salmo
Well-known member
I saw this on YouTube and immediately thought of Troutbert. It’s a little dense. I’m going to watch it again.
Trout and Color
- Thread starter salmo
- Start date
I saw this on YouTube and immediately thought of Troutbert. It’s a little dense. I’m going to watch it again.
salmo
Well-known member
Troutbert has been a advocate of adding green to any dubbing blend.
Tigereye
Well-known member
Interesting. But what makes a trout identify something as food. Most aquatic nymphs/ larvae fall in the range of olive brown through dark brown. Something off that color spectrum certainly will stand out and be noticed (hot spots?) Does size shape and movement then close the deal? Sort of like a prey animal losing it's camo being the first to be eaten?
wildtrout2
Well-known member
I'd think that would depend on the time of year and what food options are available at that time?
Tabasco-Joe
Active member
Watch any videos you can find from Wendel "Ozzie" Ozefovich.
Trout will sit in a lie and sample food looking items as they come by. Some obvious non-food materials get rejected. Wood, plant matter, plastics, etc. But not all. I've seen stomach pump contents that include some non-food items, so they clearly ingest some. My theory is that as a specific food item becomes more common in the water flow the trout "learn" that the shape/color/taste is food and concentrate on that item as it minimizes wasted energy. Once the "hatch" recedes, the trout go back to sampling anything that resembles food.
Tigereye
Well-known member
I once gutted a stockie that was chock full of hemlock needles. Green and roughly the size of free living caddis.
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I don't recall saying that. But I do advocate the color green for green inchworm patterns when you see green inchworms around.
It would be interesting to tie the inchworm pattern in a shade of gray that has about the same degree of darkness/lightness and see if the trout hit is as readily as they do the green inchworm.
If anyone tries that, please let us know the results.
dudemanspecial
Well-known member
Interesting stuff. I question if a trout's brain processes the information from their eyes the same way we do?
Tigereye
Well-known member
Their brain is the size of a pea. I recon that it processes information much like alot of people in this world.😁
salmo
Well-known member
Oholi on YouTube posted a video recently saying that red was the most easily seen color by fish. I’m going to try a few of these:
wildtrout2
Well-known member
Maybe that's why the Royal Coachman and Royal Wulff work as well as they do?
salmo
Well-known member
Probably. But based on my previous post the visibility of any particular particular color depends on water depth
Bamboozle
Well-known member
I could feed more than a few folks on trout I've caught on flies that were chartreuse. I never saw a chartreuse bug, bait fish or anything else chartreuse, yet...
I love to match the color of natural insects when I tie my flies, but I also use a lot of Ice Dub which looks like something a hooker would wear, and the fish love it...
Why does an all white sculpin work on a stream where all the sculpins are brown or why does the all white Sulphur I tie work as good as the yellow versions?
As much as I want to believe and as much as I won't change my behavior when it comes to giving significance to color, in my heart I know that size, silhouette and presentation trump everything...
I love to match the color of natural insects when I tie my flies, but I also use a lot of Ice Dub which looks like something a hooker would wear, and the fish love it...
Why does an all white sculpin work on a stream where all the sculpins are brown or why does the all white Sulphur I tie work as good as the yellow versions?
As much as I want to believe and as much as I won't change my behavior when it comes to giving significance to color, in my heart I know that size, silhouette and presentation trump everything...
dudemanspecial
Well-known member
Agree with everything you said but I would say inchworms and some caddis larve are chartreuse.
Bamboozle
Well-known member
Insect green versus chartreuse but of course, the color blind trout are none the wiser... 😉
Your theory ties in nicely with ecological theory. Predators develop what’s called a search image and this, as you say, improves capture efficiency.
Can’t see what you posted, but I assume it was related to the order of color extinction with increasing depth, specifically R, O, Y, G, B, V., which is easily recalled as a name, Roy G Bv, using mnemonics.
Nymph-wristed
Well-known member
Red would disappear in deeper, darker water, be black basically. Your point about water depth seems important.
5footfenwick
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2006
- Messages
- 364
This might seem weird and probably wrong.
But I always figured fish could see the color that they are, really well and feed on it.
Rainbows like pink and silver. Browns like tan and largemouth like green and black, smallmouth like gold and brown. Brook trout like orange and red and white.
Two reasons I think this is.
Firstly they grow up with food that color, other smaller fish of their same species.
Secondly during spawning I think the female chooses the most vibrantly colored male?
Well how does she know? Unless she can see those colors quite well.
~5footfenwick
But I always figured fish could see the color that they are, really well and feed on it.
Rainbows like pink and silver. Browns like tan and largemouth like green and black, smallmouth like gold and brown. Brook trout like orange and red and white.
Two reasons I think this is.
Firstly they grow up with food that color, other smaller fish of their same species.
Secondly during spawning I think the female chooses the most vibrantly colored male?
Well how does she know? Unless she can see those colors quite well.
~5footfenwick
Tabasco-Joe
Active member
I also believe it varies by species. For whatever reason I've had more success with chartreus on Brook trout than others. I've had some success with blue on Browns. I'd say red for rainbows. It might even differ among strains of the same species.
