Bass and the color blue

[plawren53202]

I have read or heard several times that bass can't see the color blue. That has me wondering, if that's true, then what do they see in its place when they see a bait that has blue on it?

 

What got me thinking about this, at one place I fish a lot, and use a Ned rig a lot, the blue craw color (1/2 watermelon, 1/2 light blue) in the TRD Finesse has become, pretty clearly, my best color out of the several I use. I have thrown a watermelon Yum Dinger a few times there and never had much luck, so the Ned experience led me to track down the "Bream" color Yum Dingers, which are 1/2 green pumpkin and half blue. Sure enough, that thing has been working well for me either wacky or weightless t-rigged.

 

I know that's not super scientific evidence, but I fish this location a lot and it's enough experience at this point to lead me to conclude that the addition of blue works substantially better. I know some places have crawdads that are green with some blue, but I've never seen any here (or any crawdads, for that matter, though I'm sure there are some there). So that might provide some explanation. But the question remains--adding blue to the green definitely makes a difference, yet how does this work if the bass supposedly can't see blue? Just has me wondering what they see where the blue is.

 

Or maybe I'm just way overthinking this. Problem is, when you fish by yourself a lot, you have a lot of these internal debates inside your own head. ?

[Team9nine]

Recent color/vision studies done on bass suggest bass often appear to confuse the colors black and blue, so the guess would be they are seeing blue as perhaps a lighter shade of black (gray?).

[Captain Phil]

I don't overly concern myself with what colors a bass sees.  Blue worms have worked for years.   Black and blue seems to work better in Florida during the winter months.  Roland Martin was once asked what the secret to catching more fish is?  He replied, "Start early and stay late."  I believe bass will hit any lure color if you present it correctly. 

 

I have seen times when certain lures became hot for a period of time.  A dark blue Bitter's glitter worm with a white wiggle tail was hot in the Harris Chain a few years ago.  It seemed you couldn't get a bite unless you threw one.  Color trends come and go.  Personally, I think all you need is a bag of black worms and you will do as well as anyone.

[scaleface]

All I know is I catch bass on blue .  

 

Blue light waves are  short light waves which activate certain cones in our eyes that the brain interprets as the color blue .Youtube it "Color Only Exists In Your Brain!" . 

 

  Bass have cones too but that does not mean they interpret short light waves the same as we  do .

[Bird]

Hearing this makes me bluer than blue as it's been a mainstay in my arsenal for many years.....the color blue. 

[Catt]

Blue penetrates water the deepest of all colors. Both the tones visible to our human eyes & also the shorter, ultra-violet wavelength many fish can see.

[OnthePotomac]

This might help.  colors to bass at various depths

[Mobasser]

I've used blue, and blue variations of plastic baits for years. Always had good luck with blue

[RoLo]

It has been confirmed that bass have color vision, and possess rod-&-cone vision

similar to humans. What we don’t know, is whether the color perception of bass

is the same as humans (We may never know). 

 

Based on physics though, we do know that 'red' is the longest, sloppiest light wave

in the visible light spectrum. As a result, ‘red’ is the first color to disappear underwater

(appears blackish rather quickly). It should be noted however that ‘hue’ and 'brightness'

are independent color properties. “Purple”, on the opposite end of the spectrum,

is the shortest, most penetrable light wave, and the last color to lose its hue underwater

(Who can forget the purple worm).

 

In short, the blue end of the light spectrum tends to scatter, while the longer,

lazier color waves tend to be absorbed. The persistence of blue light waves might explain

why the sky and the oceans are blue.

 

Roger

[OkobojiEagle]

I don't think the OP is asking about how deep into the water a blue colored lure remains visibly blue, but about whether a bass is able to distinguish blue as a color unto itself.  As has been explained to me, if you would lay 6 baits of various shades of green color and 6 baits of various shades of blue color, a bass would distinguish between each of the green baits but would probably not be able to distinguish a difference between the blue baits beyond the bait's brightness. 

 

Said more succinctly a bass will see blue as a color but not distinguish between various shades of blue.

 

oe

[Catt]

44 minutes ago, RoLo said:

Based on physics though, we do know that 'red' is the longest, sloppiest light wave

in the visible light spectrum. As a result, ‘red’ is the first color to disappear underwater

 

And yet red is an extremely effective color even at depth.

[Armtx77]

2 hours ago, OnthePotomac said:

This might help.  colors to bass at various depths

I can honestly say, that I have NEVER caught a BASS in 15ft of water.

 

Thanks for posting this chart, very informative.

[OnthePotomac]

I got this from the Berkley lab many years ago. It was too good to pass up. 

[Armtx77]

1 hour ago, RoLo said:

It has been confirmed that bass have color vision, and possess rod-&-cone vision

similar to humans. What we don’t know, is whether the color perception of bass

is the same as humans (We may never know). 

 

Based on physics though, we do know that 'red' is the longest, sloppiest light wave

in the visible light spectrum. As a result, ‘red’ is the first color to disappear underwater

(appears blackish rather quickly). It should be noted however that ‘hue’ and 'brightness'

are independent color properties. “Purple”, on the opposite end of the spectrum,

is the shortest, most penetrable light wave, and the last color to lose its hue underwater

 

In short, the blue end of the light spectrum tends to scatter, while the longer,

lazier color waves tend to be absorbed. The persistence of blue light waves might explain

why the sky and the oceans are blue.

 

Roger

What we don’t know, is whether the color perception of bass

is the same as humans (We may never know)

 

I go to great lengths, to match the hatch, especially in clear water. I feel like it is the single biggest factor in catching clean water fish. They get too long to look at bait and figure it out, not make sure you are close.

 

With that said, braid,snap rings, plastic lips and treble hooks...been catching fish for a long time.

 

So confused.

[RoLo]

25 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

And yet red is an extremely effective color even at depth.

 

"Black" is my favorite color, even if it starts out red     

[MIbassyaker]

5 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Color/vision studies suggest bass often appear to confuse the colors black and blue, so the guess would be they are seeing blue as perhaps a lighter shade of black.

This is the most straightforward possibility. The upshot would be that "black and blue" should register as something like "black and gray", or with darker and lighter shades of black. The greater intensity of blue, the brighter the "grey".  Very light, translucent blue ought the be about equivalent to "smoke".

4 hours ago, scaleface said:

Blue light waves are  short light waves which activate certain cones in our eyes that the brain interprets as the color blue .Youtube it "Color Only Exists In Your Brain! . 

 

  Bass have cones too but that does not mean they interpret short light waves the same as we  do .

Bass apparently don't have a cone analogous to the one we use to detect short wavelengths. They have two cones, roughly analogous to our "medium" and "long".

 

But colored pigments like those you'd find in baits do not necessarily reflect just one wavelength of light, so we may see something as "blue" mostly because it reflects short waves at greater intensity than other wavelengths, not that the other wavelengths aren't there. 

 

All else equal, you see something as "blue" when the short cone responds a lot more than the other cones...even if the other cones are being stimulated a little as well -- color perception is based on the relative, not absolute, levels of response from your cones, and also based on adjustments your brain makes to compensate for the lighting environment (We can, in fact see color even when the literal light input is gray-scale, just based on the brain's compensation mechanism -- see color constancy)

 

Imagine you could "turn off" your short wavelength cone -- You wouldn't see blue anymore. But any remaining weaker wavelengths reflected by something you previously saw as blue would still stimulate your other cones, and you might see it as dark, perhaps a shade of dark gray or black, but faintly green or red.

 

So exactly what color bass see when you show them something "blue" ought to depend on exactly what range of wavelengths are being reflected and in which intensity. We can't really know this just by looking at the bait; you'd need to actually analyze reflectance of the color with a spectrometer. 

[Black Hawk Basser]

Aaannndd now my head hurts.

[MIbassyaker]

21 minutes ago, Pickle_Power said:

Aaannndd now my head hurts.

That's how you know it's working!

[Bird]

All I wanna know is can I keep throwing blue plastics ? I don't mind getting skunked. ?

[Tennessee Boy]

1 minute ago, Bird said:

All I wanna know is can I keep throwing blue plastics ? I don't mind getting skunked. ?

Yes.  Bass love blue plastics because they look black to them ?

[JediAmoeba]

Where is @Bluebasser86, I am sure he can weigh in on this subject.

[RoLo]

22 minutes ago, Bird said:

All I wanna know is can I keep throwing blue plastics ? I don't mind getting skunked. ?

 

Yes you do   

[Catt]

1 hour ago, MIbassyaker said:

The upshot would be that "black and blue" should register as something like "black and gray", or with darker and lighter shades of black. The greater intensity of blue, the brighter the "grey".  Very light, translucent blue ought the be about equivalent to "smoke".

 

Contrast ?

 

[Captain Phil]

Part of the fun in bass fishing is theorizing about things like lure color.  Bass fishing is not rocket science.  A bass will eat anything it thinks will fit in it's mouth.  They don't always hit a lure because they want to eat it.  When I was a kid my grandfather caught a big bass on a piece of red rag.   I have had fisherman in my boat that claim certain color baits work better than others. When I ask them what color they throw, it's always that color.  They catch more bass on that color because that's what they throw.

 

In a tournament, I carried pink, Merthiolate, purple, black, blue, red, green, spotted, striped, straight, curly, big, and small worms.  Heaven forbid someone will catch a bass on a worm or lure I didn't have with me.   

 

The best color bait is the one you have the most confidence in.  You will throw it more and stay with it longer.  Anything that keeps you fishing has value.  "Go early, stay late".  :>)

 

 

[Revival]

8 hours ago, plawren53202 said:

the blue craw color (1/2 watermelon, 1/2 light blue) 

From pictures, I always thought the Zman blue craw was 1/2 green pumpkin and 1/2 light blue?  
 

So it’s 1/2 watermelon?