perception of cats eyes

[Andy_1984]

just been looking at buying a load of beads for making spinners and lures and seen some cats eyes beads, how do you think a fish would react to that with their vision, i dont know much about fish vision but perhaps someone else would know

[DavyR]

Andy, I can't see that cat's eye beads (if this is the sort of thing you mean: ) would make much difference one way or the other to a fish following a lure - it's not as though the beads will be reflecting a bright light source in the way that car headlights pick out cat's eyes on the road.

 

More experienced lure fishermen than me may well know differently, though.

 

http://www.beadsandmore.co.uk/beads/by-col...k-/prod_80.html

 

That link should work now...

Edited November 13, 2008 by DavyR

[MikeT]

Catseyes in the road work by focussing and reflecting the light from your car's headlights, so, unless the fish have little lamps on their heads I expect they appear pretty much the same as they'd look to your eyes underwater, give or take.

 

[crossposted with DavyR]

Edited November 13, 2008 by MikeT

[Andy_1984]

Catseyes in the road work by focussing and reflecting the light from your car's headlights, so, unless the fish have little lamps on their heads I expect they appear pretty much the same as they'd look to your eyes underwater, give or take.

 

[crossposted with DavyR]

 

i did think of that first but then remember a topic way back regarding fish eyesight and then it made me think again, well fish dont actualy see like we do

 

these are the beads in question: http://www.justbeads.co.uk/100-cats-eye-be...blue-p-333.html

Edited November 13, 2008 by Andy_1984

[MikeT]

Ah, yes. I see what you mean. It's very hard to imagine how fish see things, but we can be certain their sight is adapted to their environment- which of course is quite different from ours. It's likely the things we see in thin air therefore appear differently to their sight, and moreover those beads will look different to your fish in light which is filtered by the water they inhabit.

 

By the way, the catseye beads in your link are not the same as the beads found in reflective catseyes on roads (which are basically clear glass, shaped rather like marbles with short fat stalks, I believe). Those beads are made of semi-precious catseye stone, as often used in jewelry.

[DavyR]

these are the beads in question: http://www.justbeads.co.uk/100-cats-eye-be...blue-p-333.html

 

I looked at those first, but thought "He can't mean these ones - they look more like real cat's eyes than the reflective road thingies!"

[Newt]

Can't hurt, may help, who knows.

 

If you can get the beads in smallish quantities so the experiment isn't too expensive, it should be fun to try it.

 

I find myself wondering how the lure would produce on a night with a bright moon.

[Andy Macfarlane]

unless the fish have little lamps on their heads

 

Do you have lamps in your head or is the information you regard as eyesight nothing more than reflected light from another source, like the sun for instance??

There are plenty of light enhancing materials used in fishing from metal blades, to coloured beads, to flashabou, to coloured maggots, none of which rely on lamps in the fishes head.

I thought his query was quite straightforward.

[Andy Macfarlane]

To answer Andy, I'd think any light enhancing material, whether it's a glass bead or simply a polished spoon has the possibility of being useful. Andy, you've seen the kinds of materials I use for making my spinners...folded blades (like the Abu Atom), dimpled Colorado blades, fluted French blades, coloured blades, glass beads, shiny metals and all manner of things to enhance their visual appearance. If you think it might work, give it a try.

[MikeT]

Do you have lamps in your head or is the information you regard as eyesight nothing more than reflected light from another source, like the sun for instance??

There are plenty of light enhancing materials used in fishing from metal blades, to coloured beads, to flashabou, to coloured maggots, none of which rely on lamps in the fishes head.

I thought his query was quite straightforward.

I’m sorry you seem to have taken objection to my little attempt at levity. I was of course joking, but my point was valid enough. Catseyes on the road focus the beam from your car’s headlights and efficiently reflect it back to your eyes, which is why they are of higher visibility than a leaf or a stone (which also reflect light, but less efficiently).

 

My point was that, under ambient light conditions, a catseye looks rather dull because the light source is more scattered, and it’s only by reflecting light focussed from a source congruent to your eyes that they appear so bright (and that was presumably the particular characteristic Andy was particularly interested in). So, in daylight (and probably to a greater extent under water) catseyes don’t look bright, and would therefore offer no great advantage over any other object, like a stone or a leaf, as lures for fish.

 

But all this is irrelevant, since Andy was talking about a different sort of catseye.