If fish weren’t sensitive to color and patterns, I guess we’d all be tying gray-colored flies.

“They’ll never notice the difference…”

You can see where we’re going with this, and you’re right. Fish see color and patterns. They use their eyes to find the right food (and how picky they can be), and their lives depend on good eyes to spot other creatures that want to make a meal of them.

It’s the same with creatures that roam the land, too, of course. Prey animals are fooled by predators that do a good job of camouflaging their presence enough to get in close for a quick strike. Bow hunters especially understand this and use camouflage well.

Anglers should, too. Your body’s outline is easily recognizable against the land and sky. And screaming your presence with loud, solid-color clothing can’t be good. The more we anglers can render ourselves invisible through camouflage, the better chance we have of getting close enough undetected to make the perfect cast to an unsuspecting fish.

You want clothing that breaks up your outline and blends into the background environment as seen from the fish’s perspective.

That’s why we developed shirts, pants and hats specifically for anglers to accomplish these objectives.(We’re also working on a bandana that can be used tied around the face or neck.) The patterns and colors are based on underwater photography looking up into typical backgrounds and light conditions encountered in freshwater and saltwater environments. Recent improvements in printing technology have really allowed us to translate what the camera (mimicking the fish’s view) has captured over to cloth.

So, the next time you’re wetting some line, think about how that REALLY big one out there somewhere got to be so big – by being very perceptive, naturally. Dress accordingly.

It is fascinating to learn that there has actually been a good bit of scientific investigation of what fish see, how they see, and how their vision is affected by various amounts of light penetrating to various depths. In fact I recently discovered two very clear and helpful articles on fish vision.

“What Do Fish See?” by Rabbit Jensen is available on the website of the Delaware Valley Women’s Fly Fishing Association. Here is the link to the article: click here.

This very helpful article explains how fish see and how their vision is affected by the fish’s environment.

The second article, “Can Fish See Color?” was published by SaltWater Sportsman and can be found on their website – click here. This article specifically addresses the question of whether fish see color, what color they see, and even how depth in the water affects their ability to see each major color.

I encourage you to read the articles both for the understanding of why fishing camouflage makes infinite sense for anglers and for a little help in choosing the perfect lure for the environment.

Happy casting!