Best lure colours for rainbow trout, as its eye receives them
Trichromat (UV cone too, when young). The best colour vision on this list. The model gives it 3 cone types, peaking at 434, 531, 576 nm. At 3 m and noon, the top scorer in clear water is Chartreuse, Shad, Red craw, and in tannin-stained water it is Chartreuse.
What the model says about rainbow trout
- Clear, 3 m: highest 100 (Chartreuse, Shad, Red craw), lowest 50 (Gold).
- Green / algal, 3 m: highest 100 (Chartreuse, Red craw), lowest 40 (Blue).
- Stained / tannic, 3 m: highest 84 (Chartreuse), lowest 17 (Blue).
- Muddy / suspended sediment, 3 m: highest 27 (Chartreuse), lowest 0 (Blue).
- Where its eye differs from a largemouth's: 12 of 128 cells move 15 points or more, on blue, red craw, gold, firetiger. Biggest: Blue in clear at 10 m scores 84 here against 44 for the bass. This species keeps a short-wavelength cone the bass lacks.
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 | 91 | 81 | 68 | 21 |
| Chartreuse | 100 | 100 | 84 | 27 |
| Shad | 100 | 77 | 59 | 17 |
| Red craw | 100 | 100 | 35 | 5 |
| Blue | 74 | 40 | 17 | 0 |
| Black | 81 | 53 | 35 | 3 |
| Gold | 50 | 44 | 54 | 7 |
| Junebug | 67 | 55 | 35 | 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 rainbow trout 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% | 13% | 76% | Moonlit |
| Green / algal | 0% | 0% | 0% | 24% | 87% | Moonlit |
| Stained / tannic | 0% | 0% | 6% | 49% | 100% | Moonlit |
| Muddy / suspended sediment | 16% | 48% | 81% | 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 | 81 | 81 | 81 | 71 | 61 |
| Chartreuse | 100 | 100 | 100 | 91 | 70 |
| Shad | 77 | 77 | 77 | 74 | 65 |
| Red craw | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Blue | 40 | 40 | 40 | 36 | 43 |
| Black | 53 | 53 | 53 | 52 | 50 |
| Gold | 44 | 44 | 44 | 30 | 0 |
| Junebug | 55 | 55 | 55 | 50 | 39 |
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 · northern pike · 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 rainbow trout 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.