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Sofa King
03-01-2015, 08:12 PM
k, so, which do you think is more important or effective in a lure.
it's action or it's colour.

in many instances, I'm sure it is a combination of both.
but, there's many days when only certain colours get the bites.
I'm sure the only real way to know it would be action, would be to run, say, a tomic plug that's say, blue.
if it's getting no love, then you try a lyman in the most similar colour, if still no love, you try that j-plug, also in that colour.
if one of them were to get more hits or catches, then certainly one could know it was the action of that plug that was preferred.

what I find more often than not, is it's a preferred colour.
I can run whatever I want, and it's not until that certain colour is put on, that the fish than react.

but, without being able to even see if there are fish down there even seeing the lures, one really doesn't know.
without that visual affirmation, we don't even know if our presentations were put in front of the fishes eyes.
definitely a productive lake would make it easiest to deduce as well.
I've seen some guys' videos, where they have the camera down on their rigger and see the fish coming in.
many times a fish will come in to the lures action, but will swim up alongside it, nudge it and bump it, then swim away.
if one were in a lake that that could be repeated frequently enough, and then be able to change the lure to just a different colour version to see if they react differently to the colour, that would sure be a telling method.
or same in the other scenario, run a pink lyman, switch to a pink j-plug, and then to a pink tomic.
it would be cool to see the different responses from the fish.

that's really the only way of truly knowing.
simply running one lure and getting no love for hours, then switching to a different lure or colour and getting a fish doesn't tell the whole story.
one would have to be positive that those unproductive lures were indeed being seen by fish in the first place.

another thing that makes me lean more toward colour, is the difference in fishing flies.
dragging a fly behind the boat, there's really no action to it.
some flys they just aren't interested in.
then after switching through a few different ones, bang, they respond.
again though, even though there's no real action, there's the fly pattern that could be the difference.
one would have to be sure the pattern and size is the same and it was really the colour change.
and that's usually the case with buck-tailing.
it's definitely more a colour thing.

having the visual confirmation is the telling thing.
and casting a spoon usually does that.
with dollies/bulls I see it a lot.
same spoons, but it's always not until that right colour one gets tossed out that they hammer it.
saw the same with a big rainbow last year.
it was on a drop where an inflow drains in to the lake.
I sat on the one side of the flow and cast across it.
lure after lure passing through the same spot couldn't entice him to move.
it wasn't until that "it" colour one was tossed across, that he then responded to it as it went by.

Drillbit
03-01-2015, 08:37 PM
I think the most important part is dragging through the thermocline where the majority of food is suspended and the majority of feeding fish are.

Just personal experience tho, taught to me by elders.


This is talking big lake fishing, salt water I'd say action.

Sofa King
03-01-2015, 10:03 PM
the thermocline is only significant for certain times of the year.

and even on the salt, I find that the salmon only wanted a specific colour coyote spoon.
same as flasher, colour is massively important for them as well.

mwalter
03-01-2015, 11:23 PM
Interesting fact, as a rec diver I was taught and experienced first hand about colours at depth. We took a ripe tomato down to 100 feet and the darn thing was green. So for instance a halibut jig that is red in the shopping basket will not look red to the fish so u may as well buy the green lure. I think it's to do with the curtain wave lengths of the Suns light ability to penetrate to cirtain depths...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JLFbctESI0A

Sofa King
03-01-2015, 11:40 PM
yeah, the colours only are true to certain depths.
that's why greens are so good for lakers.
even though they say that blues go much deeper, it's greens that I have found work best.
interesting that you say a red tomato became green at 100'.
most stuff I've read says that the colours just become grey.
I've still figured that whatever they become, they still have shades though, so a certain paintjob will still represent.
say we are fishing a lure with a green body and a red stripe along it.
the fish is most likely seeing the red stripe as some completely other colour, but for it to represent that shade, it still had to be red.
that's how I picture it anyway.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSdwYACNlzJ6lFKi49hdpp6T0__yhFuj LK9l0Ia0Oj02Bj5a94o (http://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nausicaa.co.uk%2Ffaq%2Fenfant s&ei=BwT0VJyYPIjvoASwuIKIDA&bvm=bv.87269000,d.cGU&psig=AFQjCNG7lUmmwFyGopejAeNbFEbYCkjnxA&ust=1425364294701132)

Sofa King
03-01-2015, 11:44 PM
water clarity plays a role as well and can change it as well.

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/Home/Portals/0/Images/Fish%20and%20Fisheries/1-490-1702-3-3.jpg

Mulehahn
03-02-2015, 01:03 AM
I would have to say colour. This is based on my years of experience running a children's fish pond. Granted there is minimal action in play, but I have seen all the fish taken in a stretch all hitting one colour, or no fish being caught until a certain colour is used then they are striking hooks up again. Could be a salmon egg, powerbait, corn, a small jig; doesn't matter as long as it is the right colour. I have seen this reinforced by fishing my local waters. My go to is a blue fox (I will use a spoon or spinner once in a while, but 90% of my coho are caught on a blue fox). I do have one colour that is most productive, but if it is not working I change it and will often get a strike. I know that the fish were holding there and must have seen a first lure half-a-dozen times, but nothing. Suddenly, same lure, same size, same action just different colour and I get a hook up.

Sofa King
03-02-2015, 10:40 AM
^^agree, I've experienced that many times.
same thing applies with kokanee fishing.
the fish are definitely insistent on a preferred colour on particular days.
and that colour can change completely the next day.

adriaticum
03-02-2015, 11:26 AM
Get this book.

http://www.amazon.ca/What-Fish-See-Colin-Kageyama/dp/1571881409

Sofa King
03-02-2015, 12:31 PM
I've always been a bit skeptical about all those studies though.
really, how can they know for sure just what a fish is seeing?
we don't even know just how each person sees unless they tell us.
shit, some people see a white/gold dress as black/blue ffs.

adriaticum
03-02-2015, 12:45 PM
I've always been a bit skeptical about all those studies though.
really, how can they know for sure just what a fish is seeing?
we don't even know just how each person sees unless they tell us.
shit, some people see a white/gold dress as black/blue ffs.


Get the book, if you're skeptical.
The author is an optometrist and a fisherman.
I have the book.

Sunzuki
03-02-2015, 12:56 PM
Never could figure this color stuff out.
One lake locally here years ago would only work with a size four
flat fish with a whitish/pear under body and a wine colored top.
Not sure how the fish see the top of the flat fish.

Sofa King
03-02-2015, 12:57 PM
Get the book, if you're skeptical.
The author is an optometrist and a fisherman.

I guess I'm not really skeptical, because I do read these things and keep them in mind when fishing.
it just seems weird that we study a fish's colour rendering, or that they don't really feel pain/have short memories.
studies in general are peculiar.
how do we have all this time and $$ for every type of study under the sun, but we have starving people, homeless people, no cure for even a measly cold, etc.

Sofa King
03-02-2015, 01:00 PM
Never could figure this color stuff out.
One lake locally here years ago would only work with a size four
flat fish with a whitish/pear under body and a wine colored top.
Not sure how the fish see the top of the flat fish.

I know.
I had a small mountain lake where only a muddler minnow with a gold cone head would work.
and the fish wouldn't even be piscovore in there, let alone there even being fry-sized fish in the lake.

adriaticum
03-02-2015, 01:06 PM
This book is fairly easy reading and explains how fish see colour and variables that affect that vision.
I try to read this book before every fishing season.
Colour does matter and environment does matter.