Do Fish See In Color Or Black And White?

[nebraskalargemouthhunter]

for years people have told me that bass see in black and white but I feel that is wrong. if bass could only see in black and white there would be no point in have so many colors in fishing lure and jigs, it would all still look like shade of black or gray or white and ect. so does anyone have proof that a bass sees in color and not in black and white.

[WRB]

Bass see a wider color spectrum then we see and can see these colors in very low light.

Bass also have the ability to see fast moving objects in detailed slow motion instead of a blurred motion

Forget the black and white vision, it's a myth. However black and white are both high contrasting colors that are often good lure choice.

Tom

[BassinLou]

^^^^^ what he said^^^^^

[bigbill]

When i first started bass fishing at an older age(48yo) i was playing catchup. I picked up the older COMBO C LECTOR  that tells us the water temp, the ph of the water and a combination of colors the fish can see at that depth and time. I did tests using the bomber crankbaits in green craw,  brown craw and red craw using the bomber FAT A 05.

The first day i threw all three but one color caught fish. The red one worked.

 at that day and time. The COMBO C LECTOR did pick red.

The second day i threw all three but one color worked again. The brown one worked. The  COMBO C LECTOR did pick brown.

The third day i threw all three and only the green one worked. Again the COMBO C LECTOR did pick green.

The forth day i again tried all the colors and all the colors caught fish.

 

Seeing this tells me the fish can see all the colors t not at the sametime sometimes. Knowing what color to use does give us a head start. But the presentation matters too on what mood the fish are in.  Its not just the red, green and brown colors too. my four test days were bluebird sunny days in the exact same spot at the sametime.

We must factor in the type of day it is too. Wether its sunny, overcast, rainy or  low light conditions too. If you read here about the lure selection for the  of day it is and the color of the water its pretty much spot on. I fish in the evenings and early mornings. I noticed when the dark changes to light and the light changes to dark for a brief moment  the brighter colors seem to work better. Lets talk its the evening just as it gets dusk my joesfly 1/4oz bass size fly  silver blade blackgnat is catching bass after bass then the bite slows down to a hault. I switch my lure color to joesfly in firetiger apache and land a few more fish. This tells m.come the fish cant see the blackgnat color in low light at dusk. On overcast rainy days the tiger apache seems to be the hot color too. Now fishing isn't so easy if you want to catch fish constantly. The lure color does matter as much as lure size matters too.

KVD carries a COMBO C LECTOR in his boat too for those tough days.

[Sam]

Color.

 

They have rods and cones.

 

Learn about your enemy.

 

Get the book "Knowing Bass, The Scientific Approachy to Catching More Fish" by Keith A. Jones, PhD from Amazon and read it.

 

Check out Chapter 5, Vision.

[Paul Roberts]

According the research I've seen, bass see a range of color, but they have two peak sensitivities -in the green and in the red-orange. They are weakest at the short end -the blues, apparently seeing them as shades of gray. Humans have three peaks and see a broader range of color than bass do. Carp also have three peaks similar to humans.

[*Hootie]

Color, and high def....lol

Hootie

[bigbill]

<p>Look up Doctor Loren Hill of Oklahoma Unv.    It will tell the story about bass and colors it took him 10 years to develop the first  COLOR C LECTOR.  Soon after he developed the COMBO C LECTOR.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I worked for one of the top ten engineering groups in the country as a lead tech in the R&D lab. I now look at things from both sides of the fence and challange what i dont understand. You can break it down to a science too. By factoring in when to use certain colors along with the moon phases too. Moon phases is another post.</p>

[flipin4bass]

Color.

 

They have rods and cones.

 

Learn about your enemy.

 

Get the book "Knowing Bass, The Scientific Approachy to Catching More Fish" by Keith A. Jones, PhD from Amazon and read it.

 

Check out Chapter 5, Vision.

Great book! If you can find a hard cover buy it. It's worth the extra money. I've worn out two soft covers.

[Elegantly Wasted]

Color.

 

They have rods and cones.

 

Learn about your enemy.

 

Get the book "Knowing Bass, The Scientific Approachy to Catching More Fish" by Keith A. Jones, PhD from Amazon and read it.

 

Check out Chapter 5, Vision.

That book is no longer in publication and used copies of it are going for an arm and a leg. Several months ago I tried to get it through Amazon and they no longer have it - they were the ones who informed me they cannot obtain the book because it is out of publication. The only option, with respect to Amazon, is to buy a used copy from a third party at a very inflated price: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0064XC6N6/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

[derekxec]

color like everyone else said but you have to factor watch depth also as to which colors they will see...they can see the colors but the deeper you go the more the water filters out certain colors in the spectrum like i believe red is the first to be filtered out

 

this is not just for fish but for anything thats why divers who take pictures at 60 and 100 ft etc have to use artificial lighting

[FD.]

Colors are made to catch fishermen not fish.  Presentation is much more important than a specific color.

[WRB]

The highly skilled anglers that pursue giant trophy size fish of all species focus on details and color is at the top of the list. Long range tuna anglers are very particular about the color of the live bait they select: lime green verses olive green for example and avoid any live bait with red scales or red noses that indicate that bait isn't as healthy as others in the bait tank.

Spent a few years fishing with live crawdads in the late 60's and learned to avoid dark reddish brown that indicated a hard shell crawdad that bass avoided where I was fishing and selected only the brownish green shell crawdads.

Color is a Myth; when you get bit 10 to 1 you learn what works and what doesn't.

The colors that matters is the color the bass prefer. Butch Brown for example paints his hooks to match the color of the swimbait to better blend with the lure, hard to debate success.

When fishing hair jigs I take a lot of time to match the pork rind color to the hair colors, waste of time? The proof is in the pudding.

The bottom line on how bass see colors hasn't been written yet, a lot of conflicting science.

Tom

[flipin4bass]

That book is no longer in publication and used copies of it are going for an arm and a leg. Several months ago I tried to get it through Amazon and they no longer have it - they were the ones who informed me they cannot obtain the book because it is out of publication. The only option, with respect to Amazon, is to buy a used copy from a third party at a very inflated price: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0064XC6N6/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used

 

OMG! $148 and it goes up from there. I paid less than $20 for my copies. I guess I better take care of the one good copy I have.

[Paul Roberts]

The highly skilled anglers that pursue giant trophy size fish of all species focus on details and color is at the top of the list. Long range tuna anglers are very particular about the color of the live bait they select: lime green verses olive green for example and avoid any live bait with red scales or red noses that indicate that bait isn't as healthy as others in the bait tank. ...

Interestingly, at least some tuna are monochromatic, having a single (blue-green I believe) pigment peak. They hunt primarily by silhouetting prey against the bright surface. It appears we either need to know more about the way fish perceive, or fisherman perceive lol. Couldn't resist.

 

Tom, you are certainly right in saying that a complete understanding of how fish perceive/use light has not been met.

[WRB]

Interestingly, at least some tuna are monochromatic, having a single (blue-green I believe) pigment peak. They hunt primarily by silhouetting prey against the bright surface. It appears we either need to know more about the way fish perceive, or fisherman perceive lol. Couldn't resist.

Tom, you are certainly right in saying that a complete understanding of how fish perceive/use light has not be met.

If you think bass anglers are color sensitive selecting lures, try marlin and tuna tournament anglers!

Marlin are also thought to be color blind due in part to eye construction and myths, however both marlin and their prey tuna have very good blue/green color detection according to studies on these fish. Both marlin and tuna will at times use the surface to trap prey, as bass due at times, however both feed very effectively at depths greater than 100 feet and be very selective in color preference. When these anglers spend millions of dollars on tournament equipment, they also fund a lot of studies on these fish. Broadbill sword fish have the ability to see and feed at depths thousands of feet deep on sqwid and return to surface and feed on the prey fish, very interesting predator fish!

The color spectrum of both ultra violet and infra red can not be detective by the human eye without instruments, we are not sure about bass and some other predators ability to see in these spectrums, there is strong evidence they may have this ability. The eye flicker rate of bass can be increased to slow down the prey higher speed movements to able the bass to see it clearly, like we see in slow motion. There is more to survival under water than above water and these animals evolve differently than we have.

Tom

[Paul Roberts]

Cool stuff, Tom.

 

There's been a bunch of relatively recent research into UV vision in fishes, and bass just aren't one of them. They just don't have the equipment, nor in the infrared {EDIT: There is new research that has begun to focus on diff sections of the retina in some fishes, so ... never say never}. Many freshwater fishes have UV vision when very young, but lose it by adulthood.

 

And yes, bass have a high flicker fusion frequency (FFF), high enough to be able to see individual rotations on a spinner blade -something we humans assume is a "blur". It's not to bass. Our FFF is below 60cyc/sec, which is why TV sets run at 60 cycles, just fast enough that we see a fused image. Interestingly, "out of the corners of our eyes" (as it's said) we can see the flicker -why TV sets in houses we drive past after dark appear to create that bluish flicker. That's bc our rod vision (night sensitive visual cells) have a higher FFF, being more sensitive to movement.

 

Yes, fish see differently than we do. Add to this the fact that its the brain that actually "sees" -makes sense of light input- makes the whole deal really complicated. So, it's not just how fish eyes are constructed, but how the brain operates and makes sense of the world. Cool stuff.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Paul Roberts

[JayKumar]

Yep, color. Don't forget they don't see in air, so what looks red (or whatever) to us might not look red to them, depending on the depth.

[derekxec]

Yep, color. Don't forget they don't see in air, so what looks red (or whatever) to us might not look red to them, depending on the depth.

 

i read and article not long ago about this how even my red could look different than the way you see red so is not just fish its everything 

 

here is an example its an exaggerated example to show....say we are both looking at a red cup and we both know its red but just because my cup looks red maybe yours looks light yellow or green but you call it red because thats how you see red...now i hope i explained that good haha

[Blue Streak]

Very good discussion. Any time we can get Paul Roberts involved we are all going to get a lot smarter.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

I personally have never bought in to the color craze for bass fishing.  To me there is only two colors, light and dark.  I refuse to buy into the craze that a green pumpkin so and so with red flakes will catch them and the green pumpkin with purple flakes will not.