How a Gilthead seabream sees your lure
Which lure colour a Gilthead seabream can actually see, at your depth and in your water. 3 cone types, peak 560 nm. Ranked contrast for 54 colours.
Sparus aurata
Measured for this species
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.
Spectral sensitivity
| Cone peaks | λmax | Chromophore |
|---|---|---|
| Short | 455 nm | A1 |
| Medium | 530 nm | A1 |
| Long | 560 nm | A1 |
| Rod | 500 nm | A1 |
Rods do the work at dawn, dusk and night — which is when most people fish.
Lure table
Ranked by how much each colour stands out to a Gilthead seabream in these conditions. — Coastal 1C, 13 m.
| Colour | Contrast | Seen from | Fish view | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | White | 97 | 5.0 m | Buy now | |
| 2 | Glow Glow finish — not modelled | 95 | 5.0 m | Buy now | |
| 3 | Chartreuse / white Fluorescent finish | 93 | 5.0 m | Buy now | |
| 4 | Silver holographic Metallic finish | 93 | 4.8 m | Buy now | |
| 5 | Sexy shad | 92 | 5.0 m | Buy now | |
| 6 | Bone | 92 | 4.8 m | Buy now | |
| 7 | Chrome Metallic finish | 88 | 4.7 m | Buy now | |
| 8 | Chartreuse Fluorescent finish | 87 | 4.6 m | Buy now | |
| 9 | Blue / white | 85 | 5.0 m | Buy now | |
| 10 | Pink / white Fluorescent finish | 83 | 5.0 m | Buy now | |
| Stands out least | |||||
| Watermelon | 27 | 1.7 m | |||
| Brown | 24 | 1.7 m | |||
| Green pumpkin | 24 | 1.6 m | |||
| Olive | 23 | 1.6 m | |||
Contrast quoted at 1.0 m viewing distance. · Light that survives best here: 500 nm
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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
Clean inshore water. Green now travels further than blue.
Water types
Target species
Questions people actually ask
Can a Gilthead seabream see colour?
Yes. It has 3 cone types, peaking at 455 nm, 530 nm, 560 nm. That gives it 2 colour dimensions, against a human’s 2.
Where does this data come from?
Direct microspectrophotometry, ERG or behavioural spectral sensitivity for this species.
Sources
- Loew, E.R. & Lythgoe, J.N. (1978). Vision Research 18, 715–722 — sparid MSP.
- Valen, R. et al. (2016). Journal of Experimental Biology 219, 2720–2731 — opsin expression.