Do bass see red? (long)

[katoguy]

I thought this was a good read:

Cajun Red line claims their red line disappears underwater.

Red Rattle Traps have been popular for years in the spring. Red hooks are popular now.

Red does NOT “disappear” underwater. The red wavelength of light is absorbed by the water. The deeper you go, the less red light is available. But, the absence of light is black, not invisible. Both red line and red on lures turn gradually black as you go deeper. Red line near the total absorption depth for reddish wavelengths will disappear against an equally dark background but show up against lighter backgrounds, just like any other colored line. If you want low-visibility, buy fluorocarbon line which has about the same color as clear water, thus creates minimal contrast with its surroundings much like clear glass.

The fact that bass have only two types of cones, red/orange and blue/green, does not change the way light is absorbed by water. When the red light is gone underwater the bass will detect no red light. Any red coloration will be seen as dark by its eyes. Dark is invisible against equally dark backgrounds, but shows up nicely against light backgrounds. While the red sensitivity of a bass' cones may differ from the sensitivity of a human at the same depth, the only effect increased sensitivity would have on the bass would be detection of the red at a slightly deeper depth than a human would detect it. If a human no longer can see red at ten feet, a bass with twice the sensitivity to red light would likely find red gone at about 12 feet. Light absorption is logarithmic, not linear.

As for their reaction of bass to a red pinpoint of light vs. white light. Maximum contrast would be attained by a red light on a green background. Make the test again with all lights out to see if red is better than white or any other single color. As bass eyes contain many more green than red cones and blue/green sensitive rods, I’ll bet a faint green light gets a stronger reaction from bass than a faint red pin-point in the near dark. But let’s make a valid scientific test to find out. The more visible colors are always determined by contrast. If bass sees contrast it detects movement more easily, and movement is something all active bass tend to get excited about.

For almost 100 years we have had red headed, white lures. Although they often worked, they didn’t prove to be the best overall bass catchers, nor did bass hit only the front end of these lures. Eventually, lure manufacturers made lures in a wide variety of colors, many had touches of red on the belly, imitation gill slashes, and red fins painted on the throats. Some of which still work better (at times) than lures without the red adornments. But, sometimes they don’t. I fail to see why a red treble hook is much different to a bass than a red-painted throat.

In the same way, several manufacturers produced worms with either red heads or red tails in the 1970s. They caught fish, but no one I knew then reported hooking bass deeper or even better with red-headed than red-tailed worms. If a red hook really helps, why not just dip the head of all your worms in a red die? Make them all bleed if bleeding works best. I hope one of those on these pages will try this and then report their success after a year of only using red-headed worms.

The idea that bass like injured, bleeding prey is logical. Bass like whatever prey they can catch most easily, and an injured prey or lure acting injured or otherwise vulnerable to attack will be taken in preference to attacking a healthy prey likely to dodge and escape. But, in the wild, sick and bleeding prey are relatively rare. Bass and other predators usually must make-do with prey that aren’t bleeding. If they waited around for injured baitfish they would get very hungry indeed.

I keep saying it but a lot of anglers just don’t get it. Most angler reports that anything (a lure, lure color, scent, red spinner attachment, whatever) works better than something else are biased and unreliable. These reports are not usually based on valid comparisons. The samples are almost always too small.

So what if Roland Martin catches 5 times as many bass using a blue scented lure as I did with an unscented identical lure out of the same boat. He can probably out-fish me every day. Moreover, on any given day one angler of a pair with apparent equal ability will sooner or later out-fish the other. Skill varies, front-ending varies, and sometimes luck varies.

Try whatever you want when seeking magic lures to whatever limits your angling success, but know an immediate good catch on a front hook or new bait doesn’t necessarily prove anything. Ultimately knowledge and experience, not gimmicks, will make you a better bass angler.

[HawgTide]

Thanks for posting. Two years ago, I was fishing in a private pond in Alabama with my Dad. He was using a white/chartruese spinnerbait and I was using a white/red spinnerbait. He caught 8 before I got a strike! I finally had enough and changed to a white. I started catching a few, but not as many as he was with the white/chartruese. I'm not a big believer in having to have the perfect colors on at all times, but that was weird to me.

[musky hunter]

Thanks for a neat post. There are so many more questions than answers. I think I'm going to try more light colored baits in the dark water I fish, even though a black spinner with a chorme colored blade works pretty well. But it puzzles me why dark colored lures do work, maybe sight isn't the only food finding mechanism at work. I gues the world just looks different to a fish than for us.

[Flipnripem]

You mean all that money I spent on those flashy red lures is not going to make the biggens bite even if they don`t want to. Nuts that sucks. ha Stacy a road trip to berkley is coming up. Ya hooo

[Mr. Pike1]

Sadly I have know for far to long that most of the lures are marketed to catch the fisherman and not the fish. That being said I still can not help myself. I guess I have an addiction of sorts and the end result is that my 50lb tackle box is and all of those lures is most likely going to lead to a back problem and not more fish

I know the 4 things that will catch bass:

- Jig and minnow/crawler

- Senko

- Tube

- Spinner bait

[katoguy]

Flipdude, I heard that Gabby only has 21 teams signed up. The Southern MN Bass Tour has 23 (25 max).

Did you get in the SoMN tour?

Instead of referring to Roland Martin, maybe I should have said Team LeBarron in the above article...

[Flipnripem]

ya thats a good one stacy. I did get the lineup for the so mn tour. I havn`t found a reason to not fish gabbys and will do so, however I did contemplate doing both this year. We will see how this year goes before we make any other commitments. I`d sorta like to fish back up north again one of these years.