My buddy is telling me that smallmouth only really see the outline of the bait, and that all the different colors, flash and flake etc are gimmicks. If true, this is going to cause me to rewrite everything I have been doing in terms of lure selection.  
 

I get bored with plain, dull solid colors like green pumpkin. Does it really work that much better than Canada Craw or Goby Bryant? Also how can this be true if chartreuse has such an established use?

Maybe, but sometimes color is critical.

Bass (including smallmouth) have rods and cones in their eyes. Rods enable black and white vision (and shades of grey). Cones help distinguish various intensities of color. They do have a fixed focus pupil...but they have the ability to move their lens in and out to achieve focus.

1 hour ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Is it true that a smallmouth’s vision is based on profiles and not on colors?

No. But it is true that color is usually not that important. Chartreuse is a good color for most fish because most fish's eyes can see it well, even when they don't see it as chartreuse. It is also true that shape and size are often important.

1 hour ago, roadwarrior said:

Maybe, but sometimes color is critical.

So true - When the fish are really agressive, color is not that important.  When they're not, just the color of flakes in a green pumkin senko will make the difference:  not between 0 fish and 10 fish, but between 5 fish and 10 fish.  It happened with two anglers fishing in the same boat... and I was one of them.

2 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

Maybe, but sometimes color is critical.

Isn’t it sort of one or the other, that is either they can see color or they can’t?

 

1 hour ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Isn’t it sort of one or the other, that is either they can see color or they can’t?

Smallmouth bass can see colors, according to what I've read, medium red through green is what they see best.  That covers lighter reds, orange, chartreuse and green.  As you move through darker reds, blues, purple, greens, they would look the same as black.  If you look at older Rapala minnow lures, they're fairly simple a dark back, silver or white on the bottom.   

Color can make a difference with lures or jigs.  If I look at my lure box, most of my minnow lures have those colors in them.  One of my most effective lure colors is fire tiger, which you don't see mentioned a lot on the board.  Bright or fluorescent orange, yellow and green combination.  Shape has role.  Long, thin lures are good minnow imitations.  Wide body lures are good if there are shad or sunfish in the lake.  Depending on what type of soft plastic I'm using, I will normally use a chartreuse jig, unless I'm bottom bouncing I use darker colors.

Another thing to consider is the depth and clarity of the water.  That will impact how the color of the lure or jig is seen.  

So to answer your question, smallies can see colors.

Just to throw this out there and play devils advocate for a minute...your friend that speaks with such authority has clearly figured out how these fish work so well that he's throwing one color lure and winning tournament after tournament and writing in peer reviewed scientific journals about this stuff right?

 

Any information you are given on bass from the overwhelming majority of sources can be safely considered anecdotal and personal experience, it may be true, but it might be a bunch of bull too, be very careful building a house on such quicksand.

Absolutely not true. Smallmouth in clear water can see. This is why they get very curious about bright/unnatural colors in their environment. For example a clown or firetiger crankbait will pique their curiosity and they will travel substantial distances to see what the heck that thing is, and maybe try to eat it. 

5 hours ago, Ohioguy25 said:

Isn’t it sort of one or the other, that is either they can see color or they can’t?

When you are real hungry does it make a difference between Burger King and Mc Donald ?  When you are not maybe it does !!!

6 hours ago, Reel said:

So true - When the fish are really agressive, color is not that important.  When they're not, just the color of flakes in a green pumkin senko will make the difference:  not between 0 fish and 10 fish, but between 5 fish and 10 fish.  It happened with two anglers fishing in the same boat... and I was one of them.

Something like flakes would be really far down my list of explanations for this one. Lure location, water entry (sound and splash) differences, and differences (even subtle) in how each person was working the lure is far more likely.

I know this is a old post but I wanted to share some of my knowledge. Color is not nearly as important for smallmouth as it if for other fish in my experience. I've seen fish eat pink and chartreuse and all manner of color in the clearest water imaginable, and they sometimes eat it better than more natural color. It comes down to pressure and clarity, color means more to fish that see lures more often, and it's probably a good idea to match the forage as closely as possible with them. Less pressured fish don't seem to care, and for me I just try to pick colors that are most visible in the water conditions. So silver, white, pink, whatever you want in the clearer water. I've seen smallmouth swim from like 30ft away to eat something, and they rely way more on their sight than their largemouth counterparts. Murkier water and lowlight conditions is where darker colors come in because their silhouette is way easier to spot in the water. So I guess is what I'm trying to say is don't sweat color for unpressured fish, smallmouth are still just fish and they aren't too bright. More "educated" or pressured fish, I would be more concerned with using lighter lines and the most natural presentations.

Hello Alex and Welcome to Bass Resource ~

Bringing back older threads can often inspire some discussion.

The subject of bait color has been hashed over here a few times over the years.

While I can respect your opinion on the matter,

I don't exactly share it.

I fish clear water SMB quite a bit and haphazardly selecting bait color would see me catching far fewer fish.

I would agree that bait size, profile, presentation depth, and speed all come before my color choice.

But once it's all dialed in, there can be carnage.

A-Jay

I’ll have to agree with @A-Jay 100%. My smallmouth experience is pretty much regulated to 30 years fishing Wisconsin and St Clair for bronzebacks. A staple bait is a dropshot and I’ll use it as an example. I’m not discounting shape but color, beyond just shades, it vitally important. I have probably 20 different colors of Yamamoto Shad Shape Worms which is my preferred dropshot bait. It’s always a crapshoot which color will produce any given year on St Clair. It can even be which color flake on 5 different green pumpkin based Shad Shape Worms. It’s proven itself over and over again. It’s the same with Senkos and DShads as well and the reason I have 100 pounds of plastics in my truck for every trip.

I agree with you guys on color. My main smallmouth baits are jigs, ZinkerZs, and TDRs. I don’t even know how many colors of each that I have.

18 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

I agree with you guys on color. My main smallmouth baits are jigs, ZinkerZs, and TDRs. I don’t even know how many colors of each that I have.

how do you keep the turds from melting together? ive wasted a fair amount of money trying to store those things in ANYTHING other than the regular bag lol

The best way to keep them from melting is to get rid of them!

Seriously. There are so many brands of quality plastics out there that there's no reason to deal with that hot mess. I threw all mine away years ago and never looked back!

1 hour ago, jermination2.0 said:

how do you keep the turds from melting together? ive wasted a fair amount of money trying to store those things in ANYTHING other than the regular bag lol

Flambeau boxes are what I store Elaztech baits in. They don’t melt if you keep regular plastics away from them.

12 hours ago, Alex.m said:

It comes down to pressure and clarity, color means more to fish that see lures more often, and it's probably a good idea to match the forage as closely as possible with them

Some of us like to say “match the hatch” & in fishing I don’t believe truer words were ever spoken..

While Bass see color, they don't see it as we do... You also have to take into account how colors interact with depleting light as you go down in depth, etc... Clarity of water, etc... LOT of variables to what a Bass sees.

They have a hard time depicting say chartreuse from white, they largely look the same, but they can see reds and greens quite well.

Basically if it isn't red or green, most light colors will look similar and most dark colors will look similar to them, key word, "similar", not exact.

There are certainly scenarios where a dark colored lure will be seen easier and thus maybe catch more fish, but the same holds true for light colored lures, time and place.

17 hours ago, Glenn said:

The best way to keep them from melting is to get rid of them!

Seriously. There are so many brands of quality plastics out there that there's no reason to deal with that hot mess. I threw all mine away years ago and never looked back!

I have been leaning this way. I've not had the same success with the TRD in the past year as i did in the past. Its quite a high maintenance bait. I don't plan to buy anymore in the future.

It is my opinion that SMB have strong color preferences, in addition to using other cues to determine whether to eat. It may also depend on the water. On Lake St Clair I don't think any color other than green is necessary to catch SMB. That indicates the importance of color.

I know that red is the color they see most, and the chartreuse color looks white to them

From my experience, lure profile is much more important than color. However, in certain conditions, color definitely comes into play. I find this especially true in low, clear conditions.

Unless I need very clear contrast, like in low visibility or low light conditions, I always try and throw a natural color.

With that said, you could likely get away with throwing white, black, and green colored lures.