RyanCastin

I caught a large great blue heron once. I was fishing a small pond and was casting from a small gap between the trees and bushes. Had no visibility to the sides of me. Right as I threw a cast a full-grown blue heron came swooping down under my line. Line wrapped around the front of his wing and he panicked. I had no assistance and was in an area with tons of people walking the path on the other side of the pond. These people were giving me the dirtiest looks as if I wanted to hook into such a beautiful bird. Every time I would get him within 10 feet of me he would go flying straight up in the air and come crashing back down onto the water. I was panicking as well... Eventually I was able to get him close enough to try to get the hook out. As I had no help this was not a safe idea as they have dagger-like beaks. Without someone to constrain the bird while I got the hooks out I could have gotten an eye taken out. So I got him as close as I could and cut the line. Luckily there was only about a foot of line on him so I believe it was not enough to tangle himself in. Needless to say, all the people who were watching me angrily should have helped.

That is interesting but I guess if they don’t have to waste a lot of energy to eat them it still pays off.

I agree with that! It is interesting that they do not distinguish very well between yellow/white and black/blue. As discussed earlier in the thread they can not distinguish between yellows and whites due to only having two cones. Also interesting with the black and blue as the depth of the water likely makes blue be perceived as black. I also agree that presentation, size, and profile are likely more important than color. However in different water conditions/productivity’s I’m sure color may have an effect based on if they can spot it easily or not. I feel like we have discussed most of the color/lake productivity topic so let’s move on to something else. We can start discussing feeding patterns, behavioral budgets of large vs. small bass, and how they respond to being caught. Or if there are any other questions anyone has we can start addressing those. I will start us off by saying that the largest bass are typically a lot lazier and do not often waste the energy to chase down a lure. It is not worth it in terms of energetic efficiency to waste energy chasing down bait as they would end up using more energy than gained. I have much more information to add to this tomorrow. I am currently on a mini-vacation so will add some more scientific info tomorrow afternoon.

Do you have a link to this study? I would like to read further into it. Sounds like a bit of classical conditioning (Pavlovian conditioning - Pavlov's dogs). If it is classical conditioning, this does not prove much other than that they can distinguish differences in light intensity to either receive a reward or prevent a punishment (like being shocked). It is interesting in the white/yellow graphs though, as we discussed earlier that bass perceive whites and yellows the same due to their 2 cone vision in comparison to our 3 cone vision. Please leave a link I would like to read about the study!

Lol yeah there are no clear cut definitions of what makes a lake or a pond so it can get a little confusing. Most scientists refer to lakes as very large, deep bodies of water while ponds are considered small, shallow bodies of water which are shallow enough that light can reach the bottom. This is also obviously not a clear cut definition as there are some massive lakes that are only 12-15ft deep. But in general, this is the rule of thumb to use when determining a pond or a lake. And I also know a pond like that with the only fish in it being bass. I determined they must feed on other hatchling size bass, craws, and amphibians that live near the water. Are there crawfish in the pond you are mentioning? If so, it is most likely that the bass are feeding on craws and if big enough, then feeding on the baby carp.

I will look into it for you! Likely you should narrow down your search online by classifying them as something like neighborhood ponds since they are typically not very large bodies of water. I’ll see what I can find today!

The opposite of blue is yellow. However to appear as yellow, the object that is yellow must absorb blue light to reflect yellow. If blue light can not penetrate the water, I am unsure of how this would effect yellow. We do know that yellows are seen nearly the same as white by bass. So likely this yellow would just appear as an off shade of white to them I believe I learned a bit about this in the book I referenced a while back in the thread. I will see if I can pull out a quote after work today.

In a shallow pond at 6 feet with dark colors, it should not have much effect on color other than the blue dye interfering with the actual color you choose. Since the pond isn't very deep, the blue dye likely just makes each color a bit darker like you stated. If the pond was deep, these dark colors would likely just be perceived as black with greater depth. Because you stated the blue dye is to cut down on blue light wavelengths, if you were using yellow or orange lures they would not appear as yellow or orange because these colors absorb blue wavelengths and reflect as their colors: yellow and orange. With blue wavelengths not being able to penetrate the water, these colors would not reflect their normal color. This is due to these colors being opposite ends of the spectrum. Colors that are opposite from each other on the spectrum absorb their opposite wavelength and reflect their own color. All of this information is regarding how us humans see color however, and we can only speculate on how the fish see it as they have different sight adaptations than us.

I totally agree and am not claiming that. I just believe that understanding how bass perceive color can help us determine if we are wasting our money on fancy colored lures. I am simply just talking about how we perceive color compared to how bass see color. While we think a color may match the color of baitfish, it may be the complete opposite once it is in the water depending on the water being eutrophic or oligotrophic. Yes I can, what do you not understand? Basically each color that we see corresponds to a light wavelength. Therefore, the reflection of light off an object IS color that we see. Different colors are seen by us as that color because they absorb some spectrums of light while reflecting another. Red does not penetrate deep into the water because it has the longest wavelength and therefore has the lowest amount of energy. As light wavelengths are the longest at red and the shortest at blue, red wavelengths do not penetrate deep into the water due to their lower amount of energy. Blue wavelengths penetrate deepest into the water because of their higher amount of energy. Let me know if you need any more explanation!

Yes it would have an effect on color, although I am not an expert with this topic. I am not very familiar with the idea of dyed waters so this is my best hypothesis. As mentioned earlier, reds would appear darker in shallow water and black in deeper water as the red light does not penetrate deep into the water and therefore the color red does not show up deep in the water. In this case of water dyed blue, reds and greens would appear darker and appear as black with more depth due to the blue dye absorbing red and green spectrums of light. Therefore, because the blue dye is absorbing these spectrums of light, these reds and greens would not appear as much the deeper you get into the water. What depth are you usually fishing and what colors are you using?

I go fishing and have fun as well. Us science guys that regulate and manage your fisheries just simply enjoy what we do and enjoy learning more about them. Without science your fisheries would all be completely devastated from overfishing and poor management. There is a lot of science that goes into creating healthy fisheries. If you don't care then you shouldn't be in the sport. Also what you mentioned is astrology not science... LOL

There is a lot to go over on this topic... Start with this link for aquatic vegetation in Colorado! http://www.cowyafs.org/wp-content/themes/cowyafs/AquaticPlants/AquaticPlants_AFS_20120326.pdf Okay I get that but we are discussing scientific information not throwing out our best guesses.

You obviously didnt read the thread. We have been talking about how water color in eutrophic (green/brown water) and oligotrophic (clear/blue water) lakes affects the perception of color. Along with this, we have been talking about how the angle of light/time of day effects color. In example, red wavelengths do not penetrate deep into the water at mid-day but do penetrate further at low-light angles. This means that your red lure does not appear red (it appears black) in deeper water if the sun is at mid-day or high light hours. The natural color of baitfish is nearly impossible to "match" as their natural color is not painted and the different water types eutrophic/oligotrophic change the perception of color at different depths. Also, the natural color of baitfish is enhanced by its reflectivity of the scales of the fish. Read the thread.

Thanks, and I agree. I’ve been doing research and there’s nothing that gives me a reason to think that the ceramic should be wearing down, especially with only one short use. The noise it makes is more of a vibration/echo which sounds like it is caused by some sort of rubbing. I just took a q-tip to the guide that’s giving me problems and got a bunch of black little pieces that are coming off of it. I’ll attach a pic: In the picture you can see a few little black dots on the q-tip, these are the filings I am talking about. Spent a minute in my room dropping the bait to the floor and reeling it back in and boom there was more of it in the guide.

That may be the case... I emailed Sportsman's Outfitters where I bought it and will let you guys know if they can help me resolve this! Thanks for the help!