Study shows that a striper’s vision is most sensitive to yellow and chartreuse.
by Jimmy Fee
Years ago, a group of fishermen tired of repainting their striper plugs were looking for a finish that would last longer. One of the fishermen, who worked for the town, painting the double yellow lines on the roads, suggested using the road paint. The heavy-duty paint not only stayed on the plugs better, but the yellow color seemed to attract more strikes. And so, the surfcasting world was introduced to the power of the yellow plug—or so the story goes.
No matter how surfcasters discovered that yellow is a killer color for striped bass lures, the fact remains, if you don’t have a wide selection of yellow plugs, you aren’t catching as many striped bass as you could be.
A study has shown that a striper’s vision is most sensitive to yellow and chartreuse.
Surfcasters have different theories as to why yellow is so effective. Some believe it imitates the fins and colors of juvenile weakfish, a favorite food for striped bass. Others say that all baitfish give off a yellow sheen when the sun is low in the sky at sunrise and sunset. Some believe that the vegetation and water in some areas put a yellow cast on the baitfish.
All could be true, but a more likely explanation is that to striped bass, yellow simply stands out. A study performed at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science showed that a striper’s vision is sensitive to a wide range of colors from blue to red, but is most sensitive to yellow and chartreuse.
I have all-yellow or yellow-over-white plugs in my plug bag on every trip into the surf, whether it’s at midnight on the night of the new moon or at midday under a bright sun, and more often than not, it’s the first color out of my plug bag.
The effectiveness of yellow isn’t limited to any one plug. Yellow darters, yellow pencils, yellow needlefish, yellow Bombers, and yellow bucktails all work, as do yellow poppers, yellow bottles, and yellow soft plastics.
As for which shade of yellow, let the water clarity and light be your guide. In broad daylight and clear water, a softer canary yellow or a yellow-over-white is the best choice. At sunrise or sunset, and in murky water, a bright yellow or chartreuse will get the most strikes. Break out those bright yellows again on full-moon nights, but switch to darker, mustard-yellow on a new moon or cloudy night.
Jut Rivera This actually isn’t true at all. Bass look for that Narragansett White. Or a flakey Peruvian snow flake off white. Not yellow
Jeffish Jimmy cites a virginia study and i dont doubt he has a crapload of experience under his wader belt. What do you base the white claim on? Could the diff be the water fished? Virginia water vs NE waters??
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Shawn HA! Flakey Peruvian!
Tony I believe he is making a cocaine joke.
Chris Kline Here’s links to two short summaries of the research. http://www.vims.edu/features/research/fish-vision.php
http://www.vims.edu/_docs/fish_vision82.pdfAdam A VIMS study? The same VIMS that does not think there is enough evidence that menhaden are overfished lol.
Bob Not according to the people I know that research there.
Will Link to the study?
Gary D I agree from years of experience , White is my color of choice .
Tiderunner I’ve found after forty years of trolling,chartreuse to be most effective color on spoons!
Jerry Dorsey I have guided for 27 years on lake Texoma, have found the live Yellow, Red, Chartreuse, White, so when I troll or cast, I use each sepretatly and I think most time they hit on instinct, so hard to pin down! I also use garlic dips in different colors and works great. Good fishing !
bunker I fly fish predominately, and my fly boxes are stacked with chartreuse, white, yellow and combos of those 3. I also find while spin fishing, white/bone/and silver work with yellow/chartreuse tied in. Its the color of the bait stripers eat…no brainer.
HAMMY Black and silver at the Cape is the choice for me. Easily the most productive color every time i make the trip!
Butch Krauth I fish the “left” Coast for Stripers since I live in Calif., but I don’t believe I catch enough fish to make a study. Whatever lure I use I leave it on the dashboard to let the Calif. sun bleach it out for a summer prior to fishing with it…….seems to work better. I fished Montauk a few years ago but hurricanes kept me fishless in NY also. Good fishing guys! Butch
Mark veduccio Proves lure fisherman have less then half the knowledge of bait fisherman
Sad for you buckosRyan Any color will work as long as its White
DONALD MCGARRY There are two important factors at work here. First is the physics of light and color. Second is the difference in the anatomy of a fishes eye and a humans eye.
What we perceive as a color is what wavelength of light that is reflected back to our eyes. Another factor is that fish live in water and we live in air. (duhhhah!) Water is better at absorbing light than air. So colors will change with depth in water. Longer wavelength colors will be absorbed first, like red. Shorter wavelength colors like blue or purple will be absorbed last. A red lure at the surface will look grey in deep water. A blue lure will still look blue at the same depth (ever notice almost all deep sea animals are reddish in color not blue when brought to the surface). So this effect must be factored into a discussion of lure color.
All animals don’t perceive light the same way. Evolution has tuned there eyes to be more sensitive to a particular range of wavelengths of light in order to survive. Most gamefish, fresh or salt water, are most sensitive to the green/blue wavelengths. Humans are most sensitive in the red/orange wavelengths. That’s why stop signs are red not green.
So if you are still reading this remember: A yellow lure on the end of your line may not look yellow to “fish eyes” and that yellow lure may not look yellow to “human eyes” in 25 feet of water.Will Whites the way to go..reel cape cod canal fisherman will agree I’m sure..ask Savage eels sales company ..most popular colors last 5 yrs… don’t be surprised if it’s ole mr.whitey
Joe GaNun I was under the impression that stripers perceived colors in tones. Like a grey scale. Different yellows vs other colors and all the millions of variations look different ( extrapolating here ). Water and depths do change those variations as we lose or gain light. Most fish have a certain flash when light hits them. Bait fish regardless of color have flash and the predators know it. Adding some kind of flash is a big help but profile seems more important than anything else IMO. I like yellow but I love a soft pink.
Joe GaNun I was under the impression that stripers perceived colors in tones. Like a grey scale. Different yellows vs other colors and all the millions of variations look different ( extrapolating here ). Water and depths do change those variations as we lose or gain light. Most fish have a certain flash when light hits them. Bait fish regardless of color have flash and the predators know it. Adding some kind of flash is a big help but profile seems more important than anything else IMO. I like yellow but I will fish pink over white all day long if I have it in the bag.
Joe Kevin’s brother
Sad but True Hilarious to see a bait fisherman putting down lure fishermen! A wood lure has more intelligence than a typical bait fisherman!
Jim It’s been a while since I read it but read Read the book a fishes eye. Written by an eye doctor. The rods and cones in their eyes are sensitive to daylight and change over to an alternate set for night. . Bass see color only during the day and have pretty poor vision. At night however, they see 20x better but only in bkack and white.
Also color is filtered out in seawater at various depths too. After reading that book you walk away that color is more in the fishermen’s eye then the fish esp it you fish at night. At night its all grey scale to fish no matter what color you fish. So I would fish black or white at night for maximum visual impact. But that doesn’t mean you can’t catch fish on green, blue or any other color.
Oh by the way, during this day/night rod/cone switch over that occurs within the bass eye, at the time of transition both sets of rods and cones are active giving the fish both excellent vision and color during the transition. The author thinks that is why fish are more active at dusk and dawn because the fish have a distinct visual advantage during those periods.Yeahbuddyfishing Every fish has a white belly.. this is why white works so well.
Darker colors on the darkest nights. Always has produced well for me. My ol man fishes green bucktail jigs. I fish blue .. some days I catch more, others he does .. some times I troll a black tube red or orange.. i will switch colors based on what’s produced each day..I think each bass has a fav color. I know largemouth bass will not eat the same worm in the same color twice.. same with strippers ?
