Why Red Hooks?

[Seafever]

"depend on lightning reactions to potential prey"........actually a vast number of salmon that are caught have been following the lure/presentation for awhile, buzzing in and out looking at it making up there minds whether they will strike it or not. Many,many salmon will "inspect" the lure first........

 

[outback]

i do know a few guys that told me back in the day they could troll bare red hooks behind a flasher and do well for Coho. personally im more concerned about the sharpness...

 

[Rum Buddies]

i do know a few guys that told me back in the day they could troll bare red hooks behind a flasher and do well for Coho. personally im more concerned about the sharpness...

guys do the same for sockeye as well. I'd agree with you on sharpness, don't think hook color makes much of a difference.

 

[KCW]

We would use a silver swivel and plain black hook( black magic) for coho when I worked on a commercial troller back in the early 90's. I read somewhere ( D.C. Reid ) use black hooks on your spinner's because the coho can't see them. A straight black buzz bomb used to be deadly for late season salmon.

 

[Discus]

What is about the anchovy teaser heads " bloody nose" ?

 

[Seafever]

Discus......sometimes they like a little red...sometimes they don't.


Army Truck pattern....has red in it
Nasty Boy spoon......has red in it....
for example......

 

[bee15]

these coloursmay disappear to us but we are not fish

 

[agentaqua]

Far from expert but, I use red hooks because I believe the color red disappears at a depth of about 15 feet in seawater and the hook is not seen by the fish.

Of all colors of the spectrum, red disappears first when in water.

Some good observations here....

 

[Seafever]

Red doesn't "disappear"..........it just turns darker blackish.

 

[Prairie Locked]

One common sense thing that I've always thought is, target species of fish can be found at multiple layers of the water table. If said fish can identify 'red' in top water, I would suspect the same said fish would be able to identify 'red' at deeper depths as well because of their pattern of 'migration' through depths of the water.

But really, do we know exactly what fish are able to see and in what context?

 

[Dogbreath]

One common sense thing that I've always thought is, target species of fish can be found at multiple layers of the water table. If said fish can identify 'red' in top water, I would suspect the same said fish would be able to identify 'red' at deeper depths as well because of their pattern of 'migration' through depths of the water.

I've seen experienced this with various species of Rockfish who are targeting Crab larvae-they have a preference for Red lures even @ 60' down.

But really, do we know exactly what fish are able to see and in what context?

Lots of studies on this some intriguing data but much work to be done.

 

[Englishman]

One common sense thing that I've always thought is, target species of fish can be found at multiple layers of the water table. If said fish can identify 'red' in top water, I would suspect the same said fish would be able to identify 'red' at deeper depths as well because of their pattern of 'migration' through depths of the water.

But really, do we know exactly what fish are able to see and in what context?

I agree we cannot know for sure what fish see - their eyes may be more sensitive than ours. However, even they cannot beat the physics of light absorption by increasing depths of water. Longer wavelengths (red) are absorbed at shallower depths than shorter wavelengths (blue). But - as someone else has said a red (or any other coloured) object does not vanish. It simply looks black (no colour at all)!

 

[Clint r]

Some of my smaller Rapalas I switch hooks to red Gamis. Don't know if it works or not but I catch fish so do t think I'll stop doing it. Used to fish roe for salmon and I think red hooks had an edge over other colors in that situation. I watched a documentary some years back about how fish see. It was very interesting. Some fish will move towards a certain color, while other species will immediately leave the area if that same color is shown to them. Which brings up something called a color "c" lector. Google it, it's a pretty interesting concept. It's basically a light meter hooked to a color coded dial. You lower the probe to what ever depth you would fish and it would show on the dial the 3 colors most visible in those particular water conditions. I'm not one to fall for gimmicks or buy snake oil, but I did buy one. Again, can't be sure it worked but first time I tried it, I used the colors it suggested and did catch fish. I think I still have mine out in the shop. Ill get back with some pictures.