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Do fish see colour?


tommo666

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Once upon a time some scientists believed that fish were colour blind. However modern research has shown that nearly all our coarse fish have excellent colour vision.

 

However, it does differ from our own, and even differs from sea fish. For instance, our eyes can disriminate shades of green best, which isn't surprising when you consider we evolved in the treetops.

 

Sea fish are most adapted to blue light, this being the colour that penetrates deepest in the ocean.

 

Freshwater fish tend to live in shallow water that is often stained by suspended mud and rotting vegetation, the latter being coloured by yellowish-red pigments. Additionally this suspended matter scatters the light and creates a murky effect. Photographers have long known that a red filter will cut through such haze.

 

As a result coarse fish tend to be more sensitive to colours towards the red end of the spectrum (i.e. the opposite to sea fish).

 

This is especially marked in perch, which can see more into the infra-red than other species. Indeed, perch eyes contain a chemical called porphyropsin that absorbs further into the infra-red than any other known pigment.

 

Additionally, the cornea of a perch's eye prevents any blue light from reaching the retina, and moreover they have no blue-sensitive cones here, only green and red ones.

 

Note that perch may still be able to distinguish blue by the difference in stimulation on their green and red cones. This is similar to the human eye's ability to distinguish red, even though we have only yellow, green and blue-sensitive cones. Indeed, this is almost certain as perch have a blue patch under their chin, that often goes unnoticed by the angler, but presumably not by the perch.

 

What does all this mean in practice?

 

Well, firstly, perch see red very well. Whether they see red best in a given situation though depends on a number of other factors, including the background. However, I always make sure when maggot fishing for perch that I have some red ones as well as white. Additionally, I like my perch lures to have at least some red on them.

 

It also means that perch see particular well in murky waters - contrary to what a lot of authors, including some modern ones, write! In fact, of our coarse fish only zander have better eyesight in these conditions.

 

This gives perch a big advantage in dim light over their poorer-sighted prey, especially in the reddened light of dawn and dusk or in coloured water. Hence this is when they feed best. Indeed, perch rely so much on their vision rather than their other senses that it's extremely rare for them to hunt after dark.

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Andy Macfarlane:

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US anglers agree with Steve about color being important and the best color on a given day changing according to water conditions. Note: the term 'panfish' is US-speak for smaller fish that tend to be kept for eating as opposed to the larger preds that we generally class as sport/game fish.

 

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  • 2 years later...

Steve, I agree with you 100% - however, what about their vision of things ABOVE water. I have seen "anglers" in bright yellow sea dungarees sit and catch fish! MY personal observation is that it is movement above water that startles fish!

Edited by kleinboet

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  • 2 weeks later...
Had a strange session yesterday. Went to a spot where it's normally a bite a chuck, but things were slow. Did get some quality Roach and a 1lb.5 Perch. Funny thing only red maggot worked. Normally the Roach here go mad for bronze especially with tumeric added. Today only red would work. Single red, double red, red and bronze, red and white, but it had to have red! Even sillier, I was fishing another rod with two large lobs on a size ten with a red maggot to hold them on the hook. At some point the lobs must have been nicked. I caught the smallest Roach of the day to the single red maggot on a size ten!

 

May have been the colouration of the water effecting visbility

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Visibility is certainly a factor but there seem to be others and it is hard for human senses to figure out what colour/colours the fish will want at a given hour on a day.

 

I lure fish most of the time and find that identical lures in different colours have very different results.

 

I fish a lot of rubber worms and carry 5 small jars of dye designed for colouring them. This makes it easy to 'create' a colour I need or to give a different colour tip to the tail when the fish are being a bit shy.

" My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!" - Harry Truman, 33rd US President

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Steve, I agree with you 100% - however, what about their vision of things ABOVE water. I have seen "anglers" in bright yellow sea dungarees sit and catch fish! MY personal observation is that it is movement above water that startles fish!

i can get to 3ft of carp in my flouro jacket (not so close in normal clothing perhaps 6ft) but a slight noise and they amble off ,if i really tried no doupt i could get closer but at 18stone my stomach probably is already:D

dogs can see colour or at least distinguish between green and red in black and white

Edited by chesters1

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  • 9 months later...

After reading all the posts in this thread, it would seem there is a general concensus that fish see RED...

 

After a good bagging up session a couple of days ago on red maggots I would have to concur with this theory...

 

BUT and it's a big BUT..... Why of late are we being told that we should load are reels with RED fishing line as it is virtually invisible to fish once under water?

 

I know there's someone out there that's going to give a very concise and scientific explanation to this conundrum and personally I can't wait as it's been bugging me for a while now...

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