All About Fishing Tools Is Lure Colour Important

Your choice of fishing lure is crucial to your success. If you’re fishing in seawater, it’s best to use live bait. And if you’re fishing in freshwater, you can go wild with your choice of artificial lures. But did you know that the colour of your lure may be important as well?

How fish see underwater
Fish’s eyes are very similar to ours—they’re made up of spherical lenses and are perched on muscles that can turn the eye on all axes. Their eyes are fully adapted to their habitat, allowing them to see underwater about as well as humans can see in the air.

Fish can see colours, too. In fact, some fish can even detect ultraviolet light. The strength and robustness of a fish’s vision is the key to attracting them with specific lures.

Light is made up of different wavelengths. Red has the shortest wavelength, so it can only travel a certain distance. When passing through water, red is filtered out of light at 10 meters. Other colours disappear accordingly: orange and yellow at around 60 meters, green at 50 meters, and blue at 200 meters. This means that below 10 meters, red objects look very dark. And below 30 meters, the water looks blue-green with everything else appearing black.

This means that if you’re fishing in 30 meters of water, red, pink, orange, and yellow lures will just look black to the fish. Although the specific colour isn’t clear, these lures can still attract fish at any depth, especially if your lure has other appealing features.

How to select the proper fishing lure

If you talk to any experienced fisherman, they will likely have passionate opinions about their best-performing lures at any location. Many swear by the simple rule of using bright colours in murky water and natural colours in clear water. This makes sense because colours can pop more intensely in a clean environment.

For example, a bright pink, reflective, and vibrating lure will be visible and attractive even in the dark. However, If you use that same lure in clear freshwater, fish may steer clear and be wary of biting something that looks completely unnatural.

When deciding which artificial lures to buy, you should try to find the balance between visibility and reality. You want the fish to be able to see your lure from any distance, but it should blend well enough with the environment so they will be enticed to take a bite.

Fish have good memories, so they know what their preferred food looks like. One of the best ways to trick them into attacking your lure is to use one that looks, moves, and even smells like what they eat in the wild. This is why live bait can be so effective—there’s no trickery involved, because you’re trying to attract them with something they naturally eat.

Conclusion

Experienced anglers will rhapsodise about their favourite lure colours and styles whenever prompted. It’s important to keep colour theory in mind when you make your own choices. If you’re a beginner, you should choose a healthy variety of lures that you could use for trips to different fishing locations. The more flexible your fishing tools, the more fish you’ll be able to catch!

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