LMB are colour blind

[Mobi]

Not having a blue colour receptor in their vision kit, LMB cannot see blue (or any colour that has a blue component) the same way that humans see it.

For example, colour white (equal component mix of red, green and blue) is seen by we humans as white 'cos humans have the 3 colour receptors.

But LMB don't see it as white 'cos they don't have 3 colour receptors. With no blue receptor, LMB only see equal amounts of red and green making yellow

So what humans see as white, LMB see as yellow.

Extend the lack of a blue receptor to any colour that has a blue component, there are a lot of colours that humans see that LMB bass see differently.

Think about that and all that has been written and relied upon over the years as being fact, we now find isn't fact at all.


So who discovered this?

The University of Virginia's Lisa Mitchem and her team in 2018.

(PDF) Seeing red: Color vision in the largemouth bass (researchgate.net)

regards
Mobi

[Squire]

This is not new information. Dr. Keith Jones of Berkeley put out a book in 2005 "Knowing Bass, The Scientific Method to Catching more Bass". He covered this topic in detail. They figured out how to train bass to touch a button underwater for food. The went thru the spectrum of colors painstakingly and could figure out where Bass could easily detect color and where bass could not. It does explain a bit why Sexy Shad is a very good color to use sense it gets both the chartreuse and white looking bass to hit.

[PatriotAW4]

Seems like I read somewhere else that blue is a color that they can see very well and they can't see green, but I could be wrong. I know I catch a whole lot on a sapphire blue craw.

[DaveBrabec]

Bass might not see Blue as we see it but Blue baits work.

[coreynov902]

This has already been posted before, but Steve Rogers did a cool video on this subject a few months ago. Here's the video:

[Mobi]

Thanks for that coreynov902 but Steve's little video is about tritanopia when blue S cone wavelength is moved towards green M cone wavelength making it hard to distinguish between colours.

I'm talking about the complete absence of a blue receptor (S cone) not simply moving the wavelength sensitivity around from 470nm down towards green at approx 530 nm.

Only having 2 colour receptors (M & L cones) with 1 missing altogether (blue S cone). S,M & L cones refer to Short, Medium and Long wavelengths (Blue, Green and Red wavelengths).

That affects not only blue but also how bass perceive any colour at all that has a blue component in its colour mix.

You'll notice that Steve's video still shows that bass perceive blue colours.

Believe Steve is talking about something else (Tritanopia) whereas complete absence of a S cone receptor (blue) thus leaving only 2 cones that can mix together is called Dichromacy.

A lot has changed in colour research in the 22 years since Keith Jones wrote that book.

Can be confusing eh?

[Mobi]

Seems like I read somewhere else that blue is a color that they can see very well and they can't see green, but I could be wrong. I know I catch a whole lot on a sapphire blue craw.

LMB can't see blue. Both Keith Jones and Lisa Mitchem found that.

You might see it as a sapphire blue craw but a LMB sees it as a black craw. Try spraypainting a sapphire blue craw with flat black paint and try it. See if there's any different reaction.

Look at the report of Lisa Mitchem's. LMB kept mistaking blue colour and black colour.

That's why.

[styler]

How you figure red green and blue make white? My wife is an artist and she tried those colors .. its not white at all.

[billnorman1]

How you figure red green and blue make white? My wife is an artist and she tried those colors .. its not white at all.

I am not a scientist but I did stay at a Holiday ...............


Yes, in terms of light and color theory, white is considered the presence of all colors, as it is created when all wavelengths of visible light are combined together; essentially, when you see white, you are seeing all colors reflected equally from an object.

[Mobi]

How you figure red green and blue make white? My wife is an artist and she tried those colors .. its not white at all.

Thanks Styler

Being an artist, your wife paints so she uses a colour mixing system called subtractive colour mixing which starts off with a colour (usually white) and paints a colour on it which masks the other underlying colours that make up white and only reflects the one she painted on it.

If she was an artist who "painted" with light, then she would start off with no light (which is black - complete absence of light) and add light of different colours so that they mix together and form different colours.

"Painting" by adding light of different colours is called additive colour mixing. Additive colour mixing is used in theatrics and and LCD screens on TV sets and computers.

ALSO in "painting" colours that are filtered through water. Lures.

See the attached image.

I'm like a lot of other fishers who don't want to mortgage their house to have a look at Keith Jones book from 2002 so I don't know if he explained this sort of "colour stuff" and the effect additive colour mixing had on LMB colour vision. Maybe someone who has a copy can let us know with copies of any reference.

Keith Jones wasn't the only fisherman from those times who wrote about LMB. One scientist/fisherman attempted to slap patents on an inventive way of working out colours for LMB lures. It failed the fishermen understandability" test. He could have used his knowledge to help other fishermen but chose to do so "for a price" (hence the patent).

Yet other scientists wrote about red colour being the first to disappear in water. That wasn't true either. They were just too lazy to do their own research and kept repeating myth. If a scientist says it, it must be true. They'd have found the facts if they had.

Most fish that have evolved in water that has turbidity above low levels don't have need for a colour receptor (blue) that allows deep penetration in clear water. So evolutionary nature doesn't provide one. Like LMB.

In Aus we have the same issue of fish missing the blue (for deep clear water penetration) receptor. A vision characteristic found mainly in freshwater habitats.

But there is one fish that's equally at home in turbid freshwater and clear deeper saltwater so has all 3 colour receptors plus some additional vision enhancements even better than humans. A true expert in survival. Lates calcarifer/ barramundi. A remarkable fish with natures version of light amplification (night vision) like saltwater crocodiles, alligators, cats, spiders etc. Called Tapetum Lucidum. Look it up.

In much clearer water like that in our Great Barrier Reef area, evolution has provided fish with a blue receptor and the red receptor is omitted. Red colour doesn't penetrate clear water well so isn't needed.

But red sure does penetrate turbid/dirty water better than any other colour. The US Navy experimented with underwater colours in 1967 looking for colours for underwater camouflage and came to that conclusion as did subsequent scientific bodies like NOAA (US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration).

So don't believe what you're told about red colour disappearing first in all water. That's not fact either.

Anyway, hope the above helps your "missus" with her artistic endeavours.

See attached.