Camo red?

[Ken L]

I don't know if you have ever been scuba diving or not. If you ever get a chance take a red smartie top and a blue smartie top with you. As you dive deeper you will notice that the blue will stay blue but quite soon the red one will appear black or green because ther is no red light to reflect.[/quote

 

Very true, but the absorbtion of red light isn't very significant in water that's only a couple of meters deep so fish in most freshwater environments and in shallow coastal waters tend to have good vision in the red and even the infared part of the spectrum and use this ability to live and hunt in merky water.

[Leon Roskilly]

We have three colour cones in our eyes, enabling us to see Red, Blue and Green.

 

Our brain processes what comes in and interprets the % mix of the three colours to produce a picture with a rich range of colours.

 

Perch have different cones, of a different chemical composition, and it's speculated that they must see 'green' as 'red', and red as 'yellow'.

 

Often fish are moving about and feeding in very murky water indeed, and most are active throughout the night when there is little use of vision, so they probably percieve the world mainly through there lateral lines, detecting subtle vibrations (water is an excellent medium for transmitting vibrations and 'recording' swirls made by fish and other creatures that passed that way some time ago, leaving a dangerous trail behind them.

 

After vibration comes smell, probably nothing like ours, which again enables a fish to build up a detailed picture of the environment around us in conditions that would leave us completely blind and dis-orientated.

 

Then some fish detect electrical fields, able to 'see' other fish metres away, not through vibration, smell or sight, but by the slight electrical pulses given out from their muscles.

 

Unfortunately, burying yourself away from predators in the sand or mud is no defence against fish armed with such detection equipment.

 

The way that a fish percieves its world is very different to what we can imagine, and very different to how we percieve ours.

 

To 'think like a fish' which essential to any angler of ambition, means in part stepping aside from seeing the world as we do, and trying to imagine what it would be like with fish senses in the world of the fish.

[Steve Burke]

When producing "The Book of the Perch" I did an awful lot of research into whether fish could see in colour. Some of the old books and scientific papers said no, the modern ones almost always said yes. I've no doubt whatsoever that most of our fish can see colours.

 

It does depend on the species though as some see just in shades of grey, but all coarse fish can see in colour. Like us they have both rods and cones in their retinas for a reason. Rods are not colour-sensitive but work well in very low light. Cones are colour-sensitive. However the colour that different fish see best varies.

 

Just about all fish are shortsighted but they can readily perceive movement, even if the image isn't in sharp focus. It's this movement that scares them as much as anything, especially if what's moving is in a contrasting colour like red against a green background.

 

Yes, you can catch fish when wearing garish clothing, but you'll catch a lot more wearing subdued colours and keeping movement to a minimum. This especially applies to big fish at short range. In fact it's one of the main reasons why many anglers fail to catch specimens in these circumstances!

 

I couldn't care less what I look like when I'm fishing (as some of you will confirm!) and so wear subdued colours. However I was once asked to wear something red when filming one of the TV programs I did so that there was a contrast. I declined to do so, but Matt may have agreed for this reason.

[Andrew Boyd]

Red is used by the likes of Matt ect because it is a primary colour that shows up well on our TV screens. When viewed against blue/grey ( water ) and green ( grass, trees etc ) it stands out. better than white and yellow etc.

 

I have a camo jacket because it gives "me" a comfort factor ( and it's a cheapo army surplus that takes lots of knocks and tons of muck/brambles thrown at it ). This comfort factor is all part of the confidence that an angler obtains by a number of small factors that added together will mean that he/she can suceed when others may fail.

 

That being said, the angler with dull clothing if likely to do better than the guy in a bright white Teeshirt no matter how still thay stay, in the majority of situations.

 

However, I remember reading Arthur Cove's book on Trout fishing ( My way with Trout ) where he was laughed at for wearing a white top . . but then he was fishing in front of a white wall!

 

Boat anglers still wear green/camo, but the actual backgound colour ( the fish are looking up to view them ) will be that of the sky . . from white though to blue and grey etc.

Edited August 17, 2006 by Andrew Boyd

[Leon Roskilly]

Herons are that colour for a reason.

[peter mccue]

Peter the trout did not see the fly, it sensed it through its lateral line. With maggots they would smell them long before they saw them. Fish don't see the same colour gamut as we do. Some fish can see in infra red and some in near UV. Trout begin life with good near UV vision but this is phased out in older fish in exchange for a bit more visual spectrum and infra red. In short a trout can see colours you can't see, just like a dog can hear frequencies that you cannot hear. In the spectrum of light that you or I can see in a trout is limited to two or three inches.

 

But your right, the real trick is shut up and don't move. I've done that and have a trout eat oatcakes crumbs at my feet.

 

Ahh I think I can see what you're getting at now, in your original post you said focus was limited to 2-3 inches but now it's within the spectrum of light that we see, that I can understand.

 

Mind I have to say Cory, it's difficult to see how a Trout uses its lateral line to detect a static fly, I was always under the impression the lateral line detects pressure waves from a given object. A static fly isn't really doing anything very wave worthy.

 

Although I'm well aware of the phenomenal smelling capabilities of fish, the maggots were thrown to the side of the fish in quite pacey water to see how far they'd move, I still feel they were seeing the maggots rather than smelling them.

 

It's an interesting subject, how the colours on animals & plants are something entirely different when viewed by the creatures the colours were actually intended for. I remember seeing a program about Bees & how they apparently see in the ultraviolet range. When flowers were viewed in this light, the patterns & colours changed dramatically to what we see, in effect what we saw as a pretty but random pattern, became a well defined runway straight to the heart of the pollen supply!

[Anderoo]

This is all very interesting... I think fish spooking is also due to influences outside their daily experiences, rather than just colour (although I do believe this can have a big influence). At a little river I fish there's a field of sheep that graze right up to the bank. The chub in there are VERY spooky and if they catch sight of you standing or stooping, they're off. However, if you're crawling, you can get incredibly close to them, even if you're in full view. I reckon that's because you're sheep-shaped and they've got used to the sheep.

 

Also, when approcahing swims I used to cringe as a flock of sheep stampeded away from the river's edge, right where I was going to drop a bait. However, it quickly became apparent that the chub didn't mind the noise and vibration from the sheep at all. On other stretches where there aren't any sheep and the river backs onto corn fields, one heavy footfall and the swim's as good as useless!

[Andrew Boyd]

Um . . . . perhaps a white wolly jumper and stay down on all fours!

[corydoras]

Um . . . . perhaps a white wolly jumper and stay down on all fours!

I wouldn't try it in Wales

[gozzer]

Um . . . . perhaps a white wolly jumper and stay down on all fours!

 

I can just see it now, anglers flocking to the water side in their Realtree sheep skins.