Boat Show @ Novi Expo

[PoorBoy]

At this point, its hard NOT to get into the whole red hook craze. Have you looked at the new BPS catalog?!? Every new bait in there is red in some way or another. What surprises me is that so many people are jumping on the red hook bandwagon ( including myself a few years back ) but no one is using the red fishing line.

I have heard two different points made about red in water. One point is that red is not visible to fish in water 5 feet or more. Hence they can not see the hook. Hence red fishing line would be ideal when bottom fishing, or fishing deeper baits.

The other point ( and the more obvious one ) is that the red represents blood which would make a bait look injured. I have been using one red treble hook on the front of my jerkbaits for a few years now and find that the fish will target that area of the bait when they hit, just like the on line article suggested. By hooking the fish on the front treble hook of a long bait such as a jerkbait, the fish is less likely to throw the bait because it cuts down the leverage.

I have been playing with the idea of switching to red line just to see if there is any difference. Maybe this spring I will give it a shot.

Anyone out there use it?

PoorBoy himself

[MBell]

I don't buy the whole looks like blood thing, but exposed gills a usually red on most fish. I have also read that red is a color that is visible as you go deeper. I don't think the red hooks can hurt you compared to the chrome and nickel hooks, red would be the most natural in my opinon. I've got to get some red triple grips before the spring rolls around.
-Matt

[djkimmel]

Funny this should come up right now. I have several spools of Cajun Red fishing line to try out this coming season. Comes in two variations - Cajun Red Cast for 'super smooth casting' and Cajun Red Lightnin for high abrasion resistance.

I'm not sure how the underwater thing will work since the main thing is you lose the color red the quickest underwater - depth varies with light and visibility. Blue is the color that can be distinguished the deepest.

I don't know that this means you can't see the object (line), you just can't distinguish the color of the object. With fishing line being translucent, having the color fade quickly may affect the visibility of the line underwater though in interesting ways.

No doubt you can see the red line above water real well for excellent bite detection. I'm intrigued enough to try it and see what happens.

I'm sure I'll report on things later in the year as I go along.

I'm with you on the red Mustad Triple Grips too!

[MBell]

The invisible factor of any thing is determined by it's refractive index, how the light bends when light passes through it. I don't remember what "n" stands for but that is how the refractive index is measured. Plain water is n=1.3, flourocarbon line n=1.4, mono line n=1.5. You can see flourocarbon is closer to being invisible than mono. I googled it and was suprised to read that most of the red light diapears at 10 feet, I thought is was more like 20'. Red flake works great in my plastices from 9'-22', I'm going to stick with it. If the red disapears at 10' the line should still have the same n value and my just not have color like a clear line. Berkley just released a flourocarbon that is gold above water but loses the color underwater. This alows you to detect strikes by line watching while still fishing the same line unerwater. I tried the mono they had like this and it worked great. The red line may also do this.

[djkimmel]

Great post Matt! I am looking forward to trying the Cajun Red line.

I have always wondered about red flake since it should lose its color faster than any other color, but didn't want to mess up anyone's confidence. Confidence may be the most important part of a good fishing lure or color.

But I also don't know what a fish sees underwater either. Whatever they see, it may actually appeal to them better than other colors. I think a lot has to do with flash. Minnows flash and that seems to attract eating reflexes from gamefish.

I like hologram flake a lot because I believe it has to look a lot like a minnow flash under the water.

[Eric]

Cheetam, I'm going Friday, and if you don't, you are a wimp.

[jcheetam]

Eric said:

Cheetam, I'm going Friday, and if you don't, you are a wimp.

LOL...What time are you going to be there on Friday?

[Eric]

I'll probably be there a little after noon or so and be there most of the evening probably.

[jcheetam]

I'll keep an eye out for you. If I can't find a baby sitter, look for the wimp with the baby carriage....

[djkimmel]

;D My eyes are a little strained from staring at computers too much lately. I thought you 'said' "baby carnage" !?!?!

Well, you would know about that more than me with a young one in your house...

[MBell]

Went out to the show last night, caught the combat bass seminar with wayne and alex. It was great I would highly recommend checking it out, that was the most "good" information I've seen in a seminar in a long time.
-Matt

[djkimmel]

Thanks for the report Matt. I'll let Wayne and Alex know you enjoyed it.

I heard Alex had his own Powerpoint presentation... That sure tops my hand puppets and balloons... (trying to make the rest of us look bad).

Of course most of us go to seminars to get good information and value. It's good to hear when a seminar meets expectations and especially if it exceeds.

[fiker50]

At KVD's seminar on Friday afternoon, he said that he is absolutely sold on red hooks.
He claims that as you go deeper, the red is even more invisible to the fish than black or brown. He said that black and brown can create a silouette against the sky that the red doesn't seem to do.
Personally, I tried red worm hooks early last spring. I don't think I caught any more fish with them, than regular hooks. I did notice however, that it doesn't take long for the red to wear off and expose a gold hook unerneath.
My buddy used the bleeding bait series of lures last year though with some success.