can Fish identify colour

[Volvo]

Or should i say "SeeIn Colour"??'
And if memory serves me right this subject has come up in the past ??.
Reason for the query is Children gave me a $$ Voucher which in turn i exchanged for some colour skirts to add to premade Leader rigs and thought the skirt might be an added attractant??.
Which in turn gave way to thought " Will they make a difference ?".
As well as aty the same time i bumped into an old mate of mine who said to me that all the now use is plastice for fishing and mainly in "White " and others say Gold .
Green and the list goes on ???
So what are your thought and experiences?? does colour play a role ??
Mind you i am mainly a "Bait Fisho" ie;. Whack a ppiece of bait on the hook and if the fish take it good luck to the Fish , it gets a feed or else i get the Fish lol.
But one has to be a little open minded also ey .

[Noelm]

Yes, you’re correct, it has been debated at length before. It seems fish eyes are somewhat different to ours and may be able to see colours, especially ultra violet. It’s said we can’t see colour in the water and red line goes invisible first! This is 100% false, I have done lots of tests, and even though (to us) the line is no longer red, it’s clearly visible as a grey stripe, even Fluorcarbon that’s thought to be invisible, is easily seen as a grey stripe, it’s all marketing hype to sell you expensive line. All line when about 6-8m deep is grey to us, but you can see it.

[Lovey80]

I think different colours do matter especially in different water clarities. Working out what works best is part of the intrigue.

[tunaticer]

I have read studies years ago on this topic, the common consensus is some fish do see colours, some with the UV spectrum, some without and some without reds or yellows.
So this variance in differing species ability to see colours also adds to the guessing game of what they will see.
Add to this we may present dozens of the same lure in dozens of different colours and patterns and still get little or random results.

I have given all colours and combinations a really good run over the past 50 years and these days I reach for whites for paddle tails, natural bait colours or I go close to the water colour.
The only other colour that I have had consistent better than average with in soft vibes is black especially first and last light and through the night.

I think predatory fish in estuaries only use sight for the last few inches in pursuing their prey, most likely to jet the last final adjustment to get that bait into their mouth. I do not think they analyse the colour of the food they are chasing, and more are hunting what feels normal for them to eat with their remarkable vibration sensory systems.

But colours do play a massive part in seducing the dollars out of our pockets, more so than any fish's preference for a particular hue.

Fishermen are purely gullible to enticement of flashy things for the benefit of the sales people and the manufacturers and the tax department.

The wheel will keep being re-invented to lure more coin from us in the hope of some miracle lure.

Think back to all of your "go to" lures you have had in the past....I know I have had hundreds of them.....of which I have only 2 "go to" lures that have been a preference for more than a couple of seasons, and they are in the decades of seasons now.

[Noelm]

Way back years ago, we used to make our own metal jigs, we painted them all sorts of colours, but, the one that outfished everything else, was just unpainted kind of dull stainless steel, all the painted ones looked flash, but the unpainted was the best.

[chris69]

Bream see colour during daylight and black and white at night.

[Volvo]

Bream see colour during daylight and black and white at night.

Propably like me Chriss i can see colour during the day and Feck all at night as i get older and getting worse too..

[Dignity]

Propably like me Chriss i can see colour during the day and Feck all at night as i get older and getting worse too..

Flatties can be very particular at times, usually have a white SP but there are times they'll ignore it for a very colourful SP and in one spot they'll ignore both and go for the green ones. I found the dirtier the water then the green gets the fish.
But then there are days they'll ignore everything.

[Corry]

We played with colours one of our trips to Corroboree Billabong one trip. Had a set troll that we were doing along a certain area, did it about a dozen times and got fish every time, so figured we'd then play with some colours. We found that if we used any other colour but green, no fish. We did it time and time again for hours entertaining ourselves. Used the exact same lure in a different colour, nothing, changed lure style in a different colour, nothing, changed any of them back to green, fish on.
Must've caught 40+ Barra, only one of size, 92cm, and lots and lots of Saratoga.
If a boat come past we'd drop the rods and pretend we were having a break as it was a thin channel and didn't want them taking all our fun. Even got a video from the Go Pro's of a boat going past and a fish jumping in it's wake while we were acting like nothing was happening.
Will never know if it's coincidence or not, but it was hard to think it was at the time.

[Volvo]

Next time i head out wide i will def spend a good time trying out Sodties and mainly white as most i speak to for offshore still swear by white ??..
If i have the patience that is and backup will still be Pillies , Squid , Mullet , and yankee Whiting this time round..