Color Blindness And Fishing

[whitwolf]

I might have had a thought or two about my color blindness but for the most part It's not been an Issue. I simply see some colors different than most and It's never hampered my ability to catch fish. 

 

The reason I started this was a little blurb I saw in the latest Bassmaster magazine that showed a tweet from Casey Ashley saying he liked copper lenses on his sunglasses because he see's the fish better due to his colorblindness. I thought It Interesting in that It's something new and I've never seen color blindness mentioned in any publication I've read. That's not to say It hasn't, I'm merely saying I haven't seen it.

 

A few things I do to make sure I know the exact color of a particular bait.

 

1. I keep all soft plastics in the original package and often times re-label them with the color. 

 

2. I try to mark all the crankbaits with the depth written just below the bottom of the lip(thanks Glenn) along with a mark to note the bait company's color or name. The majority I simply remember. I also keep the back of the package with a date and color written on each. 

 

3. In the end I don't stress or worry about it other than when I order some baits that have different names other than the color I usually ask my wife about it.

 

I thought It would be Interesting to hear what others do or If this, for the most part, Is a non-Issue.

[WRB]

Aaron Martens is colorblind and it doesn't hamper his ability to see fish in the water. I asked Aaron years ago how he chooses soft plastic colors, his answer was if it looks good to him in the water, he can see it easily, that what he uses. Aaron is very organized and labels all his lure boxes and bags with the mfr's color name.

Tom

[Dypsis]

I might have had a thought or two about my color blindness but for the most part It's not been an Issue. I simply see some colors different than most and It's never hampered my ability to catch fish. 

 

The reason I started this was a little blurb I saw in the latest Bassmaster magazine that showed a tweet from Casey Ashley saying he liked copper lenses on his sunglasses because he see's the fish better due to his colorblindness. I thought It Interesting in that It's something new and I've never seen color blindness mentioned in any publication I've read. That's not to say It hasn't, I'm merely saying I haven't seen it.

 

A few things I do to make sure I know the exact color of a particular bait.

 

1. I keep all soft plastics in the original package and often times re-label them with the color. 

 

2. I try to mark all the crankbaits with the depth written just below the bottom of the lip along with a mark to note the bait company's color or name. The majority I simply remember. I also keep the back of the package with a date and color written on each. 

 

3. In the end I don't stress or worry about it other than when I order some baits that have different names other than the color I usually ask my wife about it.

 

I thought It would be Interesting to hear what others do or If this, for the most part, Is a non-Issue.

 

I also am colorblind and read that same article the other night.  I have polarized sunglasses but would be interested in trying copper lenses like Casey to see if there is an actual difference.  I also keep my soft plastics in their original package for color names, but honestly for the most part I just fish what I want.  I try and stick to GP, B&B, for most of my plastic needs.  

 

Funny you mention asking your wife - mine always knows when I'm on TW, I have to call her over and ask what color things are.  

[Penguino]

Sorry if this sound ignorant, but what exact form of colorblindness are you guys talking about? Is it that you can only see certain shades of color, or cannot see any color at all? Again, sorry if this sounds stupid but I don't know anything whatsoever about colorblindness.

[ClackerBuzz]

red/green confusion is most popular. i think i read 10% of guys are effected.

it definitely hurts my fishing but i've learned many ways to overcome it. i can't sight fish like other guys can.  guys in the boat will be pointing to a bass and i have to struggle to see it.  i can only see shallow beds when some guys are seeing beds 10ft down.  but i've become stronger in many ways.  my casting is more accurate than most guys.  i can't see if there is a bass hanging on a piece of timber so i just assume there is an make the most accurate cast possible the first time. and i fish the cover thoroughly whereas other guys will move on quickly if they can't visually see a bass.  i'm neurotic about slack line management whereas a lot of guys around me are lazy.  i have a lot of slack out of my line before my lure hits the water and if the water is deep i know how to have the slack out just as it hits bottom.  i'll know if i get a bite from the slightest tap on my line. also i only use braid to leader b/c it's so sensitive.  and yellow braid makes all the difference in the world.  i struggled to see the green line jump on the surface from a bite let alone run sideways from a sneaky bass. being colorblind made me a line watcher but switching to yellow made all the difference in the world.

casting into the wind and sun is so productive it trumps normal vision let alone colorblindness.

i don't care about lure color anymore.  the majority of the time if you have the right depth and speed a bass will hit 10 different colors let alone 10 different lures.

[whitwolf]

Sorry if this sound ignorant, but what exact form of colorblindness are you guys talking about? Is it that you can only see certain shades of color, or cannot see any color at all? Again, sorry if this sounds stupid but I don't know anything whatsoever about colorblindness.

Green is seen as brown and brown as green, most colors like purple are blue, In fact what I see as blue might be pink.lol I see blue in most pinks. a maroon looks black.(I once bought a pair of cowboy boots I thought were black. They turned out to be maroon, I was motified.lol) There's more but I think you get the Idea. 

[Penguino]

Green is seen as brown and brown as green, most colors like purple are blue, In fact what I see as blue might be pink.lol I see blue in most pinks. a maroon looks black.(I once bought a pair of cowboy boots I thought were black. They turned out to be maroon, I was motified.lol) There's more but I think you get the Idea. 

Just a curious question. Were you born with colorblindness, or did it progressively get worse as you got older?

[whitwolf]

Pen, born that way. To me It's no big deal, like Clacker said above you learn to adapt. One funny thing is you're told a green light meant go. It always had looked "white to me. lol

[EvanT123]

Green is seen as brown and brown as green, most colors like purple are blue, In fact what I see as blue might be pink.lol I see blue in most pinks. a maroon looks black.(I once bought a pair of cowboy boots I thought were black. They turned out to be maroon, I was motified.lol) There's more but I think you get the Idea.

You know those color blind tests with the dots and the numbers in them? I can't see a number in them to save my life. I once bought a rod I thought was silver. Turns out it was pink!!! Talk about mortified!!! Lol.

I don't worry about it. In fact my color selection is pretty simple. White, green, black, and chartreuse. No need for fancy names or colors for me.

[papajoe222]

Pen, born that way. To me It's no big deal, like Clacker said above you learn to adapt. One funny thing is you're told a green light meant go. It always had looked "white to me. lol

I have to laugh. I'm red/green color blind and after over forty years together my wife still tells me to check out the fall colors or to get her purple scarf for her.

I served in the army for three years and spent time as a FO because I could pick out camouflage so easily. Spent 35 years driving a truck and plenty of that was waiting for a red light to change to WHITE

[MIbassyaker]

Color-blindness in almost all cases is genetic and sex-linked --the genes controlling the proteins used by your light-receptive cells in the eye are on the X-chromosome, which is why men get it more often than women (since women have two x-chromosomes, they will only be colorblind if both chromosomes carry it, whereas men will be colorblind if they get that version of the gene on their only X). The most common version, as mentioned above, is red-green color-blindness which manifests as an inability to distinguish red from green. But you can have other versions as well, like blue-yellow, or in very rare cases, monochromacy, which is inability to distinguish any colors, only lightness and darkness (i.e., white, grays, black). You can also get some color vision deficits from particular kinds of brain damage, but those are different and usually more debilitating.  As for what it "looks like" to be colorblind, people's reports are pretty variable because color is a subjective experience (my "red" may or may not look anything like your "red"); but the key diagnostic issue is, if you are shown two colors, how well can you tell them apart.

 

I would expect in most cases, even if you don't label your bags and lures, it has very little effect on bass fishing in practice; since color selection, in general, tends to be a bit less important than most other factors (e.g., presentation). I also wonder if color intensity and saturation matter more than hue...is it more important to decide between a reddish vs. a greenish lure?  Or is it more important to decide between a "bright" color vs. "dull/muted" color.  I tend to find that the latter decision has more of an impact.

[Dypsis]

 and yellow braid makes all the difference in the world.  i struggled to see the green line jump on the surface from a bite let alone run sideways from a sneaky bass. being colorblind made me a line watcher but switching to yellow made all the difference in the world.

 

Funny you mentioned this - I used braid for a while when I first started and never watched my line.  As I became a better fisherman and watching my line, I switched over to mostly FC.   Then put then put braid back on my spinning reel with a leader and holy crap I can't see that thing to save my life.  When I respool I'm putting yellow on for sure.  

[Dypsis]

One thing I tell people cause all color blind people know when someone finds out that you are colorblind the first question is - "What color is this?"  Yes it does get old but I'll play along.  I can't speak for others but when I try to describe to people what I see it a HARD question to answer.  I tell people that if someone told you a grape was an apple your whole life you would learn what a grape looked like to you and vice versa. I feel I have kind of learned over the years what I see red as or whatever color and do pretty well at ID-ing them.  With that being said I am talking mostly about solid single colors, where I am really bad is when a bunch of colors are together ie. rug, sweater, etc.  That's why the dot test is so hard.  

 

Hope this makes sense.

[Dypsis]

Sorry if this sound ignorant, but what exact form of colorblindness are you guys talking about? Is it that you can only see certain shades of color, or cannot see any color at all? Again, sorry if this sounds stupid but I don't know anything whatsoever about colorblindness.

 

I have red/green as well - blue is very rare.  I think that most men are this type of colorblind.  I think less than 1% of colorblind people see no color at all.    

 

 

Just a curious question. Were you born with colorblindness, or did it progressively get worse as you got older?

 

I too was born with it.  Haven't noticed it getting any worse.  

[Xander_Crews]

My mother and one of my brothers are both convinced I am color-blind, my other brother is convinced that I am not.

 

I apparently am not as "color-blind" as some around here.  I have always been able to see the numbers in color-blindness tests... but in about 10% of circumstances I can have trouble distinguishing green-yellow from yellow or purple from blue. (But only when the colors are very close anyway.)  I am constantly pointing out fish in the water, so that doesn't seem to be affected. 

 

I do seem to prefer copper lenses in my glasses, but that might be unrelated, I don't know.  (I haven't had a pair with other colored lenses for a while now.)

 

 

Hmm... now I am wondering if there are more fish that I don't see because of my mild case of color blindness, ha ha.
 

[basshole8190]

I have the red/green color blindness never even noticed till I started working a job as an inspector