How a Swordfish sees your lure
Which lure colour a Swordfish can actually see, at your depth and in your water. 1 cone types, peak 485 nm. Ranked contrast for 54 colours.
Xiphias gladius
Measured for this species This fish is colour-blind
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. Swordfish are modelled with a SINGLE cone class, so this species has no colour ranking at all — only brightness contrast. That is the honest answer: at the depths swordfish hunt there is almost no light and essentially no colour information left to use.
Spectral sensitivity
| Cone peaks | λmax | Chromophore |
|---|---|---|
| Medium | 485 nm | A1 |
| Rod | 485 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 Swordfish in these conditions. — Oceanic I, 275 m.
| Colour | Contrast | Seen from | Fish view | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | White | 98 | 43 m | Buy now | |
| 2 | Glow Glow finish — not modelled | 95 | 42 m | Buy now | |
| 3 | Sexy shad | 94 | 43 m | Buy now | |
| 4 | Silver holographic Metallic finish | 94 | 42 m | Buy now | |
| 5 | Bone | 92 | 41 m | Buy now | |
| 6 | Chrome Metallic finish | 91 | 40 m | Buy now | |
| 7 | Chartreuse / white Fluorescent finish | 89 | 43 m | Buy now | |
| 8 | Blue / white | 89 | 43 m | Buy now | |
| 9 | Blueback herring | 87 | 43 m | Buy now | |
| 10 | Pink / white Fluorescent finish | 86 | 43 m | Buy now | |
| Stands out least | |||||
| Brown / orange | 30 | 15 m | |||
| Copper | 29 | 14 m | |||
| Brown | 27 | 13 m | |||
| Olive | 0 | 0 cm | |||
Contrast quoted at 1.0 m viewing distance. · Light that survives best here: 470 nm
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This fish is colour-blind — It has only one cone type, so it sees a single channel of brightness. Colour rankings are meaningless for it — what matters is how light or dark your lure is against the water.
Beyond the model’s range — Below about 60 m the daylight assumptions in this model stop holding. Read these numbers as indicative only.
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
The clearest ocean there is. Deep blue, and blue penetrates furthest by far.
Water types
Target species
Questions people actually ask
Can a Swordfish see colour?
It has only one cone type, so it sees a single channel of brightness. Colour rankings are meaningless for it — what matters is how light or dark your lure is against the water.
Where does this data come from?
Direct microspectrophotometry, ERG or behavioural spectral sensitivity for this species.
Sources
- Fritsches, K.A., Brill, R.W. & Warrant, E.J. (2005). Current Biology 15, 55–58 — heated eyes and temporal resolution.