This post was originally intended to fishing on the Aus Great Barrier Reef. Oceanic or very clear reef waters.
However, it also relates to ANY clear water oceanic, reef and freshwater.
In fact the apparent colour changes in lures relate directly to largemouth bass.
Our oceanic and reef fish are colourblind to red and your LMB are colourblind to blue.
The principle is exactly the same except the colours concerned are different.
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RED FISH IN OCEAN WATER
As we all know (don’t we?), that the colour red disappears quickly in clear ocean water.
Have a look at this image of a red emperor near the surface (before red colour starts to fade).
So what happens when the fish is at 15m in clear ocean/reef water?
It's no longer a RED emperor is it ‘cos the red has faded further with increased depth.
It's transformed into a BROWN emperor like so because the colour red has been almost filtered out completely by the clear water. Filtering colours is what water does. ALL water does it.
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Few oceanic/clearwater fish can see red anyway. They’re colourblind to red.
Why? Because they evolved over hundreds of thousands of years with no colour red in their environment of clear water. They had no need for a red sensor (called a photoreceptor).
Have a look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_in ... ed%20light.
So, we humans see this fish as brown because we humans have 3 photosensors (red, green and blue).
When we first start to see “colour” as we pull a fish up from the reef, the fish seems a pale colour.
As it gets closer to the surface, the fish appears darker and darker (with increasing red component) going brown and eventually to red close to the surface.
Anything new there? Probably not.
HOWEVER, there IS something else happening that most fishos wouldn’t even be aware of.
We’re looking at the above through human eyes which can see red so everything seems normal to us.
Say we were looking through the eyes of one of these ocean dwelling fish which can’t see the colour red.
Imagine one of these colourblind fish (most ocean fish) is on the bottom in 10 m of water and somebody drops a red lure down to it.
Sure, that red lure will change to a brown lure when it lands on the bottom BUT something else occurs (because what we are trying to catch is colourblind to red).
That colourblind fish sees ANY COLOUR WHICH HAS A RED COMPONENT as part of its colour mix (like red and/or brown) as a completely different colour.
Does brown have a red component that our colourblind fish can’t see?
SURE IT DOES.
Here's a RGB colour mixer.
https://www.csfieldguide.org.nz/en/inte ... rgb-mixer/
Have to break this into 2 posts as the site won't take more than 3 images.
Catching red fish in clear water.
Re: Catching red fish in clear water.
Previous post contd
See the red component (127 parts).
We humans see that red lure as brown because we aren’t colourblind to red.
Lets put the red component back to zero.
What colour does that colourblind fish see that lure as having no red component at all?
AS FAR AS THAT BOTTOM DWELLING COLOURBLIND FISH IS CONCERNED, IT'S A GREEN LURE THAT'S BEING BOUNCED IN IT'S FACE!
Head starting to hurt yet?
Largemouth bass in the US have no blue photoceptor so are colourblind to the colour blue.
Throw a white lure to a LMB and they see it as yellow (not white). Same principle.
Watched a video a couple of years ago involving a LMB fishing contest between 2 fishos with one using a white lure and the other using a yellow lure. Trying to work out the best colour to use.
It was a “no-brainer” from the start but these guys didn’t know that it’d turn out that way. They decided it was a draw. Wonder why.
As far the LMB were concerned they were using the same coloured lure.
See the red component (127 parts).
We humans see that red lure as brown because we aren’t colourblind to red.
Lets put the red component back to zero.
What colour does that colourblind fish see that lure as having no red component at all?
AS FAR AS THAT BOTTOM DWELLING COLOURBLIND FISH IS CONCERNED, IT'S A GREEN LURE THAT'S BEING BOUNCED IN IT'S FACE!
Head starting to hurt yet?
Largemouth bass in the US have no blue photoceptor so are colourblind to the colour blue.
Throw a white lure to a LMB and they see it as yellow (not white). Same principle.
Watched a video a couple of years ago involving a LMB fishing contest between 2 fishos with one using a white lure and the other using a yellow lure. Trying to work out the best colour to use.
It was a “no-brainer” from the start but these guys didn’t know that it’d turn out that way. They decided it was a draw. Wonder why.
As far the LMB were concerned they were using the same coloured lure.
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