Fish Vision model · Green / algal

Lure colour in green, algae-stained water: what the fish receives

Mesotrophic, algae-dominated. Window shifts to green — the classic bass lake. At 3 m, viewed from 1.5 m at noon, the model scores Chartreuse highest for a largemouth bass (100/100) and Blue lowest (20/100).

What the model says about green, algae-stained water

Highest detection contrast at 3 m: Chartreuse (100).
Lowest: Blue (20).
Gold gets harder to see with depth: 65 at 0.5 m to 31 at 10 m.
Red craw gets easier to see with depth: 68 at 0.5 m to 100 at 10 m.
Species disagree on: Blue. The eyes differ, see the species table below.

As the bass receives it

Each tile pairs the lure as the model hands it to a largemouth (left, after the water and the bass's cone set) with the water behind it at that depth (right). The small swatch beside each colour name is the lure's nominal sRGB, for reference; it is not a paint measurement. A bass has two cone types, so its swatch is a false-colour rendering of which colours it can still tell apart (the same convention as the Fish Vision Camera), not a literal view.

Firetiger

lure

water

0.5 m · contrast 87

lure

water

6 m · contrast 94

Chartreuse

lure

water

0.5 m · contrast 100

lure

water

6 m · contrast 100

Shad

lure

water

0.5 m · contrast 82

lure

water

6 m · contrast 81

Red craw

lure

water

0.5 m · contrast 68

lure

water

6 m · contrast 100

Blue

lure

water

0.5 m · contrast 21

lure

water

6 m · contrast 19

Black

lure

water

0.5 m · contrast 51

lure

water

6 m · contrast 53

Gold

lure

water

0.5 m · contrast 65

lure

water

6 m · contrast 41

Junebug

lure

water

0.5 m · contrast 44

lure

water

6 m · contrast 63

Background water goes from #5e7b7b at 0.5 m to #497e7e at 10 m. Tiles show the 0.5 m and 6 m views; the table below has all four depths.

Detection contrast by depth (largemouth bass)

0 to 100, from the same contrastScore() the Fish Vision Camera reports. The score is capped at 100, so several colours tie at the top. Chroma and luminance are the two channels it is built from.

Scroll the table sideways to compare every depth →

Colour	0.5 m	3 m	6 m	10 m	Chroma / luminance at 3 m
Firetiger	87	91	94	97	83 / 65
Chartreuse	100	100	100	100	100 / 71
Shad	82	82	81	80	74 / 62
Red craw	68	99	100	100	56 / 92
Blue	21	20	19	18	18 / 17
Black	51	52	53	54	23 / 49
Gold	65	52	41	31	48 / 36
Junebug	44	54	63	72	25 / 51

Same water, different eyes (3 m)

The model gives each species its own cone set. Dichromats (bass, walleye, pike) lose the short-wavelength axis; trout and bluegill keep three cones.

Scroll the table sideways to compare every species →

Colour	Largemouth bass	Walleye	Northern pike	Rainbow trout	Bluegill
Firetiger	91	90	88	81	74
Chartreuse	100	100	100	100	96
Shad	82	82	82	77	80
Red craw	99	100	100	100	100
Blue	20	24	29	40	46
Black	52	53	53	53	52
Gold	52	50	49	44	51
Junebug	54	54	52	55	48

What this does not tell you

This is how visible a solid-colour lure is against the water behind it, not how likely a fish is to eat it. It does not model prey matching, patterns, flash, UV, vibration or mood. Scores saturate at 100, so a tie at the top is not a tie in appetite. Inputs are fixed at 1.5 m viewing distance, noon light and a flat water column; change any of them in theFish Vision Camera. Spectra are rebuilt from sRGB, which is lossy; the limits are listed under how it works.

To see how a visible colour does against a feeding decision, run it through The Fish or browse the scenarios.