How a Common carp sees your lure
Which lure colour a Common carp can actually see, at your depth and in your water. 4 cone types, peak 620 nm. Ranked contrast for 54 colours.
Cyprinus carpio
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 89% 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. Carp is one of the very few fish whose colour vision has been proved behaviourally rather than inferred: Neumeyer showed it genuinely uses four channels.
Spectral sensitivity
| Cone peaks | λmax | Chromophore |
|---|---|---|
| UV | 365 nm | A2 |
| Short | 450 nm | A2 |
| Medium | 530 nm | A2 |
| Long | 620 nm | A2 |
| Rod | 525 nm | A2 |
Rods do the work at dawn, dusk and night — which is when most people fish.
89% 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 Common carp in these conditions. — Stained, 3 m.
| Colour | Contrast | Seen from | Fish view | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | White | 96 | 1.4 m | Buy now | |
| 2 | Chartreuse / white Fluorescent finish | 94 | 1.4 m | Buy now | |
| 3 | Glow Glow finish — not modelled | 93 | 1.4 m | Buy now | |
| 4 | Chartreuse Fluorescent finish | 92 | 1.4 m | Buy now | |
| 5 | Bone | 92 | 1.4 m | Buy now | |
| 6 | Silver holographic Metallic finish | 89 | 1.4 m | Buy now | |
| 7 | Clown | 85 | 1.4 m | Buy now | |
| 8 | Sexy shad | 85 | 1.4 m | Buy now | |
| 9 | Yellow | 85 | 1.3 m | Buy now | |
| 10 | Pink / white Fluorescent finish | 84 | 1.4 m | Buy now | |
| Stands out least | |||||
| Purple | 0 | 53 cm | |||
| Junebug | 0 | 49 cm | |||
| Black | 0 | 45 cm | |||
| Purple / black | 0 | 45 cm | |||
Contrast quoted at 66 cm viewing distance. · Light that survives best here: 640 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
Noticeably coloured. A white plate is gone by about 1.3 m.
Water types
Target species
Questions people actually ask
Can a Common carp see colour?
Yes. It has 4 cone types, peaking at 365 nm, 450 nm, 530 nm, 620 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
- Hárosi, F.I. & Hashimoto, Y. (1983). Science 222, 1021–1023 — UV cone in cyprinids.
- Neumeyer, C. (1992). J. Comp. Physiol. A 171, 639–649 — behavioural proof of tetrachromacy in carp.