Do bass see colors?

[BassinBrits]

Deciding whether to buy red or green braid line got me thinking on this. Powerpro in their advertising reckon the fish can't see their red line?

I understood that fish see their world in shades of grey, like the old black and white television. I also believed that they see the colour red as being almost the same shade as black, which is more easily seen in their world having the most contrast to the background. I have definitely caught more bass on black and reddish coloured worms, but perhaps that's because it's the colour I use most of the time. lol's

Is it a grey world for the fish with reflective flashes or do fish see colors?

[hookup]

Yes.

Does it matter?

It only matters when it matters.

Check out Dr. Keith Jones book "Knowing Bass" for the biological explanation on how their eyes see.

[Jim80]

Yeah they see in color , red is supposed to be the first color to disappear underwater in the color spectrum but there have been a couple reports written saying that it doesn't work that way . If you want a line that will truly be invisible underwater get a fluorocarbon line or tie a fluorocarbon leader on in a 4 to 6 foot length .


Jim

[ihnclb22]

do red hooks make a difference?

[Jim80]

If they give you confidence in the bait you throw yeah , I use both red and black hooks and have not seen much of a difference between them .

Jim

[doc]

I believe I read somewhere, that a bass can see more color than we can.

[Basscrazie]

I want to see my line so red it will be noe that i found out(thanks to you guys)they have red powerpro.

[doc]

Originally Posted by Basscrazie

I want to see my line so red it will be noe that i found out(thanks to you guys)they have red powerpro.

Is this english?

[Lilmoosecountry]

Yes they see color. Here is a question back to you. I think the question gives a hidden answer. Why do certain colors work better on certain days. Simple because of things like water clarity. Also because they can key in on a color that looks like certain bait that they forage. We have to adapt. They do all the time because of there changing conditions

[woody]

Do bass see colors? well only the bass truly know and they aint talking.

[Joel]

Current research does conclude that Bass do see colors. Since nearly everything a Bass does is either by instinct or by being conditioned, would seeing a red or colored line mean any more or less then seeing a mono/copoly/flouro line in the water. They all led to a hook and lure. And that's where their focus would be. Does any color hook, split ring, or even a swivel deter a Bass from striking when they are actively engaged in searching for food?

[zooker]

shoot crazy are you all off your meds again?? got ta agree with doc... huh??....

zooker

[Bass Fishin Machine]

Originally Posted by Jim80

If they give you confidence in the bait you throw yeah , I use both red and black hooks and have not seen much of a difference between them .

Jim

Me neither regarding the hook colors... But like Jim states "Confidence in the Bait you are using is of the Upmost Importance to me,no matter what color it is... But I will also add that with any Braid that I use I always have about a 18" to 2' Monofiliament or Flourocarbon Leader so I know for a fact that the fish do not see my line... Also the MoNo will give you a little bit of a Stretch Factor which the Braid does not do;and that will help you in losing less fish I have found because of the Forgiveness of the MoNo Leader... But hey that`s what works for me...B.F.M.

[Frogman51]

Originally Posted by Bass Fishin Machine

Me neither regarding the hook colors... But like Jim states "Confidence in the Bait you are using is of the Upmost Importance to me,no matter what color it is... But I will also add that with any Braid that I use I always have about a 18" to 2' Monofiliament or Flourocarbon Leader so I know for a fact that the fish do not see my line... Also the MoNo will give you a little bit of a Stretch Factor which the Braid does not do;and that will help you in losing less fish I have found because of the Forgiveness of the MoNo Leader... But hey that`s what works for me...B.F.M.

If your going to tie mono or fluro on braid then why don't you just use mono or fluro, because you line is only as strong as the line you tied on ie. If you have 50 pound braid and tie on 20 pound mono then the strength of you line is 20 pounds plus it's just one more knot to break.

[Joel]

Originally Posted by Frogman51

If your going to tie mono or fluro on braid then why don't you just use mono or fluro, because you line is only as strong as the line you tied on ie. If you have 50 pound braid and tie on 20 pound mono then the strength of you line is 20 pounds plus it's just one more knot to break.

Nope, your thinking just hold water so to speak. Using straight Mono would be like fishin' with a rubber band. Braid has no give, no stretch. You don't need a monster hookset to set the hook either.

30 lb braid using a Albright or reverse Albright knot to tie on a 12 to 17 lb leader will just not break, slip, or come undone if tied correctly. And my hooks are tied with a Palomar knot which has only failed twice in more then 6 years. Both times I'm willing to bet that I didn't cinch it down correctly.

I saltwater fished for Blues using 30 lb braid and a 20 lb leader and never broke off due to a Albright knot failure. 'lve lost some big Blues due to an Improved Clinch knot slipping, and then loosing my jig too boot.

[Frogman51]

Originally Posted by Joel

Nope, your thinking just hold water so to speak. Using straight Mono would be like fishin' with a rubber band. Braid has no give, no stretch. You don't need a monster hookset to set the hook either.

30 lb braid using a Albright or reverse Albright knot to tie on a 12 to 17 lb leader will just not break, slip, or come undone if tied correctly. And my hooks are tied with a Palomar knot which has only failed twice in more then 6 years. Both times I'm willing to bet that I didn't cinch it down correctly.

I saltwater fished for Blues using 30 lb braid and a 20 lb leader and never broke off due to a Albright knot failure. 'lve lost some big Blues due to an Improved Clinch knot slipping, and then loosing my jig too boot.

Joel: I understand your knot theory, but anytime a knot is tied between two lines that is your weakest link in that line, so let's say your knot won't break, but don,t you think that 12 pound leader is going to break before the 30 pound braid does because 12 pounds is the strength of your line at that point. Im just asking why whould you want to weaken your 30 pound braid with tying 12 pound line on it. I know all the reason's you gave the other night about fraying your line and all but I haven't seen any fraying in my braid, Heck you can't even cut it with scissors, also I don't know what size fish you catch in NY, but here in Alabama where you got a chance on every cast for that fish to be over 6+ pounds and money is on the line I'm not tying any thing to my line but a hook. Down here the fish were fishing for you would never get him out of the grass with a mono or fluro leader of 12 to 17 pounds. Like I said were flipping and pitching in 2-3 foot water and maybe your fishing off shore or something different but all I know you got to have something on that will rip through the grass or pull one out of a tree top, so I not weakening my line in any way. I've used a trilene knot for 40 years and have never ever had my line break at the knot.

[Joel]

Originally Posted by Frogman51

Joel: I understand your knot theory, but anytime a knot is tied between two lines that is your weakest link in that line, so let's say your knot won't break, but don,t you think that 12 pound leader is going to break before the 30 pound braid does because 12 pounds is the strength of your line at that point. Im just asking why whould you want to weaken your 30 pound braid with tying 12 pound line on it. I know all the reason's you gave the other night about fraying your line and all but I haven't seen any fraying in my braid, Heck you can't even cut it with scissors, also I don't know what size fish you catch in NY, but here in Alabama where you got a chance on every cast for that fish to be over 6+ pounds and money is on the line I'm not tying any thing to my line but a hook. Down here the fish were fishing for you would never get him out of the grass with a mono or fluro leader of 12 to 17 pounds. Like I said were flipping and pitching in 2-3 foot water and maybe your fishing off shore or something different but all I know you got to have something on that will rip through the grass or pull one out of a tree top, so I not weakening my line in any way. I've used a trilene knot for 40 years and have never ever had my line break at the knot.

Frogman51, Since I'm a all braid man, leaders are necessary on all my spinning finesse setups, 10 lb braid coupled with 8-10 lb mono leader. Just think of the advantages of drop shoting in 12 ft and deeper water. Almost no line stretch, easy hook sets every time, and no issues of line visibility. I use the same type of setup for finesse wt'd tex-posed plastics, my Fluking/stickbait setup, and even for Hard Jerkbaits.

Now for my baitcaster setups of which I have 5 of them.. All are spooled with 30 lb braid except my jig setup that has 50 lb braid.
spinnerbait/buzzbait:30 lb braid no leader, black magic marker about 6ft of line from the hook.
Deep Crankbaits: 30 lb braid, with a 3-4 ft 17 lb mono leader. I fish my cranks on the bottom, so they have to bounce off of and go over, rocks, stumps, logs, etc. Been cut of many times loosing an expensive crank in the process. The eliminate the braid cut offs.
1/2 oz buttet wt'd Tex-posed pastics: 30 lb Braid with a 12 lb mono leader. Same reason for the leader as my crankbait setup but usually work them along weed lines or in weed pockets. hence the lighter Mono.
Jigs: 50 lb Braid. No leader when fishing in the nasty stuff. I tie on a 17 lb mono leader when I working a jig along the bottom so I don't get cut off. My 5th setup is for C-Rigging, which I don't use very often. There I still use 30 lb braid, but use a min of 6 ft 17 lb leader with a 1oz barrel wt setup.

As for why I use 30 lb braid rather then 10 or 15 lb braid on my baitcasters, the main reason isn't for the strength of the braid, it's for the larger diameter. Go much smaller in Dia. and the braid tends to dig into its self preventing smooth casting. I've found that to be a non-issue with 30lb dia.and up braid. I use 50+ lb for jigs simply because it will cut through every type of water weed I've ever encountered. Also, it's larger dia. gives me a 2nd chance to boat a fish if I do end of dragging it over an abrasive piece of cover, rip rap, etc.

NYC reservoirs of which I have boats on 3 different ones have tons of rock walls, laydowns, rip rap, and all sorts of natural and not so natural stuff on the bottom. I'm also fishing from the banks out to 18 FOW or even up to 25 FOW at times. So I really need setups that are flexable and will handle just about anything I encounter.

[George_Welcome]

Until this fish sits up and has a chat with us no one will know for real just what they can or cannot see. The color issue would be more important if this animal was a selective feeder, however we definitely know that isn't the case.

[Joel]

Another thing to think about is just how much detail does a lure need to entice a Bass into striking? Looking at the latest crankbaits, swimbaits. lipless crankbait paints jobs that are now photos or muli-layered paint jobs costing many times what we use to pay. Do they really catch any more Bass then a plain Jane type of lure? Soft plastics catch more Bass then just about any other type of lure and they're about as plain Jane as you can get. They don't even look like a fish, but boy do they catch fish. No eyes, no gills, no fins, no nothing but maybe some glitter mixed into the plastic when it's poured.

[Frogman51]

[quote=Joel;215680]Frogman51, Since I'm a all braid man, leaders are necessary on all my spinning finesse setups, 10 lb braid coupled with 8-10 lb mono leader. Just think of the advantages of drop shoting in 12 ft and deeper water. Almost no line stretch, easy hook sets every time, and no issues of line visibility. I use the same type of setup for finesse wt'd tex-posed plastics, my Fluking/stickbait setup, and even for Hard Jerkbaits.

Now for my baitcaster setups of which I have 5 of them.. All are spooled with 30 lb braid except my jig setup that has 50 lb braid.
spinnerbait/buzzbait:30 lb braid no leader, black magic marker about 6ft of line from the hook.
Deep Crankbaits: 30 lb braid, with a 3-4 ft 17 lb mono leader. I fish my cranks on the bottom, so they have to bounce off of and go over, rocks, stumps, logs, etc. Been cut of many times loosing an expensive crank in the process. The eliminate the braid cut offs.
1/2 oz buttet wt'd Tex-posed pastics: 30 lb Braid with a 12 lb mono leader. Same reason for the leader as my crankbait setup but usually work them along weed lines or in weed pockets. hence the lighter Mono.
Jigs: 50 lb Braid. No leader when fishing in the nasty stuff. I tie on a 17 lb mono leader when I working a jig along the bottom so I don't get cut off. My 5th setup is for C-Rigging, which I don't use very often. There I still use 30 lb braid, but use a min of 6 ft 17 lb leader with a 1oz barrel wt setup.

As for why I use 30 lb braid rather then 10 or 15 lb braid on my baitcasters, the main reason isn't for the strength of the braid, it's for the larger diameter. Go much smaller in Dia. and the braid tends to dig into its self preventing smooth casting. I've found that to be a non-issue with 30lb dia.and up braid. I use 50+ lb for jigs simply because it will cut through every type of water weed I've ever encountered. Also, it's larger dia. gives me a 2nd chance to boat a fish if I do end of dragging it over an abrasive piece of cover, rip rap, etc.

NYC reservoirs of which I have boats on 3 different ones have tons of rock walls, laydowns, rip rap, and all sorts of natural and not so natural stuff on the bottom. I'm also fishing from the banks out to 18 FOW or even up to 25 FOW at times. So I really need setups that are flexable and will handle just about anything I encounter.[/quote

Joel: I can tell by all the rigs and your line sizes you just described your not fishing for the same size fish that we are down here in the south, also you must be fishing in a lot clearer water than we are most of the time. I fish c-rigs and texas rig to but not with braid. I fish spinnerbaits and rattle traps with braid, but not Crank baits. There is no way i would tie mono to my spinnerbait or rattletrap and weaken my line. I just say if you got to tie monofilament or flouro to braid just use mono of fluro, that's what I do and I have no problems, even the pros will tell you they don't use braid on every reel they got and for every application. I watched Roland Martin last night flipping grass on Lake Okeechobee and he had 60lb braid with no leader I wonder why? Because he can't take the chance on losing that fish with a lot weaker line tied to his braid. Do you fish tournaments or just fish for fun. If I was fishing for fun or for small fish even in a tournament, I might could try all those things but not down here fishing for the fish we fish for, and not aganist the tournament anglers we fish against. Were just in two different worlds I guess, cause I catch plenty of fish and win my share of tournaments fishing the way I do. whether the fish can see the the line in murky water or not is just a non issue with me. You answered you own question on another post when you said that the bass were more worried about the bait when it hit in front of him than he was about the line.

[Captmikestarrett]

Bass see shades and colors. I will try to find the link from the study.

I was asked by a writer why I use red hooks... "Because when the red wears down the hook is real shinny"

They use brass to adhere the red coat and when scratched the flash is red/white. It really kicks in the kill instincts.

It was a Stanford Univeristy study I think.

This one is from Berkly http://digital.library.okstate.edu/o...v59/p34_40.pdf

Capt Mike

[Joel]

Frogman51, we certainly do fish different waters. Most of the reservoirs I fish are semi clear, one is stained nearly all the time, and one is gin clear. The average size LM would be about 3 lbs one way or the other. A few 5's per year is a real good year for me. And I'm a rec guy. Only fish one Tx yearly, and that's a NY BASS tx .

[Captmikestarrett]

It was Dr Hills study that I remember most..I think Doug Hannon refered to his study as one of the best insights in LGMouth vision...

http://books.google.com/books?id=hz6...esult#PPA11,M1


Page 11 is where you need to start reading..

The combo color selector was built for this reason. Oddly I have always chuckled when my buddy would pull out his selector and slip the selected color worm on and catch a fish instantly..

It was crazy but it worked and I still laugh when I see one...I am stuburn I guess.



Capt Mike