Every year at the start of the new predator season, the shelves of local tackle shops fill up with an almost endless selection of lures in countless shapes — and above all, colours.
Lure boxes are packed to the brim, and once you finally reach the water, the first order of business is carefully picking what feels like the most productive colour for that particular venue. But does colour actually influence how many fish you catch? What criteria should you use when choosing a lure colour? A while back, we published a blog post covering the basics of lure colour selection based on light intensity, sun angle, water clarity and depth. Those guidelines are physically sound and often produce the results you're after — but they've never been put to a scientific test.
Since this topic genuinely fascinates me, I went looking for empirical evidence and came across a group of Canadian researchers. In 2015, these biologists published a study examining the influence of lure colour on catch rate (more precisely, 'catch per unit effort' — the number of fish caught relative to time spent fishing), the size of fish caught, and the injuries sustained by fish during the catch via the hook — in other words, whether lure colour affects how deeply a fish swallows the lure.
The Significance of 'Catch Per Unit Effort'
The research group studied largemouth bass, a species that is both common and heavily fished in that region. Like the perch, zander and pike we target here, the largemouth bass is a visual predator — so lure colour ought to influence its hunting and feeding behaviour, if such a relationship exists at all.
Earlier experiments on colour perception in largemouth bass have shown that these fish perceive colours in much the same way a person would through yellow-tinted sunglasses.
They can distinguish red, green, yellow and blue independently, but struggle to tell blue and green apart when both are present. The biologists ran the study over 17 days in the summer of 2014, fishing exclusively with unflavoured worm imitations 12.7 cm in length across three colour categories:
- dark: black and blue;
- natural: red and wasp (pink-shrimp);
- light: orange and white.
Eight anglers worked the lures very passively, with long sink phases and slow retrieves.
Across the entire study, 119 largemouth bass were caught in total: 25 on blue, 23 on black, 22 on white, 17 on wasp, 16 on orange and 16 on red. According to the researchers, this produced no significant relationship between lure colour and the number of fish caught.
Equally, how deeply a fish swallowed the lure showed no connection to colour. Interestingly, however, the colours in the 'light' category did demonstrably catch larger fish. Sadly, this is the only scientific study on the subject that could be found. Given the small sample size and the fact that only one species in a single lake was examined, the results obviously can't be applied to other waters and conditions without caution.
Even so, the study is food for thought — does your favourite colour catch well simply because you trust it, or because you fish it the most (see above: 'unit effort')? Ultimately, that's something every angler has to decide for themselves, at least until more representative research on the subject exists.
The 'Match the Hatch' Approach
My own experience — and I suspect that of most of you — often tells a different story to the study. Take the classic principle of 'match the hatch': it frequently seems to work. At the very start of this perch season, which for me began on the small lakes of the Mecklenburg Lake District, finding the right lure was extremely difficult. The water was still quite cold and clear, so we worked our way through all manner of lure shapes and colours before the first bite. When it came, it was ferociously aggressive — up to that point we'd written the perch off as too lethargic. The lure that cracked it was an Easy Shiner in Red Crawdad, a muted brown-red.
The Shade Makes All the Difference
From that point on, we focused our efforts on the key spots using brownish colour patterns — and sure enough, with the Easy Shiner, Magenbitter Manni, Fat T-Tail Minnow and Shad Teez in Motor Oil, we were fooling at least one small perch on almost every cast. On other colours of the same lures, nothing happened at all.
Have you had similar experiences? Do you see the need for a wide range of colour patterns, or do you stick to just a handful? For me, browsing for new lures in different shapes and colours ahead of the next fishing trip is genuinely enjoyable — and I think it's just as much a part of the hobby as catching a fish itself.
I'd love to read your comments, feedback and personal stories below this post!
Take care and tight lines, Lieske
