RoLo,
With respect, it's not very correct to say that light behaves the same in Earth's atmosphere as it does underwater. Transmission, absorption, and deflection of different wavelengths of light depend very much on the composition of the medium or reflecting surface. Consider a simple case - different colors of stained glass. The composition of the glass determines which colors of light are transmitted. Likewise, 'air' and water do not share the same composition or state, and do not have the same effects on light transmission.
The daytime sky is not blue because red light is 'filtered' out; in fact, nearly the opposite is true. Earth's atmosphere is composed primarily of nitrogen and oxygen, both of which in gaseous form are effective at scattering short-wavelength blue and violet light, and less effective at scattering the longer waveforms of red, orange, and yellow light. During the day, 'rays' of sunlight containing the full visible spectrum (and more!) pass overhead through the thick atmosphere, having their blue-ish frequency waves preferentially scattered. When we look at the sky, some of these scattered waves find their way to our eyes, leading our brain to conclude that the sky is blue. This same effect explains why the sky often appears orange-red during a sunset. The light that reaches our eyes during a sunset has travelled on a longer trajectory through the atmosphere than the light that reaches us during the day, and as a result much of the blue-violet spectrum has been scattered away.
Clean, clear, liquid water is a different story, and it is true as you said that the shorter wavelengths of visible light (blue, violet) are able to penetrate further through this medium than the longer wavelengths (red). However, Scaleface's suggestion that other factors like turbidity, stain, and suspended particles can variably affect penetration depth of different colors of light seems plausible at least. Again, think of the stained glass. If red light can travel 50 ft (made up number) through crystal clear water, then changing the composition of the water probably won't make the red light travel any further, but it seems possible that it could selectively reduce the penetration of certain wavelengths more than others. Perhaps under certain conditions these effects can outweigh the progressive 'light filtration' effect of the clean water, creating a scenario where the normal hierarchy of penetration depth is shuffled.
Several have made the point that our observations tend to be grounded in our human perception of light and color, which may not match up with the 'perceptions' of a bass. And I would agree with that. But we know a few things about bass, namely that they have eyes, and that those eyes aren't entirely different from our own. If their eyes lend the bass some kind of light-based vision, and that ability to 'see' could be harnessed by the bass under certain conditions in the pursuit of food (or to locate targets for aggression), then I don't think the discussion of light penetration in water is off-base. Even if the spectrum of light a bass can detect is different from ours, and their tiny brains function in ways entirely foreign to us, a discussion of light penetration is probably still relevant.
Predicting a bass' reaction to different colors of reflected light amid the seemingly infinite other factors is a tough nut to crack, but aren't those kinds of questions really what it's all about? I, for one, am keen to experiment!
Cheers,
Dave
