Fishing Lure Color Selection (Part 1). How Colors Look Underwater

Hi, I'm Greg Vinall Most lure fishermen have strong views about lure color But most popular lure color theories are just hooey! In fact, fish would have to break the laws of nature To even see the lure colors that lots of guys use! Fishermen become so convinced about some colors That they fish them more often and with greater confidence So it's only natural they catch more fish with them! Lure companies want you to believe in lure colors So they can sell you more lures! As a lure maker I spend a lot of time Thinking about how to catch fish on lures Including what lure colors are most effective. So in this series of videos I'll give you A very simple version of the science Behind how fish see lure colors And we'll cut through some of the garbage about lure color This information should be useful not only To my fellow lure makers, but also to anyone Who is choosing a lure to buy next Or choosing a lure from their tackle box for a specific purpose Objects can look different underwater Than they do in air And thats because water changes the way that light behaves And that in turn changes how object like lures are seen Lets start with a very simple concept Let's look at how the intensity of light changes The way we see color I would like for you to imagine that this box Is a tank of very pure water and we are about To drop the two lures in the picture into it So we are holding the lures at the water surface Where they are getting 100% of the sunlight from above The colors that you see here are 100 percent intense. Now, light that coming to the water from above Does two things when it strikes the water surface Some gets reflected away, And some light penetrates into the water The light that penetrates the water also gets absorbed, so the deeper you go into the water the less light gets down there As we immerse the lures in the water the amount of light gets reduced surprisingly quickly In fact, 25% of the light is reflected or absorbed by a depth of just 1 centimertre, or half an inch! by the time the lure reaches a depth of just one metre, or 3 feet, more than half of the light at the surface has been lost In fact, only 45% of the light at the surface actually penetrates down to this depth So you'll see a significant reduction In the brightness of the lure colors by this depth If you'd like to do a home demonstration of what this means Try replacing an 80 watt light globe in your lounge room With a 40 watt light globe and see How that changes the intensity of colors that you can see And this happens at just 1 meter, or 3 feet Below the water surface By a depth of 10 meters (33 feet) 78 percent of the light that was available at the surface Has been lost Leaving only 22% of the light to illuminate the lure Many home made and commercial fishing lures Will dive to depths of greater than 10m So you can see how water depth affects the way fish see lure color Lure color simply becomes less important the deeper you go To illustrate this point better lets put these lures on the screen at the same time so you can do a direct comparison Here is the scary thing that I haven't told you yet Until now, we've been talking about what happens in in ultra-clean water, on a dead calm day with the sun directly overhead Unless you regularly fish a long way offshore in tropical marine waters at midday in perfect weather you're probably never going to experience this kind of light penetration Under any other circumstances a whole range of factors will reduce the penetration of light in the water So for freshwater fishing and near-shore coastal environments Things are very different In these areas a whole range of factors Affect light penetration. Such as plankton growth, which can significantly Reduce the depth to which light penetrates Turbidity from dirty water, suspended silt or bubbles Can reduce the penetration of light Dark colored water caused by vegetation And of course the angle of the sun and the amount Waves and ripples on the water surface can affect light penetration It goes without saying that if you are fishing under overhanging bridges, lilles or vegetation That will also reduce the amount of light that reaches your lures And yet, everyone who fishes regularly for bass and other species Knows that fish normally lurk in dark and shady places And bite best at the low light periods around dawn and dusk! In part 2 of this video series we are going to look at How specific colors are affected by this phenomenon But for now the important message is quite simple The visibility of all lure colors is affected by water depth So you need a larger selection of lure colors For shallow, clear water applications in the middle of the day Than you will need for deep water applications in dirty water at dusk I hope that you take the time to watch the second video in this series When we'll start to explore what colors work best for deepwater fishing

Channel: Greg Vinall

Views: 465,891

Rating: 4.7844172 out of 5

Keywords: Greg Vinall, lure color, lure colors, lure color selection, Lure, selector, fishing lure colors, fishing color, choosing lure colors, how to choose lure colors, can fish see color, can fish see colors, fishing lure color selection charts

Id: tpQTh_tnJ6c

Length: 4min 48sec (288 seconds)

Published: Sun May 01 2011