Debate colour

[oldessox]

I'm a great believer in movement or "action" in a lure , and in clear water with good visibility I'm sure colour makes a difference , but in 300ft of murky north sea water can a blue 4" shad really outfish a white one fished the same way?
I doubt it , and the same goes for pirks , I've spent a fortune on "pretty" pirks over the last couple of years only to find that a whitby ripper type of pirk in plain lead with no colour , no muppets , and a bare hook catches just as many fish as a glow in the dark flourescent raibow coloured whistles and bells super pirk ..........and I can buy 4 whitbys for the price of one of the latter. I've started making my own pirks and lead weights , much cheaper and fun too , I feel like painting them , but I'm sure I'm wasting my time and money doing so.
I'm convinced the cod either sense movement through their lateral lines or smell baits at that sort of depth , and probably much shallower water as well.
Paddle tail shads and twintails give off a vibration in the water that I'm sure must attract predators and heavy pirks dropping through the last few feet of water must give off some sort of vibe as well ............. but colour
Nah! , I bought some molds in a kit with reflective stickers and stick on eyes , they worked great till the wrecks ate them , I've made more since and fished them bare lead , same results ............ I'm not going to waste my time painting them. What do you think?

 

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

In deep murky water I totally agree , but you may as well paint them so you're covered for shallower , clearer areas.

ORANGE would have to be my colour of choice.

 

[The Jester]

I'm sure Deano will have his say on the colour debate. He is an avid fan of Orange and has regularly outfished lads on the same boat using different colours. I copied these earlier this year and my catch rate went up.

There will be visibility in 200 ft of water so long as there hasn't been a major stir up, if the water is murky, then i agree the fish probably pick up the movement of the pirk. I dont often fish 300 ft so couldn't comment

As long as the water clarity is cleanish, then i'll carry on decorating, if its murky, then it's bait for me............good post Ray...

 

[lingking]

orange is a good colour for sure,be it pirk or muppet or peel:exclam:

i tend to use shiney rippers fpr the ground,(shallow water), once into deeper water anything goes,my favorite being electrical conduit,cut to various lengths and filled with lead

 

[oldessox]

Light Spectrum.
Water selectively scatters and absorbs certain wavelengths of visible light. The long wavelengths of the light spectrum—red, yellow, and orange—can penetrate to approximately 15, 30, and 50 meters (49, 98, and 164 feet), respectively, while the short wavelengths of the light spectrum—violet, blue and green—can penetrate further, to the lower limits of the euphotic zone. Blue penetrates the deepest, which is why deep, clear ocean water and some tropical water appear to be blue most of the time. Moreover, clearer waters have fewer particles to affect the transmission of light, and scattering by the water itself controls color. Water in shallow coastal areas tends to contain a greater amount of particles that scatter or absorb light wavelengths differently, which is why sea water close to shore may appear more green or brown in color.

I pinched this from a water science article , it seems orange will be one of the first colours to vanish , in our north sea the clarity of the water is poor to say the least , so that will make it even worse , then we have the waves and chop that always seems to be there refracting light even more , I don't think it makes one jot of difference what colour a pirk or a shad is when it's fished past 30mtrs , I believe it's movement or smell that attracts a fish , probably even when we are fishing at 50 and 60 ft , though I might be convinced to change a shad colour in this depth if the bloke next to me was outfishing me with a different colour , I'd be more likely to watch how he was working the lure though, how far off bottom , how fast a retrieve etc.
I reckon this is why we catch more ling with bait and more cod on shads , the ling are hunting more by smell and the cod more by vibration , of course the ling will grab at a lure flashing past it's nose and the cod will still sense a baited lure or hook either way.
Another point worth mentioning is the lack of bites when a shad is tangled and not working properly , even orange ones don't attract a bite if they are just being dragged through the water in a lump wrapped up in line .
It's interesting that a lot of anglers reccommend blue shads though , and this is the colour that travels the deepest , is this because the fish can see the blue , or just that more anglers are using blue so more are caught on blue???
Apparently a predator can tell all kinds of things about the movement of something in the water by sensory nerves in it's lateral line , so size might be an important factor (no matter what the wife says) , ?
It's all worth thinking about , specially when the bloke next to you is catching ad you are not , colour might have nothing to do with it

 

[The Jester]

You should have put that article in orange print Ray, so we can see it better

 

[The Jester]

orange is a good colour for sure,be it pirk or muppet or peel:exclam:

i tend to use shiney rippers fpr the ground,(shallow water), once into deeper water anything goes,my favorite being electrical conduit,cut to various lengths and filled with lead

Electrical conduit Duncan ? I always said you were a down to "earth" sort of bloke..

 

[Micky_C]

I totally agree with you Ray.

Graham would only fish with blue shads when we first started using them as that is what was widely reported as being the colour that catches.

I would deliberately use a different colour, pink, orange, green and catch just as many (if not more fish ).

Now we use all colours, shapes and different types of tail action, they all catch.

I believe it is all about movement and vibration and therefore the action that you use with rod and reel. I have never had a take on a tangled shad and can tell when it is tangled due to lack of fish.

People do seem to copy tactics / colours but i think it is more to do with the way you fish and also changing tactics to suit the conditions.


I will be out tomorrow, Graham is celebrating the berth of baby number 4!

 

[bushwacker]

No point

No point

after a certain depth no point of colour out of burnmouth just over the border into scotland on a boat one day lad next to me used nothing but muppets made of black bin liner he caught the same as me and not to mention norwegian murderers banned in most competitions :

 

[oldessox]

You should have put that article in orange print Ray, so we can see it better

I was going to put it in white to get my point across , but I couldn't work out how to make it vibrate so you could read it

 

[oldessox]

I totally agree with you Ray.

Graham would only fish with blue shads when we first started using them as that is what was widely reported as being the colour that catches.

I would deliberately use a different colour, pink, orange, green and catch just as many (if not more fish ).

Now we use all colours, shapes and different types of tail action, they all catch.

I believe it is all about movement and vibration and therefore the action that you use with rod and reel. I have never had a take on a tangled shad and can tell when it is tangled due to lack of fish.

People do seem to copy tactics / colours but i think it is more to do with the way you fish and also changing tactics to suit the conditions.


I will be out tomorrow, Graham is celebrating the berth of baby number 4!

Hasn't he done enough celebrating with the other 3 , congratulations to him and his partner I might see you out there Micky , I havn't decided yet but if I do get out I'm keeping away from you , I got showed up enough the last time we shared a wreck :red: , joking of course

 

[lingking]

Hasn't he done enough celebrating with the other 3 , congratulations to him and his partner I might see you out there Micky , I havn't decided yet but if I do get out I'm keeping away from you , I got showed up enough the last time we shared a wreck :red: , joking of course

if you have any sense you will keep away from us us too:exclam::exclam:,

but not because you would be shown up

 

[kingcod deano]

I Think it is down to colours i have fished with lads using all diffrent colours and Orange always comes out ontop even in 180ft probs the main reason is because of the amount of squat lobsters in our reason the bigger cod love them its a but like if i was targeting a ling i would use a silver shiney pirk as they feed on mackerell its all about imatating what the fish is eating its like every other fishing u do i mean if you fish for trout you Dont use peeler crab etc

 

[Blanked again]

I think colour only plays a part in shallower, clearer water. In the deeper water it seems to be the movement & action that does the trick as i have been on boats where a lot of anglers are using the same lures/pirks but the ones working them seem to be the ones that catch the fish no matter what the colour.
Interesting thread though

 

[The Great Wallsendo]

On a day when going was tough and all colours, shapes and sizes had been tried I changed tactics based on the following:

The sky was cloudless blue and the water was gin clear - I surmised that maybe a blue/mackerel type sad would work (hitherto not used)

Two fish later on the same drift/same shad the fish "stopped" taking it...now I either caught the only two fish on the wreck or I'd landed in front of their nose each time and the whole colour choice vs conditions thing was a fluke

I agree that shape and movement has a huge part to play - prob even more so than colour when fishing at depth but sometimes we maybe need to not forget the part that fresh bait has to play...I noted from one of Norms reports (on a week I wasn't fishing) that he had struggled all day on his now favourite shads...as soon as he switched to the, what is now considered "old skool" nay even classical (in some quarters at least ) tactics of orange muppets and strip of fresh macky he was gifted with a 9ld Cod.

I'll wager he'd have drifted a shad or three past that very Cods nose without it being remotely interested up to that point but as soon as something with a bit of real flavour wafted past it's nose it's interest was very much piqued.

All that said, fishing with lures is great fun and makes cleaning up at the end of the day that little bit easier as you haven't had to deal with 30 or so mackerel skitting around and make a god awful mess

Food for thought indeed...

...BTW Congrats Graham

 

[billyturbot]

1st fished with shads over 20 years ago in america,never thought they would catch on over here,Ive fished british waters for 10 years now with shads,when they 1st came out the choice was blue or gold a year later we were flooded with them last year i fished well with white 4" this year i think probs blue alaways gets a few fish and a lot fish fall to the cheap orange and green ones from the £ shop my mate paul took 20 cod on one of these last thursday and the same shad had 10 fish the day before,the best way to use them are 2ft trace and bounce over ground if you do not get a bite after bouncing 5 times wind up and drop again

 

[kayos]

You should have put that article in orange print Ray, so we can see it better

Haha, best reply Ive read, wish id thought of it, made me laugh out loud!!

As to the point of the post, I think if we knew the answer, we would all catch the same amount of fish, the lottery is part of the fun of it.....or the frustration of it............. when your girlfriend regularly whups your ass!!