Best lure colours for northern pike, as its eye receives them
Dichromat, ambush predator. Tuned for contrast against a bright ceiling. The model gives it 2 cone types, peaking at 525, 615 nm. At 3 m and noon, the top scorer in clear water is Chartreuse, Red craw, Shad, and in tannin-stained water it is Chartreuse.
What the model says about northern pike
- Clear, 3 m: highest 100 (Chartreuse, Red craw, Shad), lowest 45 (Blue).
- Green / algal, 3 m: highest 100 (Chartreuse, Red craw), lowest 29 (Blue).
- Stained / tannic, 3 m: highest 89 (Chartreuse), lowest 14 (Blue).
- Muddy / suspended sediment, 3 m: highest 26 (Chartreuse), lowest 0 (Blue).
- Colour scores sit within 12 points of largemouth bass in every cell. Across 8 colours, 4 waters and 4 depths, the largest gap to the bass is 12 points, so the model's cone peaks make hue look much the same to both. Its light response is also close to the bass's (rod-vision share within 4 points at every light level), so in this model it is essentially a bass eye.
Colour by water type (3 m, noon)
Detection contrast, 0 to 100, from the same contrastScore() the Fish Vision Camera reports, viewed from 1.5 m. Capped at 100, so several colours tie at the top.
Scroll the table sideways to compare every water type →
| Colour | Clear | Green / algal | Stained / tannic | Muddy / suspended sediment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firetiger | 98 | 88 | 71 | 20 |
| Chartreuse | 100 | 100 | 89 | 26 |
| Shad | 100 | 82 | 63 | 17 |
| Red craw | 100 | 100 | 56 | 10 |
| Blue | 45 | 29 | 14 | 0 |
| Black | 81 | 53 | 34 | 3 |
| Gold | 56 | 49 | 63 | 10 |
| Junebug | 67 | 52 | 31 | 3 |
Dawn, dusk and night: when colour stops mattering
The model blends from cone vision to rod (brightness-only) vision as light falls, and a species with a better low-light eye holds colour longer. This is the share of rod vision the northern pike gets at 3 m, 0 meaning full colour and 100% meaning brightness only. Light levels are the ones The Fish uses.
Scroll the table sideways to compare every light level →
| Water | Noon | Overcast | Golden hr | Dusk | Moonlit | Mostly rod from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clear | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% | 66% | Moonlit |
| Green / algal | 0% | 0% | 0% | 14% | 77% | Moonlit |
| Stained / tannic | 0% | 0% | 0% | 39% | 100% | Moonlit |
| Muddy / suspended sediment | 6% | 38% | 71% | 100% | 100% | Golden hr |
Detection contrast by light, green / algal, 3 m
Scroll the table sideways to compare every light level →
| Colour | Noon | Overcast | Golden hr | Dusk | Moonlit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firetiger | 88 | 88 | 88 | 85 | 62 |
| Chartreuse | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 71 |
| Shad | 82 | 82 | 82 | 83 | 65 |
| Red craw | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Blue | 29 | 29 | 29 | 33 | 42 |
| Black | 53 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 51 |
| Gold | 49 | 49 | 49 | 42 | 0 |
| Junebug | 52 | 52 | 52 | 50 | 40 |
Once the eye is mostly on rods, a lure is only a lighter or darker shape; hue no longer carries information, so scores in those columns are driven by brightness difference alone.
Other species
largemouth bass · walleye · rainbow trout · bluegill. For one water type across all species, start from the lure colour guide.
What this does not tell you
This is how visible a solid-colour lure is against the water behind it, not how likely a northern pike is to eat it. It does not model prey matching, patterns, flash, UV, vibration or mood. The model uses published cone peaks as Gaussian curves and a single light adaptation rule per species, which is a simplification. Inputs are fixed at 1.5 m viewing distance and a flat water column; change them in the Fish Vision Camera. Limits are listed under how it works. To see colour feed a feeding decision, run it through The Fish or browse the scenarios.