that is lit up or being reflected upon. 

Not that fish ever see that in their natural world.....but still.  

[Old plug]

Wrench ----like I was saying yeasterday afternoin. If someone believes in color they maybe should stick with it because not doing so will certainly have something mentally to do with the rest of their presentation