05_2025_REELLIFE_digital - Flipbook - Page 29
water, provided you go
deep enough. The kokanee
fisherman is dealing with
depths generally down to
100 feet, give or take. The
typical kokanee body of
water will have no light in
the later season beyond
75 feet. In the very early
season, there may be no
light at 30 feet.
As you recall from last
month’s article, the proper
target depth for kokanee
fishing is 54 degrees. And
since that temperature
descends the water column
as the season wears on,
the resulting less light at
your target depth also
means that certain ordinary
colors are no longer what
they appeared to be
on the surface because
their wavelengths have
been absorbed. If you
use such a color at depth,
your presentation will be
gray and not have much
contrast to the water it is in.
A lure of ordinary red will
virtually disappear in but
a few feet of water. Soon
to follow would be the
ordinary orange, ordinary
yellow, and then ordinary
green. Also, about that time
would be ordinary indigo
and ordinary violet due to
the structure of water and
the use by phytoplankton
of these frequencies. If
you take an ordinary red
object into a dark closet
and shine orange light on
it, the red object will appear
gray. If you take an ordinary
green object, and test it
the same way with blue
light, the green object will
appear gray. For the object
to be seen in its correct
color, it has to be struck by
a light frequency of equal
or higher wavelength. In
these examples, if you take
a green object and strike it
with red light, it will appear
green. If you take the green
object and strike it with
orange light, it will still be
green. For ordinary colors,
the deeper you go, the very
light necessary for that
color to be that color, has
likely been absorbed in the
water before you reach your
target depth.
Without the right light
wavelength hitting it, it
will be dull gray and not at
all distinctive to the water
that surrounds it. The little
remaining visible light at
depth makes the dullness
even duller
Our lures are rarely of a
pure color wavelength.
But even the mixing of
colors (hues) will still be
subject to the same color
deterioration at depth. Pink
is a good example. Pink is
not a color of the visible
spectrum, but is a mixing of
red and white.
White is not a color of the
spectrum, but is all colors of
the visible spectrum. Thus
in pink, a little of the color
will respond to green and
blue wavelength at depth.
But the color intensity will
be mostly dull. From what
you now know, ordinary
pink is not the ideal choice
for getting noticed at
depth.
While this might seem
confusing to us above
water, it is still the reality
of the color situation
in the water and at
depth. Perhaps some
encouragement is in
order. To be "expert" of
color at depth you need
not memorize anything.
Because most of our
kokanee fishing occurs in
green or blue light wave
frequencies, we want all of
our presentations to show
up in green and blue light.
