Can pike tell colours apart, or is it all flash and contrast?

A pike is a daylight sight hunter with a cone-bearing retina, so some colour vision is a safe assumption — but direct work on which hues it separates is thin, and pike fishing has never needed it. What decades of practice show is a fish that fires on flash, contrast and profile. Within that, yellow holds up well: it stays bright in tea-stained Shield water after red and blue have been absorbed, which is why the yellow five-of-diamonds spoon is a northern classic. Green is the weak one — in weedy, green-tinted water it blends into the background, so it works only as the back of a perch or firetiger pattern. Glow is a niche for deep water or snow-covered ice; UV paint is unproven for pike either way.

Parcourir toutes les questions