I know Chartruse shows up better in stained water but exactly do bass see when looking at that color. I have heard it shows as a bright white to bass. Does anyone really know?

From what we understand about bass vision, they percieve colors much as we do.

Be that as it may, the day it was printed that largemouth bass are not color-blind,

was the worst day in the history of bass fishing!!

Today, anglers have a strong tendency to credit their good luck

and blame their bad luck on "lure colors", while neglecting far more important details.

Roger

i think it has to do with darwin's theory of natural selection. if a bass see something that looks like a nice healty baitfish and then right next to it there is something that is and oddball green looking thing the bass would rather not waste energy chaseing a healty meal down when it can take the unhealthy green one. its like its used to seeing live silver healthy minnows so once you put a green one in its face it thinks it is sick or hurt or something. again this makes it a lot easier to eat.

Being retired is great.  I have nothing better to do than float around in my canoe and fish or just look at the world.  I have noticed that when bluegills turn sharply their is a flash in a definite chartruese color.  I suspect other forage fish also have this coloration somewhere.

This leads me to speculate that chartruese is a "trigger" color for bass.  Perhaps when the bluegill is injured it swims in such a way as to make the chartruese more prominent.  Anyway, that's my theory.

Plus it brings out the color of their eyes.  

Since the issue has come up about what colors bass see and all,I have a good  ? I think.Cajun red line advertises that red is harder for the fish to see because red is the first color water filters out,so why all the latest rage about red hooks if they can't see it anyway?

            As for the chartruese,it works for me and the bass seem to like it in the right conditions.

              Maybe with all this technology we'll be able to see thru the bass's eyes someday,lol.

I don't know why but I have seen that smallmouth definitely show a preference towards chartruse a lot of the time. Maybe someone else knows exactly why?

:-X   You are all talking through your dorsal fin, as we say down here.  None of you has even once thought of asking us.  Chartreuse, shmartreus.  Lures are made to catch YOU, not US.  Probably any odd color just makes you guys think about sex.  Now listen:  we don't like ANY of your lures.  In fact, the only time one of us gets caught is when we are yawning with boredom and your hook happens to fall in some poor fish's mouth.  Occasionally we might be distracted while discussing quantum mechanics or the history of consciousness.  Now, do you see that nice bottle of Jack Daniels sitting there on your boat seat?  Ignore the line attached to it.  That-a-boy.  Just pick it up . . . .

--R. B. Bass

----------------------------------------------

"You can't see under the water until you know what's there."  - R.B.      

I had togo to my book "WHAT FISH SEE" for this answer.  BASS QUOTES >

"BASS can hunt,swim,fight and establish territory without vision"

"BASS can see color and details well"

Chartreuse is a "FLUORESCENT " type color. (Same family color). When Fluoresents are used  , they are usually used as an accent to set off the color of natural bait. This was mentioned in above post about panfish flashing colors.   By the way . since bass are of the sunfish family > blue gill and sunfish prefer red and orange colors on flys . Just thought I'd add that.   The book > WHAT FISH SEE " is a study of color and fish types response used in making mepps spinners.  Nice book to study if you make your own lures.

I don't know why but I have seen that smallmouth definitely show a preference towards chartruse a lot of the time. Maybe someone else knows exactly why?

I have also found that to be true Paparock, in fact, practically all my smallmouth bass lures

sport at least some chartreuse color (largemouth lures too, when available).

Among other lure manufacturers, Mepps has studied the underwater visibility of colors.

Many years ago it was found that chartreuse was the "only" color to be easily seen

in both clear water and muddy water (rather unique).

No matter how enticing the lure may be, if the fish fails to see the lure, there will be no strike.

I don't believe that fish are turned on by the color chartreuse, I believe that chartreuse lures

may be more productive because they're more visible than most other colors

[ BTW: Orange is another highly visible color, but unlike chartreuse, it is grossly overlooked by anglers ]

Roger

I've never had any luck with Chartreuse.  

I've noticed that baby crappies, baby bluegill and baby pumpkinseed's all have a bright belly often yellow or chartreuse.  I don't know if that has something to do with it or not.

I have to say Red has not helped me one bit.  We're a pretty diverse group, somebody should form a poll question about this issue.

Since the issue has come up about what colors bass see and all,I have a good ? I think.Cajun red line advertises that red is harder for the fish to see because red is the first color water filters out,so why all the latest rage about red hooks if they can't see it anyway?

            As for the chartruese,it works for me and the bass seem to like it in the right conditions.

            Maybe with all this technology we'll be able to see thru the bass's eyes someday,lol.

It's funny you mentioned this I was thinking the same thing yesterday.  I wondered if instead of the bass thinking it is blood, it just makes the lure look more realistic because the hook disappears due to the red and them not seeing it.  But then I got to thinking, why are there red Rat L Traps, and other red lures.  Then I just stopped wondering becuase it just started confusing me more and continued to fish.  

Great question.  Last week I was fishing and the minute I would stop using the chartruese, they quit biting, the minute I change back, they start up again.  I just need to start using it more often.

What do bass see in  chartruese?   A lot of bait fish have charttruese fins and tails or very similar in color.  

As offered by most studies, chartruese is one of the colors most easily seen by fish in all types of water.

All the above replies are correct in one way or another but also chartruse does appear as a very bright white to fish in certain depths and colors of water. As water gets deeper or more stained certain colors are filtered out while others stay. Blue is one of the last colors to get filtered out which is why in summer crankbaits with blue backs are very popular. Red is one of the first and turns black in deep water which is why red hooks on a deep crank are a waste of time. To a fish living in deep water the color chartruse is filtered out and it appears as a very bright white which is more visible to those fish living in deeper water. So on a deep crankbait that is chartruse with a blue back the fish sees a very bright white with a blue back. To fish living in deeper water looking up at a chartruse spinnerbait going over top of them they see a brighter white lure so it has more visibility and can call fish up to strike it from a farther distance than just plain white which starts to appear more greyish or a dull white than plain white at deeper depths. Think of fish living in deep or stained water as living in a black and white world for the most part. Another way to see kind of what a fish sees in chartruse is to take a black and white photo of the bait and look how bright the white color it turns is. Also red shad worms and plain black worms look just the same to fish in deep or stained water. So some people fishing black and red shad dont always need both colors.

I wondered if instead of the bass thinking it is blood, it just makes the lure look more realistic because the hook disappears due to the red and them not seeing it

Again, the color red disappears, yes, but not the object. If a red object happens to be transparent

like fishing line, then in 4' of water the red color may be gone but the fishing line will still be visible.

If the red object is an opaque lure, then in deep water the red may disappear but not the object.

In subdued light (deep water - murky water - twilight) red objects turn to a non-descript black

(deep charcoal), but certainly do not disappear. On the contrary, depending on lighting conditions,

a black object is often more visible to a fish than a red object. In fact, in very deep water and at night,

black is the "most" visible color. By now I'm sure, everyone knows that. We don't use black lures

at night because bass are turned on by the color "black". We use black lures at night

because they are the most visible against the lighted sky above.

There is no mystery at all to any of this. All colors disappear eventually, but red disappears first.

Colors disappear in the exact order of the color spectrum that we see in a every rainbow:

Red - Orange - Yellow - Green - Blue - Indigo - Violet

Again, that's why the sky is blue, because it's penetrates the entire atmosphere

and reaches our eyes after all the other colors have been filtered out.

Roger