"The RED Bead"????

[river-rat4]

From what I understand, Red is the color least visable to fish (the deeper the water). It disapears the fastest in the color spectrum as far as Fish sight goes. Blue/green is the color the fish can see best, but it does blend into the surrondings, being the light can't penetrate water like air.

Now to my question. Why the RED bead above the hook that we always read/hear about?

Is it the bead that makes a difference?

Was the bite just on that day?

Was the it the right bait used at the right depth at the right time?

Would a Green bead have done the same?

The species of fish?

State of the fishes eye's- Rods vs cone vision?

What's your opinion?

Brandt

(river-rat4)

[PikeTipper]

I'm by no means an expert but I thought I read somewhere that Red is one of the 1st colors to be filtered out in water in our eyes but not for walleyes. It was my understanding that walleyes can still see red at much greater depths than we can but I could be wrong.

[james_walleye]

I always put a red bead in front of my red lindy hook or on top of my slip bobbered red hook, it has worked for me, that is what i know.

[Borch]

I use red beads, blue beads, orange beads, green beads, chartuese beads, white beads and glow beads. All serve as a small attractor. Some days certain colors are better than others.

[HuskerTornado]

The April/May edition of In Fisherman talked about Walleye and their spectrum of vision again. Walleye can see a lot more red than we can. Almost infrared. But Walleye lack a wide field of view of blues and cannot see purple, it basically stops at indigo. But I've caught fish on blue baits before.

[james_walleye]

I've done really well on blue/silver rapalas. I wonder what the blue would look like too a walleye then?

[river-rat4]

Here is a quote from the article I was basing my question on, I can't tell you what publication but it was in the '80s.

"To put the idea of color extinction in relation to depth in useful form, we have calculated the percentage of penetration of light for different colors. These values are for very clear water and represent the maximum penetration. Naturally, this penetration would be greatly reduced as the clarity of the water diminishes. The table shows how Red is almost nonexistent near the surface. In the clearest water, only 1/40 of 1 percent of true Red light remains at 30 feet.

On the other hand, 69 percent of green light remains at the same depth. It is surprising that the Orange light, which is very close to Red in the spectrum, penetrates so well. The 12 percent of Orange remaining at 30 feet (in very clear water) is more than adequate for good visibility of Orange objects even at dawn or dusk.

Light Penetration Depths

COLOR 10 FEET 20 FEET 30 FEET

Red 6.5% 0.4% 0.025%

Orange 50% 25% 12%

Yellow 73% 53% 40%

Green 88% 78% 69%

Note: These color penetrations will greatly reduce in turbid water depending on the amount and type of particles."

It also goes on to say that the color vision of Largemouth Bass is the best. Followed in order by Smallmouth Bass, Muskie, Northern Pike, Rainbow Trout, Bluegill, Crappie and Gar. Walleye was not listed.

Any more thoughts/opinions?

Brandt

[bigbucks]

I basically only use two colors of beads, chartreuse or glow. I never use red, not that I think it's bad, I just never do.

[sheepheadslayer]

purple was the best color of a ringworm on the mississippi this year. Always makes you wonder if we really know anything???

[LocalGuide]

I also read that article in the Infisherman about walleyes vision. I had to read it about 2 or 3 times to get a real good understanding of it.

Walleyes have different eyes than us humans have (makes sense). Well walleyes have 2 sets of cones in their eyes: twin and single cones. The twin cones are most sensitive to a orangish-red while the single cones are most sensitive to green.

So the visible spectrum to a walleye is this: they see orange-red well, then green and yellow, and are least sensitive to blue and violet.

Walleyes also have rod cells, actually they have many more rod cells than cone cells making rod cells able to pick up amounts of really low light. With them they only see shades of grey and no color. Because of that its better used for vision in low light. (So this can also explain while night fishing under a full moon can be much better since the moon lights up the sky, moon light then triggers their rod cells to respond better and then them zoning in on bait better.)

This article goes into much detail about how light penetration affects how well they see. Also talks about in different color lakes walleyes see different shades of a color better. Just how the background in different lakes make a lure pop out more at a walleye.

For example someone said they did really well on purple. Well walleyes don't see purple very well or at all. If the water color is red, purple will be very visible to a walleye. Reason being the background all around the purple lure is red, they see red the best, purple is a less visible color. So the contrast between the 2 makes it easy to see.

So us humans see red disappear in water much much quicker than a walleye.

That article is very interesting, I would recommend it to anyone to read if you can get your hands on it.

[LakeTahoe]

I read that article too. It was good, and there is probably some stake in it. Bottom line for me is just keep trying different colors till they bite. But time in and time out Silver and White glow produce for me (atleast for jigs). For some reason this year blue is awesome, though? I guess it depends on the lake. Hect what do any of us know. It's funny how people have been fishing for hundreds of years and it's still a mystery what they like, and when, how, where etc etc etc.

Experience and expiramentation will bring us closer and closer - or something like that?

[ironman]

When talking color..I think it's important to consider other factors. If science tells me that walleyes dont see purple well...and your catching them on purple...it's probably not the color thats triggering the fish. Maybe the action, vibration...maybe different types of vibration..we hear different notes, maybe they do too. Depending on light conditions it could be simply the sillouette that they attack. There are many things to consider and sometimes I think we concentrate too much on color and ignore other things. Bottom line...keep trying different things....until something works and try to repeat it. Easy for me to say. I've been in the fish cleaning house or dock after a day of fishing and it seems everyone catches them on different things, sometimes hard to find a common thread and of course everyonce and awhile there is that one and only presantation that seems to trigger a strike. With all this being said...if I had fish figured out...I wouldn't be an ironworker but a professional fisherman...a very very rich fisherman. Back to work agian tomorrow.

[river-rat4]

Sound or smell might lead the fish to your bait, but the strike is determined by sight in almost all instances. Notice I mentioned " almost all instances ".

I realize there are creatures that hunt primarily by smell/feel, these are Cats, Suckers, Red Horse, Sturgeon, Bullhead, and the list goes on (I could be off on some of these and don't want to debate these fish). I am mostly directing this towards Walleye, Perch, Pike, Bass, Muskie, Panfish.

Agree/Disagree?

Thoughts?

[ironman]

I know I've caught "blind" fish before...that are either missing an eye or have two cloudy eyes, indication potential blindness. They must have relied on other senses to effectivly do so. I read somewhere that pike do not see well very close and that they home in on their prey from a distance then rely mainly on their lateral line for the final strike. One scientists opinion I suppose. Also I would say..maybe more so in winter than summer..that smell at times can be the deciding factor. I've watched all different species come flying up to a bait only to stare at it for a time just to snub it. They seem to be activly feeding but no matter what color, size, shape I put down there they wont committ, unless I put on fress bait.

[eyepatrol]

I don't know enough about fish biology to really comment intelligently on this subject. However, I can say that on deeper lakes when fishing for walleye in deep waters, particularly 35 feet and deeper, I've used a small red hook with two small glow beads and have outfished my partners 3 to 1 or better. They'll use a crawler harness with green spinner or lindy rig with bronze hook, or some other color than red and no glow beads. But, after watching me outfish them, they'll make the switch and we'll all catch fish at nearly the same rate.

I've also used this red hook & glow bead combination out on the river at Pierre (sp?) South Dakota. Myself and two other guys were using this combination and catching all kinds of walleyes while people trolling right behind us (no more than 100 feet) were using jigs, little joe's, and the like and weren't catching a thing. My brother who was in the boat at the time was using a similar long-line snell setup, except he didn't have the glow beads on nor the red hook, he had the bronze hook on and wasn't catching a thing. Finally, when we only had 4 more fish until our limit, he made the switch and immediately caught 2 of the last 4 fish. Needless to say he was pretty bummed about being so stubborn to make the switch.

So, is it the red, is it the glow beads, or is it a combination of the two? Probably the latter, but what I've found to work best is experimenting with various presentations until you find the right one.

Just my $.02 worth.

[Muddog]

I think the colors Walleyes do not see well look natural to them.

You do have to remember, light is color. If that spectrum of light is not present it can not be seen!

With the way it looks, Walleyes eyes are most sensitive to the light spectrums that water filters out the quickist.

Also, Walleyes do not see in the detail that we do. They may see "The RED Bead" or should I say they may see the Red but not the bead.

[CrappieJohn]

I am not a real avid walleye/sauger angler until late in the season thru the winter months when I fish the dams along the Mississippi River and then I only jig. The one thing that I have begun to swear by is the use of the "glow-in-color" jigheads.

It has been documented that the best color for a walleye to see is the red/orange colors of the spectrum and this seems to hold together for me while using heads of that color. The chartreuses are a close second in productivity. The standard , eerie, green glow is third.

Ice fishing has pretty much defined the use of glow colors on baits as fish getters, so why wouldn't a bead painted in these "glow-in-color" colors serve to get the color to the fish while trolling with the harnesses and the spinner rigs?

There are a couple of very decent tackle suppliers on site here as sponsors that deal in the glow-in-color jig products. Perhaps by asking, they'd be willing to do up some spinners and/or brass beads to accomplish this little task for use in the open water. The regular glow beads have been available for years, but maybe it's time to take this to the next level?

[Muddog]

Gander also has glow components, Spinner blades and sinkers. If is stock!