Worm Color

[Matthew2000]

As I am organizing my soft plastics I noticed something. If you hold a worm with flake up to a light the worm is actually a lot lighter color. This got me to thinking when there is sun do the bass see the lure differntly as opposed to when it's night or no sun? Is this why conditions such as sun and no sun matter?

[OkobojiEagle]

yes

 

 

oe

[aavery2]

You might be on to something.

[Mobydick]

You are 100% correct.

[bassguytom]

Yes, just like when you held the worm up to the light when the sun is reflecting down the color is different. The opposite is true when overcast or dark. A darker color is silhouetted or seen better when overcast or dark. Hope this helps.

[Tony L.]

You are absolutley correct, variations in light significantly change the way that something is seen. Water does too... The different colors/wavelengths that make up that sunlight can only travel so far through water- with different colors being filtered out at different depths.

[OkobojiEagle]

Here, give this a read...

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/147612-how-bass-see-color/

 

 

oe

[bonzai22]

I noticed that big time this year. I was throwing a shaky head with a dark green pumpkin colored worm when it was overcast when the sun came out I quit getting bites. I switched to a green pumpkin blue flash worm which has a bluish bottom with a lot of blue flake and started getting a bunch of bites again in the same spot.

[lmbfisherman]

You are spot on!

[Catt]

As I am organizing my soft plastics I noticed something. If you hold a worm with flake up to a light the worm is actually a lot lighter color. This got me to thinking when there is sun do the bass see the lure differntly as opposed to when it's night or no sun? Is this why conditions such as sun and no sun matter?

Now you understand why research done in an controlled environment (aquarium) is bogus!

[Matthew2000]

Indeed I do catt

[aavery2]

entirely depends on what you are trying to prove or disprove.

[WRB]

Holding soft translucent plastic worms or creatures to a light to see reflective flakes and you noticed the soft plastic looked lighter. Try this in sunlight, incandescent or florescent light at differing intensity, warmest, whiteness etc and you will see lots of color changes. Blue flakes in red plastic look green for example in sunlight. What does this mean? Depends if you are a bass or an angler. We don't know what a bass sees, we only know what our brain tells each individual what the colors are they see.

Decades ago the Cream plastic worm company came out with color plus. The color plus changed colors underwater, brown changed to purple to me and they became the hottest new color and caught lots of bass. Wonder what color bass thought color plus was?

Tom

[Catt]

Florescent lighting, incandescent lighting, LED lighting, none are even similar to natural sunlight.

In the bass's environment we have

Different positions of the sun in the sky due to seasons.

Different sky clarities (cloud cover)

Pollution in the atmosphere

Various water clarities

Ever changing water depths

That's just a few variables our extremely knowledgeable "scientist" do not consider relevant so they throw them out in the name of science!

[Sam]

What is interesting about colors are two things:

 

Confidence in that color.  If one has success with a specific color they will continue to throw that color no matter what the conditions.

 

Colors change as the object goes deeper in the water.  Note the posts about using dark colors at night.

 

Isn't Mother Nature fantastic.

[Lund Explorer]

As I am organizing my soft plastics I noticed something. If you hold a worm with flake up to a light the worm is actually a lot lighter color. This got me to thinking when there is sun do the bass see the lure differntly as opposed to when it's night or no sun? Is this why conditions such as sun and no sun matter?

 

Congratulations on your discovery.

 

Now go purchase a dozen bags of pumpkinseed worms, each from a different manufacturer.  Hold them all up to the light at the same time and see if there is any difference in the exact same color.  Continue this process using other color choices to see what happens.

[Matthew2000]

Lund explorer I tryed this with 14 different companies and I noticed something. The baits I have had more success in are more easily seen. Especially my favorite by GYCB pumpkin with green and black flake is lit up like it was a blood color and the flake was very prominent. I have had a lot of succes on that color and I think I now know why.

[pbizzle]

Yes! I remember talking to an BASS pro (can't remember which one) who actually taught me something really cool that has made a BIG difference in my worm fishing. He recommended that I change the tone of you're worm based on the light availability. For example, say you start fishing a Junebug colored worm early in the morning (low light conditions). As the sun starts coming up around 8:00 and there's a little more light availability, you should lighten up to say a Plum colored worm. That'll usually be good for the rest of the day (imo), but if you start getting less bites around noon (most light avalibilty) then you can lighten up to a Red Bug worm or something. Then you can just reverse that as it starts getting darker again. You're still fishing the same base color that you've had success on (in this case the base color would be purple), but you're just fishing a lighter or darker tone of it.

[Lunker Huntin]

I always get weird looks from people in the tackle store when I am holding a package of plastics up to the lights, there loss I figure if they don't get it. For me I want to see what the color changes to with the light above, figure it gives me a little bit more knowledge of how the bass see's it when looking up. 

[bigbill]

Here we go with colors again. No problem I love this topic. LOL the color reaction to light.

The sunlite and the hues in the water can change the color the bass sees. Bass see certain colors under certain conditions. Under other conditions all the colors will work.

My point is when it's a tough day or slow change colors till one works.

I still believe the hottest color for worms is black. It matches the freshwater eels.

I have a vast array of worm colors too. The Amber red flake and electric blue are my go to colors(senkos). I haven't tried the other colors yet. I've used the black shad and green shad, electric blue culprit worms.

I was told once when I asked why my blue rapala was so hot.

It seems it turns Brown under certain light and water conditions. It's hot in low light mornings and in the shade.

Don't limit yourself to just a few colors.

Sometimes I go and sit and throw some new odd color. I laugh when it works. The green shad I was killing the bass from shore on a point. On another day same spot the orange spook was nailing them.

Where like a baseball pitcher throwing a change up.

Brush hog, creature bait colors too. The red gold flake. My natural craws have black backs with red sides in my ponds/lakes. My rivers and streams there tan to beige.