How a Brown trout sees your lure
Which lure colour a Brown trout can actually see, at your depth and in your water. 4 cone types, peak 600 nm. Ranked contrast for 54 colours.
Salmo trutta
Measured for this species UV cannot be shown
Cone peaks are direct measurements for this species. The rest of the model — water optics, contrast, detection distance — is still an estimate, and none of it predicts whether a fish will strike. This species has a UV cone: about 99% of that cone’s sensitivity lies below 400 nm, where a phone screen cannot show you anything. The UV channel is drawn in a declared false colour. Its retina uses the A2 (porphyropsin) chromophore, which pushes its long-wavelength sensitivity well to the red of what an A1 retina would give. Many freshwater fish shift the A1/A2 ratio with season and temperature, so real sensitivity drifts through the year.
Spectral sensitivity
| Cone peaks | λmax | Chromophore |
|---|---|---|
| UV | 355 nm | A1 |
| Short | 440 nm | A1 |
| Medium | 531 nm | A1 |
| Long | 600 nm | A2 |
| Rod | 510 nm | A1 |
Rods do the work at dawn, dusk and night — which is when most people fish.
99% of this species’ UV cone sensitivity lies below 400 nm, outside anything a screen can show.
Lure table
Ranked by how much each colour stands out to a Brown trout in these conditions. — Gin-clear, 3 m.
| Colour | Contrast | Seen from | Fish view | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | White | 98 | 9.3 m | Buy now | |
| 2 | Sexy shad | 95 | 9.2 m | Buy now | |
| 3 | Silver holographic Metallic finish | 95 | 9.1 m | Buy now | |
| 4 | Glow Glow finish — not modelled | 95 | 8.9 m | Buy now | |
| 5 | Chartreuse / white Fluorescent finish | 94 | 9.3 m | Buy now | |
| 6 | Bone | 94 | 9.0 m | Buy now | |
| 7 | Chrome Metallic finish | 93 | 9.0 m | Buy now | |
| 8 | Pink / white Fluorescent finish | 92 | 9.3 m | Buy now | |
| 9 | Blue / white | 91 | 9.3 m | Buy now | |
| 10 | Clown | 90 | 9.3 m | Buy now | |
| Stands out least | |||||
| Olive | 50 | 5.1 m | |||
| Brown | 46 | 4.9 m | |||
| Junebug | 37 | 5.1 m | |||
| Black | 24 | 3.5 m | |||
Contrast quoted at 1.0 m viewing distance. · Light that survives best here: 570 nm
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UV cannot be shown — This species has a UV cone, and a phone screen cannot emit ultraviolet. The UV channel is drawn in a declared false colour. Note also that UV is absorbed fast underwater and vanishes within centimetres in tannic water.
Get these colours
The three that came out on top, searched on your own Amazon. The ranking above is worked out from the water and the fish, before any of these links exist.
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Gear this page implies
- A lure kit with a spread of colours See on Amazon
The point of knowing which colour wins is having it in the box.
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What this water lets through
Alpine lake or spring-fed quarry. You can see the bottom in 8 m.
Water types
Target species
Questions people actually ask
Can a Brown trout see colour?
Yes. It has 4 cone types, peaking at 355 nm, 440 nm, 531 nm, 600 nm. That gives it 3 colour dimensions, against a human’s 2.
Where does this data come from?
Direct microspectrophotometry, ERG or behavioural spectral sensitivity for this species.
Sources
- Bowmaker, J.K., Thorpe, A. & Douglas, R.H. (1991). Vision Research 31, 349–352.
- Bowmaker, J.K. & Kunz, Y.W. (1987). Vision Research 27, 2101–2108 — UV cones in salmonids.