Does Color Really Matter for Striper Lures?

Regardless of all that’s been written and talked about so far as what lure colours striped bass want, we’ve settled nothing. Lure-makers churn out new patterns and colours yearly, seductive eye sweet for any angler value his salt. Everybody has colours they’re optimistic will catch, whereas many a harried sharpie has confessed to spending many years jealously guarding his secret “killer” shade. What if it was all for naught? What if lure shade didn’t matter more often than not, and when it did, it was in methods most anglers hadn’t thought of?

A definitive reply is presently past our grasp, however I’m skeptical that lure shade issues when fishing for striped bass besides in a few particular circumstances. I’m not alone in my suspicion that lure shade makes a distinction to stripers. There are a selection of considerate anglers who’ve discounted the position of shade in lure selection. William “Doc” Muller makes use of solely probably the most restricted vary of lure colours, primarily white, black, or blue. Toby Lapinski appears primarily enthusiastic about lure shade because it pertains to visibility. Montauk surfcaster Invoice Jakob doubts shade is seen at night time and considerations himself with the relative distinction within the prime and backside half of a plug.

Why Would Colour Matter?

I method the subject of lure shade with a barely totally different query than I’ve heard anybody else ask. I don’t ask “Does lure shade matter?”, however “Why would lure shade matter?” If fish want a selected shade to the exclusion of others, there needs to be a purpose by way of elevated evolutionary health. The method of evolution doesn’t help random or irrelevant behaviors.

I can consider solely three benefits for stripers deciding on one shade lure over one other. A selected shade could also be extra seen to bass, which permits for extra profitable looking. Choosing one shade to the rejection of others ensures extra energy or extra environment friendly caloric consumption. Or, preferring sure colours is necessary for avoiding hazard.

Beginning with the final purpose first: for striped bass, I don’t consider that hazard performs any position in lure shade choice or avoidance. I don’t know of any toxic fish they could eat which have a selected coloration. This eliminates hazard as a purpose for shade choice.

It’s doubtless that lure visibility could make a distinction for striped bass. I’ve had experiences when extremely seen lures outproduce others in discolored water. One occurred three years in the past, when on two consecutive days, huge bass had bunker pinned up in opposition to a jetty in wave-churned water. On each days, chartreuse bucktails and trailers clearly out-fished white. In these circumstances, the stripers most likely used vibration to assist find the bucktail since visibility was one to 2 toes. I feel the visibility of the chartreuse bucktail made it that a lot simpler in “noisy” and soiled water for bass to see it on the final second and seal the deal.

Whereas chartreuse is extremely seen to the human eye, there’s additionally proof that it’s for striped bass as nicely—though it might not be for largemouth bass. Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences researcher Andrij Horodysky has studied striper imaginative and prescient and located that “Nothing within the wild is ever chartreuse, however the shade is smack dab in the course of a striper’s visible vary. The fish can see it rather well.” Black lures are additionally extra seen in soiled, discolored water, so that they can also provide some benefit. A little bit of warning, although.  As a result of logic and expertise each point out that plug visibility issues in discolored water, my experiences and people of different anglers are thought of anecdotal proof, a type of proof scientists think about inadequate for proof. Sadly, in fishing, anecdotal proof is commonly the primary sort we now have to know the habits of gamefish.

The final query is whether or not selectively and completely homing in on a selected shade provides striped bass an adaptive benefit by a web surplus of energy versus different predatory methods. Striped bass dwell in open ocean, bays, and estuaries on each coasts, in addition to freshwater lakes.  Their weight-reduction plan contains shrimp, eels, herring, bunker, mullet, sand eels, tautog, scup, lobster, sand fleas, flounder, worms, clams, and spot, to call only a partial checklist. John Tiedeman reviewed research of striped bass meals sources and located that their weight-reduction plan is comprised of greater than 65 species of fish and greater than 45 invertebrates.

Whereas a few of these meals sources are extra calorie-rich than others, striped bass don’t essentially deal with high-calorie baits comparable to herring and bunker to the exclusion of much less calorie-intensive sources of meals. The energy offered by a bait is just half the equation. Searching methods (which I consider are formed by genetic, innate preferences or biases) should account not just for the quantity of energy ingested, but additionally for the lack of energy in looking for and harvesting baits.

Biologists have developed a mannequin referred to as optimum foraging concept, which predicts that any predator will try to achieve probably the most energy with the least caloric expenditure for optimum effectivity. Striped bass usually stick with a dependable meals supply even when it’s not optimum by way of energy if they’ll keep away from expending vitality looking for different meals that they could not discover. For a generalist like striped bass, the assure of a dependable meals supply is commonly—however not all the time—preferable to the dangerous proposition of expending vitality trying to find higher-calorie baits. Consuming no matter is on the market and no matter shade it may be usually proves to be the extra adaptive looking technique. This may point out {that a} looking technique primarily based on selectivity of shade beneath most circumstances lacks an obvious adaptive perform, undermining any purpose stripers would selectively deal with a single lure shade.

Evening Time. No Colour?

Sharp anglers use seen colours to get bites that others might not. These similar anglers are additionally those who suppose probably the most about their lure selection, biking by totally different colours on night time tides to see “what’s working.” I’ve carried out this for years, not essentially with conviction, however with sufficient perception to maintain at it. Perception, nevertheless, typically runs smack into proof. The proof fairly conclusively signifies, if not essentially proves, that shade both doesn’t matter at night time or at greatest minimally so.

Trout and bluegill imaginative and prescient are way more studied than striped bass, but their eyes are practically equivalent anatomically. This makes them a helpful comparability, although there’s a very small diploma of uncertainty. Fish have minor variations in eye construction and performance in addition to particular looking methods that adapt for his or her particular atmosphere.

In contrast to people, striped bass lack an iris that may contract to minimize or increase the quantity of sunshine that enters the lens. Their iris is fastened. Striped bass additionally haven’t any eyelids and subsequently can’t cut back mild coming into by squinting. The first approach they alter to mild and darkish circumstances is thru the usage of rods and cones.

Much like people, trout and stripers have each rods and cones of their eyes. Cones are utilized in vibrant circumstances and may register a spread of colours. Rods are used beneath low-light conditions and distinguish solely a continuum of grey from black to white. Rods are 500 to 1,000 occasions extra delicate to mild than cones. In trout and bluegill, the usage of rods and cones is an all-or-nothing proposition. In daylight, the rods recede and solely the cones are energetic. At night time, the cones recede and the rods are energetic.

With solely rods energetic at night time, trout can’t see shade in anyway. They see shades of grey and the distinction between shades at night time. Given the grossly equivalent ophthalmologic anatomy of trout and striped bass, it’s logical to conclude that striped bass equally don’t see shade at night time attributable to their reliance of rods for night time imaginative and prescient. Striped bass, nevertheless, haven’t been particularly studied. It’s recognized that striper rods come ahead whereas cones recede at night time in a way much like trout, however one can’t be one hundred pc sure that this results in the identical finish outcome. This virtually infinitesimal chance apart, it appears clear that in night time tides, when probably the most devoted and considerate anglers fear about lure shade, is the precise time that lure shade isn’t registered and doesn’t matter.

In daytime, bass use cones and readily see shade. But, even right here, there’s purpose to be skeptical that issues are as they seem to us. Fish might not see the colours that we expect they do. Water creates shade shifts and modifications in shade saturation primarily based on readability and turbidity. Colour in water is often not reliably seen till at shut vary. Striped bass within the Northeast, which general has poor water readability, might not be seeing colours as yellow, blue, or pink as we do by the air, and once they do, it’s solely once they stand up shut.

Worth, Distinction, and Hue

At night time, the tendency of colours to show to shades of white, grey, and black imply that striped bass don’t see shade however, relatively, worth, which is outlined as a shade’s relative lightness or darkness. It is among the three elements of shade together with hue and saturation. The worth of a shade could also be equivalent, though the hue might be totally different. For instance, a darkish inexperienced plug and a darkish blue one have related values. The identical may go for yellow and pink, and so forth.

Earlier than persevering with, I’m going to modify from utilizing the time period “shade,” which all fishermen use to refer to what’s really hue. Colour is comprised of three parts: worth, hue and saturation. When anglers say shade, they actually imply hue.

Below darkish circumstances, striped bass completely depend on rods for night time imaginative and prescient, they see worth and contrasts in worth. Hue wouldn’t matter in any respect or barely so.

Invoice Jakobs additionally believes that stripers don’t see hue at night time, so he focuses on worth by filling his night time plug bag with differing ranges of distinction between the highest of the plug and the underside. The place I half methods with Invoice is within the perception that beneath most circumstances bass are tuning in to any particular hue, distinction, worth, or form. Invoice’s method rejects hue however implicitly maintains the thought of selectivity: that bass sometimes are selective within the bait they feed on. I, for causes I’ve said above, don’t consider that selectivity is a feeding striper technique more often than not; subsequently, I don’t really feel the necessity to cowl a spread of hues or worth contrasts when fishing at night time. As a substitute, I inventory my plug bag to focus on totally different depths, profiles, and vibration ranges.

When Colour Does Matter: Predominate Baits

There’s one state of affairs the place I consider a lure’s hue or worth might make an necessary distinction. This happens when there’s a huge quantity of a single sort of bait. Curiously, it does so in contradictory methods. Generally, the fish are locked in on a predominant bait, so matching its hue or worth might present a pronounced benefit. At different occasions, throwing a lure that clearly stands out and contrasts from the predominate bait can even enhance strike charges.

I consider that when striped bass are feeding on a single predominate bait, they turn into “tuned” to that one bait. It’s as if the atmosphere is stimulating or hitting one notice again and again till it triggers a tipping level for a bass’ innate capability to lock in on that notice (bait). This happens steadily with trout. When there’s a particular insect hatch, trout might be extraordinarily selective about form, silhouette, and coloration. The method of zeroing in on the precise qualities of an completely focused prey is expounded to what ecologists confer with as “search picture.” When predators kind a search picture, they focus virtually solely on that one sort of prey by figuring out its defining options by way of silhouette, dimension, shade, and motion, in that order. Randall notes that within the hierarchy of search-image standards for fish, silhouette and dimension are extra necessary than shade (hue) and motion. Presumably, focusing completely on the precise traits of a single bait when it’s overwhelmingly prevalent, and virtually no different baits are current, supplies an adaptive benefit. This state of affairs briefly converts striped bass from generalist to specialist predators. It stays open to query if shade makes practically as a lot distinction as silhouette and dimension in these circumstances.

But, the alternative might be true as nicely. There are occasions when there’s a lot of 1 bait that one of the simplest ways to get the eye of a striper is to toss something that stands out. One concept I’ve been contemplating is that distinction might be interesting when there’s one predominate bait in a restricted space, however when there are different baits round, the fish will not be solely conditioned to deal with only one.

I’ve had a day on the Cape Cod Canal when mackerel had been getting blasted in entrance of me, but I did very nicely with white Stick Shadds. I clearly did higher than others round me. The white plugs stood out within the mass of inexperienced mackerel.

When an angler is out-fishing others round him, there might be many components at work, so some warning is required earlier than leaping to conclusions. I repeated that have the subsequent day at a barely totally different canal location, which provides a bit extra anecdotal proof. Though this relates extra to profile and dimension, I’ve had success throwing massive plugs and comfortable plastics round huge colleges of small bait comparable to white bait or peanut bunker. The precept is similar, nevertheless, to attempt to stand out in an unlimited quantity of a single bait.

Previous concepts die slowly, and new ones take time to be assimilated. Getting enthusiastic about a tremendous paint job or fishy-looking shade is enjoyable, whereas logic and science generally is a little bit of a moist blanket. This doesn’t imply that utilizing purpose grounded in biology isn’t beneficial, nevertheless it may imply that, like lure shade, it might not matter till it does.