Lure Colors Pt 3: How Waves Affect Lure Color Visibility

Hi, I'm Greg Vinall. Welcome to Part 3 of our series on selecting lure colors In this video we will look at something that may seem a little strange: How wind affects the way fish see color! That’s right! Wind creates surface conditions that change the way fish see color! Surface conditions can affect light penetration, and that affects lure color selection Now, for those viewers that haven't seen Parts 1 and 2 of this series Please click on the link above or visit our website www.makewoodenlures.com/color.html This video builds on the others in lure color selection series, so you need to watch parts 1 and 2 first Previously we talked about how white light is made of many wavelengths Each wavelength is interpreted by our eyes as a different color We also talked about how these wavelengths are absorbed differentially So some colors disappear and can't be seen even in shallow water And other colors penetrate deeper into the water In this video we are going to explore how wind disturbance changes the penetration of light And that in turn changes the way fish see color and hence what color lures we should use Imagine that this box represents a water body And that these arrows represent sunlight from above Notice that as the light penetrates the water That the arrows become thinner That represents that some of the light is lost to absorption and reflection, so the light becomes less strong with depth These are arbitrary lines that indicate the maximum depth To which the light can penetrate Ok, lets look at how wind ripple changes light penetration In this example you can see that the sunlight No longer strikes a nice, flat water surface So under these conditions you might expect That the light penetration might look like this Lets take a closer look at this. We might expect that the light that strikes the peak of a ripple Wouldn't penetrate as deep into the water And that light striking the troughs between ripples Might penetrate a little deeper into the water So overall, if we look along the line at the penetration depth You would probably say that light was penetrating slightly less deep Of course, in the real world things are more complicated! So lets take a look at what actually happens The first thing to know is that the light that strikes the peaks And the troughs between peaks Does penetrate vertically as you had expected But, it's the only light that does penetrate vertically Light that strikes water surfaces that aren't horizontal Will behave very differently So lets take one beam as an example and see what it does Rather than penetrate vertically, the sloped surface cause light The water causes the light to be bent, or refracted Not only is the light bent, but it is also split, with some being reflected away Notice that the arrows are very thin, highlighting that light has been lost The reflected light then sometimes strikes the side of the next wave And is again split, with some reflected away and some refracted And each time the light splits, some is lost Lets put all that together and look at the overall picture We have our vertical light coming down A small amount of which can penetrate vertically The rest is refracted or reflected And the relected light is refracted or reflected a second time And the result is that much less light reaches that nominal depth Once again, the thin arrows show loss of light So even though there are lots of lines crossing The strength of the light is much reduced Now lets see how things change when conditions become rougher And the waves start to stand up higher Once again we have our white light striking from above Notice that the horizontal areas are less and the sides are steeper So there is less opportunity for light to penetrate vertically The steeper angle causes increase refraction of light There is also greater reflection, which causes secondary refraction So when the waves really start to stand up, light penetration Is seriously reduced and much less gets to that bottom line What about ocean swells that are high but more spaced out? Once again, our vertical light strikes the waves But in this case the sides of the waves are less steep Vertical light penetration happens once again at the peaks and troughs Refraction also happens but is less severe With reflection and secondary refraction With our lines back in you can see that Spacing waves out but keeping their height the same More light gets to that depth than when the waves are steeper So it's not just wave height, but also distance that is important Lets get onto the important stuff - lure color selection Here we have the multi colored lure we used in the previous videos And the multiple colored wavelengths that make white light When we drop that lure into the water in still, clear water conditions The red parts of the lure start to lose their color at around 5m (15ft) But the loss of light due to waves makes the red disappear sooner And the same applies to each of the other lure colors Oranges are the next to disappear from the lure And you can see that the same goes for every lure color The rougher the surface conditions, the faster lure colors vanish When you put them side by side you can see that Rough conditions cause a lot of colors to lose visibility In Part 4 of this lure color series we'll start to look at how dirty water Changes light penetration and hence changes lure color selection Visit our website for more on the science of lure color selection