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Hooking Information Through Vision

July 15, 2007|BY NORM WOOD, nwood@dailypress.com | 247-4642

"As he has gone on with these tests, we've found out that some fish see different colors at night than during the day," said Neil Drumheller of the Big Island Fly Angler's Club, which fishes many streams and rivers in the Northern Neck. "They can readily identify their prey because of the ultraviolet light. Trout see better at night than they do during the day. If you know that, and you can use colors on your flies and lures that go into the spectrum of light the fish you're after sees, you'll have a better shot. If a fish can't see it, he ain't gonna eat it. I absolutely believe in what he's doing and I get the data as fast as he can give it to me."

Horodysky has done the dirty work to unearth those details since the summer of 2005 ... and the research doesn't come cheap. Sonya Davis, an official in the Fisheries Management division of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, said the VMRC has provided $138,406 of licensed funding (mostly from saltwater fishing licenses) for the three-year project.

In Davis' opinion, it has been money well spent. While her organization has routinely managed fish according to species, Davis said there's a big push to stop breaking the aquatic ecosystem into little subsets and instead treat it as one big whole part, which would require new regulations.

"There's certainly an understanding that if we put certain regulations on certain fish we're going to have some fish overpopulating this area," Davis said. "You have to understand all the information first before you can make regulations, and (Horodysky's) work is helping provide that understanding."

Horodysky, who has also had a professional contract since 2001 to tie fly lures for the Umpqua Feather Merchants company, is amused by some of the marketing ploys used by bait and tackle companies to sell products. Many of the ploys aren't based on fact.

He remembers a few years ago a company was marketing a "bleeding hook" intended to catch striped bass. The hook was supposed to give the impression of a blood red trail, a color that just looks dark to fish in water and dissipated after 4 or 5 feet, according to Horodysky. He also mentioned the "Cajun Red Lightnin' " fishing line that was red and was supposed to become invisible to fish in water. Again, Horodysky said the red line isn't invisible to fish, it's just dark.

"They might as well make a black line," Horodysky said.

Though he realizes his research will have a practical use for many recreational fishermen, Horodysky isn't out to change the fishing world. He has been a fisherman since he was 5 years old. As a teenager, he said he absorbed every bit of information in books and stories from older fishermen that could possibly make him a better angler than his friends. Nothing beats experience and trial and error, but Horodysky's study could help remove the error from some of the trials.

"I never promise that anybody is going to catch any more fish because of this (research)," Horodysky said. "If I could make that guarantee, I probably wouldn't be offering these data. I'm just simply saying that at the conclusion of all this work, and when recreational fishermen get to see these data, maybe they make more informed choices. Maybe they'll pick up that blue lure that makes a difference, or the chartreuse lure or whatever. Maybe they put down the red tail or the orange paddle tail and it makes a difference, or maybe it won't. I mean, I'm not asking anybody to change the way they fish.

"As a recreational fisherman, you have to have faith in whatever you've tied on the end of your line. You have to believe it'll work ... So, what's really cool about this work is that it sort of shows you, 'Ok, we've all these different products on the market. What should I stock in my tacklebox if I want the animals to see it.' Maybe you'll buy a color you wouldn't normally, and maybe it pays off one day when you take your son or daughter out to fish." *

Fish vision

Ever wonder what fish in the Chesapeake Bay are seeing? Here's a brief primer on the colors visible by a few of the species Andrij Horodysky is studying at VIMS (of course, the ability for a fish to see light and color changes according to the time of day and cloudiness of the water):

Blue Chartreuse Green Orange Purple Red Yellow

Croaker x o x o o o o

Red drum x o x o o o o

Spot x x x o o ? o

Spotted Seatrout x o x o o o o

Striped Bass o x x x o o x

Summer flounder x x x o o o o

Weakfish x x x o o ? o

X --can see well; O --can see; ?--can't see well.

the text version of the above chart

Striped bass -- Can best see green, chartreuse, yellow and orange. Can also see some purple, blue, chartreuse (greenish-yellow), and red.

Weakfish -- Can best see blue, chartreuse and green. Can pick up ultraviolet light extremely well and sees purple, yellow and orange.

Spotted seatrout -- Can best see blue and some green. Can also see some purple, chartreuse, yellow and orange.

Red drum -- Can best see blue and green. Can see some purple, chartreuse, yellow and orange.

Croaker -- Can best see blue and green. Can see some purple, chartreuse, yellow, orange and some red.

Spot -- Can best see blue, green and chartreuse. Can see purple, yellow and orange.

Summer flounder -- Can best see blue, green and chartreuse. Can see purple, yellow and orange.

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