Color me Fishy

In looking for a yak I was wondering does color matter and this is what I found. No yellow for me.
There is not just a single answer to this question since not all fish have been tested for color vision. However, the common goldfish certainly sees in color and many more at least have the necessary nervous system elements for color vision to be present. Color vision is the capability to see and recognize objects based not on how bright they are, but on how well they absorb, reflect or transmit light of different colors. For example, an apple looks red in sunlight because all but the red part of the white light from the sun falling on it is absorbed by the apple's skin leaving only the red light available for vision.


In order to have color vision, the retina in the back of the eye must have color detectors, called cones, present and the brain has to be wired to make use of the information it gets from the cones. We have three different kinds of cones in our eyes, called red, green and blue that make human color vision possible. The goldfish has four kinds of cones: red, green, blue and ultraviolet. Other fish have different numbers and kinds of cones meaning that they have the capability of seeing in color. However, simply finding cones in the eye does not mean that an animal has color vision. You have to test it behaviorally to see if it can tell one color from another. For example, I could set up a tank with two windows at one end whose color I could change. I would start by making one window gray, that is having no color, and the other red. Whenever the fish went to the red window I would give it some food. I would change the brightness of the gray and red windows to make sure that the fish was training to only color. As soon as the fish had learned to associate red with food, I would start to replace the gray with other colors and see if the fish still only went to the red. This would be repeated for lots of different color combinations. If the fish remained true to its trained color, than it would be said to have color vision. To date, this kind of testing has only been done for a few kinds of fish. However, I am confident that as we test many more kinds of fish we will find color vision to be very common.

Ellis R. Loew
Professor of Physiology

Biomedical Studies, Cornell University

Education
Ph.D. UCLA

Research Area
Vision

Fish won't care what color your kayak is. 
From their point of few (up), odds are good most colors would be dark against the sky above them.

Go for sand, white, or pink.   

Its not important what the fish see. It is important what other boaters on the water can see.  As you know fire vehicles are often bright yellow for a reason, same applies to yaks.  All but one of my boats are yellow for one reason..visibility.  There is a world of difference in visibility between a yellow and a dark green yak at even moderate distances.  I know when I'm fishing in the fog among 100's of boats at buoy ten I feel better knowing I'm sitting on 16ft of bright yellow.   

I just bought a new red one. My lovely wife plans to use it as well, and it was the color we both liked.  I was worried about this choice as well since the "fishing colors" are supposedly gray or olive.  Then, I started thinking about all the guys on this forum that catch a lot of fish and a lot of them use bright yellow yaks and a few have red ones.  I don't personally think the fish care. 

-Craig

If you are walking in a downtown with several (at least 10-12 story) buildings and see a $100 bill bouncing in the wind, would you look up first?  How about if it was in a suburban setting, would you look around?

INSAYN has a great point and the comment from Dr. Loew is what a first term freshman would be studying.  Further in the first term would be light adsorption, reflection, and transmition.  I am not trying to be condescending in anyway but your presentation will win hands down compared to the color of your yak (unless you are also planning on waterfowl).

Just my .02

I like yellow kayaks, but if you are really worried red is highly visable on the water and the red part of the spectrum does not travel very far through the water.  At about 10 meters red loo
ks black.

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I agree with Insayn, fish don't care what color your kayak is?

Fish color perception sells a lot of different flies and colorful lures to bassers and fly fishers and that's good for our economy.  I'v owned both sand colored and mango kayaks and caught many many fish in both.

I selected my two Mango kayaks because I'm more concerned about color perception in power boaters, that might run you over.   Bright colors would also be easier to spot, heaven forbid, if you were the subject of a search and rescue.

Sigh!

At about 10 meters red looks black.

10 meters?!?!  I've caught Chinook, Coho, Rockfish and even Lingcod 10' under my bright yellow yak, propelled by a bright yellow paddle. 

-Spot-

Guys thanks for the thoughtful and well thought out replies. These replies are exactly why I wrote it and I have heard you all loud and clear. What ever color floats your boat so to speak is fine, the fish will not mind. That is just what I was looking for.  If I find a used yak that has all the bells and whistles but is not sand or green or camo it will not matter. I am not a duck hunter and fishing is all I will be doing with my yak so camo will not be necessary. The color not making a difference will really open up my options. Thanks again everyone.
 Paul