Here’s a very well written article from Staffer John Stears that takes a poke at those long held beliefs about the critical importance of lure color and how it pertains to catching river bass.
Lure Color and Catching Bass: A Dissenting View
Questions and comments regarding the article are always welcome… feel free to post them here.
Nice report John, well researched and written. 
John,
Excellent article and some interesting observations. Nice job!
John,very intersting reading your thoughts on color and contrast.
Another excellent article.
Ryan Hale
John,
Interesting article. I agree that its impossible to be accurate attributing human intellect or perception to describe what a fish “sees”, feels, or thinks. In this particular discussion, however, I believe (opinion) water clarity and light penetration are the most critical aspects to determining the effect of color and the ability of the fish to utilize color to differentiate organisms in their environment. Studies have fairly concretely determined that Bass are color sensative in clear water. They have also determined that Bass are vibration sensative in murky water. Vibration and/or color are not ruled out in either clear or murky water but the degree to which the fish depends on each varies with water clarity and the conditioned response to their particular environment. How much color has to do with the fishes desire to strike an object is an intriguing question… that may not be answerable without understanding what the color represents. We have not ever really determined what color represents to a fish. We have only been able to determine that fish respond to colors, among several other variables, and their responses are influenced by those other variables in a multitude of ways. The concluding result has been a fairly widely accepted belief that color is one of the least important of the important aspects in chosing a bait… but it has not ever been ruled out hahaha.
I hope we get a chance to gab more. I love these sorts of conversations.
Curt
Curt,
Sorry I took so long to respond. I don’t get back to the articles often enough. You bring up some very good points. I agree color/contrast do allow bass to differentiate thing in their environment. One comment on the experiments that prove fish can detect color. The test’s were done with color patched directly in front of the fishes nose. I have not seen experiments where the color patches were against the bottom or against the water’s surface. I suspect the results might not be as conclusive.
Don’t get me wrong, my choices of lures are influenced by color, but action, running depth etc are far more important.
I guess my biggest issue with color, and the people that preach its importance is it diverts attention from so many important issues. I see new comers to fishing blinded by the color hype and missing all of the other characteristics of a lure ability to attract and trigger a bite. 
John
Bump
When I asked my icthyology proffessor about color choice for walleyes he said that it is not important. Walleye have very few color receptors (the cones), but instead nearly all rods, and are for all practical purposes are color blind. This is part of thier adaptation for noctournal foraging. I think this explains how walleyes can be caught on firetiger colored lures, that don’t look anything like food.
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