Where did they get the name "Red Shad"

[cdailey]

I have been studying my fishing log and red shad seems to be a nice color for afternoon fishing in my area. I googled a bit trying to figure out what bait this mimic'd and saw that there was no such thing as a red colored shad or at least shown anywhere.

Where did they get the color "Red Shad" from?

[MIbassyaker]

My  understanding is that "shad" refers to laminate colors that mimic a general countershading contrast (darker on back, brighter/lighter on the belly) common to shad, but also to most other baitfish, and indeed, most kinds of prey of any kind.  My guess is Red Shad probably works well if (1) reddish hues are generally good for your waters, maybe because of visibility or forage colors (maybe even just highlights), and (2) your bass sometimes key in on that overall countershading pattern, dark on top, lighter underneath.

[cdailey]

very interesting indeed. makes a lot of sense one thing about highlights is they say chartreuse is a good color but I have yet to get a fish to even nudge with it.. there is an exception with the tomato core squirmin worm by bps. But, the inside of the worm is orange so I always assumed it was the orange since chartreuse never worked any other time. Im new to the waters so im just learning what working and whats not.. thx a lot! oh and i will try out your theories on top of the red shad.

[jr231]

43 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

My  understanding is that "shad" refers to laminate colors that mimic a general countershading contrast (darker on back, brighter/lighter on the belly) common to shad, but also to most other baitfish, and indeed, most kinds of prey of any kind.  My guess is Red Shad probably works well if (1) reddish hues are generally good for your waters, maybe because of visibility or forage colors (maybe even just highlights), and (2) your bass sometimes key in on that overall countershading pattern, dark on top, lighter underneath.

Didn't know this. Makes sense to me !

[MIbassyaker]

Bluegill and shad have chartreuse highlights; its very noticeable for instance on bluegills' caudal fins (tail). Chartreuse also tends to brighten up, almost glow, in water with green stain. So I use plastics with charteuse tails whenever I've got greenish water with visibilty between about 1 and 6 feet. More than that, i don't need as much help with visibility and less than that (really muddy stuff), I want something dark and opaque instead.

[ErikmonBillsfon]

Sometimes red orange and yellow show up better against a green, brown and tan background. I use orange alot as I feel it is kinda like a perch, but then I look at a perch and the only orange is a small find on the bottom of the fish. Red might look like a leach or baby snake if it's in a curly tail. I'm not a one to use red bug, red shad and the sunrise colors but some people swear by them.

[Jar11591]

"Red" because the color, and "shad" because of the black dot that most species of shad/herring have on their cheek. 

[jr231]

 

27 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

"Red" because the color, and "shad" because of the black dot that most species of shad/herring have on their cheek. 

My culprit red shad worms have no dots tho.. 

[*Hootie]

Wasn't "Red Shad" a stock car driver back in the 60's?...lol...jk.

Hootie

 

 

 

[Jar11591]

17 minutes ago, Yeajray231 said:

 

My culprit red shad worms have no dots tho.. 

I immediately thought hard baits...good point. I have a lot of soft plastics that are Red Shad or Black Shad and like @MIbassyaker mentioned, they're all laminate.

[Catt]

On 8/20/2016 at 4:11 PM, cdailey said:

Where did they get the color "Red Shad" from?

Red designates color & shad because they are dark colored on top & light colored on the bottom.

There was a time when Red Shad, Tequila Sunrise, & Motor Oil were the only colors I needed!

[buzzed bait]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

There was a time when Red Shad, Tequila Sunrise, & Motor Oil were the only colors I needed!

my buddy fishes a texas rigged ribbontail worm almost year round and 98% of the time he has one of those 3 colors tied on.... he swears by the tequila sunrise, but he also fishes the red shad A LOT.

[Turtle135]

Tequila Sunrise (and Tequila Shad by Culprit) are my first choice in 10" and 12" ribbontail worms. The interesting thing about red underwater:

"Water absorbs different wavelengths of light to different degrees. The longest wavelengths, with the lowest energy, are absorbed first. Red is the first to be absorbed, followed by orange & yellow. The colors disappear underwater in the same order as they appear in the color spectrum. Even water at 5ft depth will have a noticeable loss of red."

So red fades to black the deeper you get your presentation.

 

 

[Montanaro]

Yellow shad,green shad,orange shad.

Just a laminated color scheme

[Hog Basser]

I always thought the red was meant to show an injured baitfish's blood to help attract a bite.  

[Catt]

1 hour ago, Turtle135 said:

"Water absorbs different wavelengths of light to different degrees. The longest wavelengths, with the lowest energy, are absorbed first. Red is the first to be absorbed, followed by orange & yellow. The colors disappear underwater in the same order as they appear in the color spectrum. Even water at 5ft depth will have a noticeable loss of red."

So red fades to black the deeper you get your presentation.

 

 

As seen by human eyes & interpreted by a human brain!

[Turtle135]

55 minutes ago, Catt said:

As seen by human eyes & interpreted by a human brain!

oh no, you are not going to get me into resurrecting that old argument! 

 

[MIbassyaker]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

As seen by human eyes & interpreted by a human brain!

 

2 hours ago, Turtle135 said:

oh no, you are not going to get me into resurrecting that old argument! 

 

Ok, my turn to bite.

Color is the human visual system's interpretation of light wavelength, within the visible spectrum. We don't know how bass brains interpret the same wavelengths, so of course we can't say what "red" looks like to a bass. But wavelengths themselves are not interpretations; they are physical properties of light energy. When a range of wavelengths is absorbed, that inherently means it is no longer there to be interpreted by anything, human, bass, or whatever.

So the point that bass and human eyes interpret color differently, while true, is entirely irrelevant to whether red and other colors disappear with depth. The wavelength is absorbed, so whatever color is experienced in response to that wavelength will, of physical necessity, fade into black/white/gray. In humans, it's the experience of red that disappears first; Bass may see red in response to long-wavelength visible light, or they may see something else. But whatever they experience, when the wavelength that triggers the experience is absorbed, what they see will disappear, just as it does with humans, whether it is red or something else.

[Avalonjohn44]

2 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

Ok, my turn to bite.

Color is the human visual system's interpretation of light wavelength, within the visible spectrum. We don't know how bass brains interpret the same wavelengths, so of course we can't say what "red" looks like to a bass. But wavelengths themselves are not interpretations; they are physical properties of light energy. When a range of wavelengths is absorbed, that inherently means it is no longer there to be interpreted by anything, human, bass, or whatever.

So the point that bass and human eyes interpret color differently, while true, is entirely irrelevant to whether red and other colors disappear with depth. The wavelength is absorbed, so whatever color is experienced in response to that wavelength will, of physical necessity, fade into black/white/gray. In humans, it's the experience of red that disappears first; Bass may see red in response to long-wavelength visible light, or they may see something else. But whatever they experience, when the wavelength that triggers the experience is absorbed, what they see will disappear, just as it does with humans, whether it is red or something else.

Wonderfully put!

[Big-Bass]

13 hours ago, Catt said:

Red designates color & shad because they are dark colored on top & light colored on the bottom.

There was a time when Red Shad, Tequila Sunrise, & Motor Oil were the only colors I needed!

Ahhh...the days of those colors, Trilene trucker hats, pistol grips and round reels!  That was childhood fishing with my dad for me!

[Team9nine]

Culprit worms is credited with inventing laminate plastics in the late 1970s. That allowed them to produce one worm with two different colored plastics. "Red shad" was Culprit's first such color combination. Don't overthink it. I believe they simply took two very popular worm colors at the time (red and black) and applied their technology. I'm not certain they were really trying to mimic anything intentionally, as they gave  many of their color combos melded to black the "shad" label (red shad, black shad, blue shad, green shad, etc.). Could have just been a catchy name, or at best, the black represented the darker backs of preyfish, and the other colors melded to that black representing the lighter bellies.

-T9

[Sam]

Cdaily, ever wonder where the car manufacturers get the names for their cars?

What about housing subdivisions and their "cute" names?

And how about street names?

Millions are spent each year to "name" a product to make it appealing. Advertising companies have lists of names and the impact they will have on the public to entice the public to purchase the product.

Red Shad? Nice catchy name. Sexy Shad? Even better. And what in the world is a Chatterbait? And what color is Catt's Tequila Sunrise?

When I was in the Army I had a list of positive words and sayings to use when recommending a soldier for a medal or promotion. Fantastic list. Wish I still had it today but it has since been long gone.

So when YUM or Crews or Ike or Zoom or Gary Y. want to name a product, it is time for a "brain storm session" by the experts to come up with a name of a new rod, reel, line or bait that will make it attractive and improve its sales.

Sorry I can't write more but I have to go out and get a Zoom curly tail Junebug worm. Now what in the world is a Junebug?

[Raul]

On 21 de agosto de 2016 at 9:05 AM, Jar11591 said:

"Red" because the color, and "shad" because of the black dot that most species of shad/herring have on their cheek. 

I don't think so.

 

On 20 de agosto de 2016 at 4:35 PM, MIbassyaker said:

My  understanding is that "shad" refers to laminate colors that mimic a general countershading contrast (darker on back, brighter/lighter on the belly) common to shad, but also to most other baitfish, and indeed, most kinds of prey of any kind.  My guess is Red Shad probably works well if (1) reddish hues are generally good for your waters, maybe because of visibility or forage colors (maybe even just highlights), and (2) your bass sometimes key in on that overall countershading pattern, dark on top, lighter underneath.

Pretty neat explanation.

 

15 hours ago, Catt said:

Red designates color & shad because they are dark colored on top & light colored on the bottom.

There was a time when Red Shad, Tequila Sunrise, & Motor Oil were the only colors I needed!

Add Black Shad to that mix, color matters only when it does and back in my younger days at Lake Guerrero Black Shad was THE COLOR

.

That's a Black Shad victim down at a lake about 2 hr drive from my home we call El Saltito, near Tepatitlan.

[Catt]

1 hour ago, Raul said:

I don't think so.

 

Pretty neat explanation.

 

Add Black Shad to that mix, color matters only when it does and back in my younger days at Lake Guerrero Black Shad was THE COLOR

.

That's a Black Shad victim down at a lake about 2 hr drive from my home we call El Saltito, near Tepatitlan.

My first experience with Red Shad, Tequila Sunrise, & Fire-n-Ice all came from a trip to Guerrero!

@Team9nine the Culprit Red Shad I have is dark red on top with a light red on the bottom.

[S. Sass]

8 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

what they see will disappear, just as it does with humans

Are you absolutely positive? Fish do not have human eyes nor do they have human brains. Maybe they can see colors way better or worse in water with fish eyes and a fish brain. We obviously have never figured out bass exactly. Look at the enormous amount of different colors and shapes of lures and nearly all will catch bass at some point but everyone knows not every time.