Seeing Red

[Guest]

I was watching a show last night.. I don't remember the name but it was on one of the PBS channels (2, 11 and 44) up here. and it had some great underwater shots in several loctions with mini subs. One ,the Mid altlantic ridge and another in the Carabean. The tropic shot had a tuna as bait for several preditors, and the announcer cut the lights to attract these peditors to the bait... then they tuned on a red light and claimed that fish DON'T see red.... has anyone any information on light spectrum and fish... because if that's true why use red with our flies at all?

 

 

[Guest]

Red is one of the first spectrum colors to dissipate, so-called, or disappear, in an environment. Think about using red lenses at night - absolutely no effect on night vision. Red light in the water has little penetration capacity because it dissolves within the first few feet of depth. If you recall a thread on Cajun Red line in another website, I disputed the idea of red disappearing so quickly. Well, I did my homework - it does disappear and blend in.

 

On board military vessels, in any space requiring night-vision only capability, or in a underway operational condition known as "Dog-Zebra" or 'Darken-Ship', the only lights allowed operational are red lights.

 

Other spectrum colors possess similar properties, useful in certain situations, but red is the go-to.

[Guest]

Here is an article that explains in scientific terms what Dave said: http://science.howstuffworks.com/light2.htm

[Guest]

DFix gave a good explanation. It's been studied heavily among fish because there are so many freshwater and saltwater fish and invertebrates that use intense red as a signal color, and since it does disappear so quickly, scientists were puzzled for a while. Then they figured out that red makes a very good attractor/warning color in shallow water, and a great camoflauge in deeper water.

 

Red throats on flies are still a good thing because most of us aren't going to dredge flies more than 20 feet deep! For those fishing really deep with lures though, a fish has learned what it's food looks like when it is bleeding, or perhaps I should more accurately say, what blood looks like, which isn't red down deep. This means that red coloring on deep water lures can still be effective, but not because it shows up as red; because its color tone is correct.

[Guest]

I know that at a certain depth, the red end of the spectrum won't penetrate the water column. The fish described in the TV show probably have never seen red and thier eyes have evolved to adapt to thier enviornment. I don't think that this means that all fish don't see red, just those fish. Fish in the shallows probably do see the red end of the spectrum.

 

Lefty Kreh and many others swear that a little red in a fly will trigger a strike when others won't. In my experience, I have found this to be true.

 

TB

[Guest]

Here's a few links

 

http://www.zray.com/LuresAndTheirPresentation.html

 

http://www.gameandfishmag.com/salmonsteelhead/gf_aa076103a/

[Guest]

There is a very good book "What fish see" explaining this with scientific data and pictures of colors and how they change at different depthsI forget the author but is available at the tackle shp near me for 19.95 so other shops should be able to get it. But speaking from experience red looks almost blackis brown a t about 30-40 feet pink looks grey . Amazon has the book

[SDHflyfisher 0]

i've seen fish hit a laser pointer on tv???

[Guest]

TB, I agree

 

I played around and tied some really tinsely daces. Mostly in gold, silver, chatreuse and brook trout colors. None of them worked all that great until I added a red beard to them. Since I have taken several steelhead and some dandy trout on them.

 

Not sure, but I believe it's a trigger