lure color or lack of

[Spoonminnow]

A question was asked on another forum about color blind anglers that catch fish even though some colors look different than what color accurate eyes see. So I experimented with clear plastic lures this summer and found out that color is very overrated.

How about clear plastic lures or lure parts that are clear or a light color tint such as these:



clear tail:



wacky rigged mini-stick with clear ends:



clear 3" and 4" curl tail grubs:

...and the fish they caught:



light tint (basically clear):



Color is in the eye of the beholder - human or fish. What the eye sees and the brain interprets is much different for fish. Time of day, sun angle, cloud cover, water tint or opacity, angle visualized, background color as seen against the surface, sideways or on the bottom, and shadows (lily pads, weeds on surface, downed tree) all affect color intensity and hue. So what fish see is not what we see in the palm or our hand.


The clear lure examples ALL caught fish and different fish species, proving once and for all that while particular colors may seem to matter given the above conditions, much of the time it doesn't. Now if some color blind anglers do consistently well, it's because they take into consideration far more important lure factors of lure size, shape, profile, type, action and how* used.


*The lures I posted are fished differently and how a lure is fished overrides any other lure related factor.