Wes, Thanks for the excellent book report. I've been meaning to pick this one up in the store. Your description of its content raised some questions and thoughts ...
--- Wes Wada <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dr. K. has post-graduate training in optics, neurophysiology, color > and visual perception. Much of his study is based upon underwater > observation and photography, and he has several patents pending on an > underwater visualization system for fishing lure design. Does he say that the fish retina has color sensitivity that matches human response? The human retina has its highest sensitivity in the yellow-green band of the spectrum. Photographic film (or a digital imaging CCD) is formulated to have a matching response so that pictures look balanced to us. If the fish-eye sensitivity curve doesn't match ours, then colors that grab *our* attention either by direct viewing or in photos may be very different from what the fish see best. > For example: the most visible color combination for fishing in cloudy, > murky or winter water is fluorescent chartreuse, black, and silver > plate or (down a step) white. I'm not sure how this could be true because color pigments subtract from the total amount of reflected light. If you see red, that's because the pigment in the red object is absorbing blue wavelengths. White will always reflect a greater quantity of light than any color, each of which absorbs some portion of the total spectrum. > Dr. K. carefully explains the factors that determine the underwater > visibility of your fly to fish: bright versus cloudy days, dark or > light backgrounds, depth of water fished, cloudiness versus clarity of > the water, and whether the fish will see your fly above or below its > eye level. That's a lot to consider, but after reading the book, it I can understand the motivation for making attractor patterns in murky water as visible as possible. Reflectivity is one factor that makes a thing more visible but contrast is another significant factor, which argues in favor of black for the lure. Even a white lure will look black when viewed against the daytime sky from below. And how about if you're not creating attractors, but imitators? If you're tying imitative patterns, it makes less sense to include highly reflective or gaudy materials. Imitating a dark olive nymph with fluorescent chartreuse may cross up a few wires in the old fish-brain circuitry. In "Trout Flies", Gary LaFontaine talks about the virtues of muted tones in discussing the Plain Jane and the Lady Coughlin. It's worth checking out. (The obvious exception to this in imitative tying is when we imitate a mirror-like submerged gas bubble with some sort of bead, or bubble-holding material like Antron.) So tell us please, does the fish retina have the same color sensitivity as humans? Or perhaps they have more UV sensitivity than us...? Inquiring minds, you know... Remember the college motto from Animal House... "Knowledge is Good" Take care, Mark ===== Mark Klemick ! GoFishGo ! [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Find out what made the Top Yahoo! Searches of 2003 http://search.yahoo.com/top2003
