Quote Originally Posted by Moose1am View Post
Great Discussion:
We often don't look at sunlight from the Bass's point of view.

The bass are looking up while we are looking down at them. Everything is reversed from the bass's point of view.

The bass at the bottom of the lake are looking up at a bright sky above or a dark sky above at night or during cloudy conditions.

Have you ever wondered why fish are dark on the dorsal side (TOP) and lighter on the Ventral Side (Bottom). Think about this for a few minutes........................................... ...............................

If you want to blend in with the back ground you take on the color and brightness of that background. Bass looking up at the surface see a bright light ... the sunlight penetrating down into the water from above. If you are a shad you want to have a light colored bottom (ventral Side) to blend in with the background. Background being a light color.

Now think about what happens to the shad when all of a sudden the sky becomes cloudy and dark? That light colored ventral side of the shad will stick out like a sore thumb against the dark sky. Now think from the bass's point of view not the Hyman's point of view.

It helps to scuba dive to actually see the sky from the bass's point of view. If you can't scuba dive you can free dive with a snorkel and mask. find a clear lake or strip pit and give dive down to 10 ft deep on a bright sunny day and then look back up to the surface. This is how fish view the sky their entire life.

Changing light conditions make the shad more vulnerable to the bass below.

Have you guys watched the shows on the Discovery Channel where they are looking for Great White Sharks. They tow seal shaped decoys behind a boat over the areas where the Sharks frequent. The sharks are patrolling around the Channel Islands looking for seals. They see the dark object being towed by the boat and swim upward at great speed to attack the object on the surface. Now if that object was white colored on it's ventral side the sharks would have a harder time seeing it. White ventral color blends in with the light or white sky above. Just like green camo blends in with the green forest around you while hunting deer.
I have to call "foul" on this one. The camo comparison is not a valid one. If you are an opaque object it doesn't matter what color you are, you will still cast a shadow and appear dark from underneath against a light background (sky). Think of a bassboat with a white or blue bottom sitting on Dale Hollow on the middle of a sunny day . If you were in the water underneath that bassboat looking up, would it magically blend in and/or disappear because of it's light colored bottom? Absolutely not. That sucker will cast a dark shadow and stand out like a sore thumb. It is not that different from the acoustic shadows created on a Hummingbird Sidescan unit.

Do a google search for pictures underwater showing fish swimming along the surface above a photographer and everyone of them will look dark and be clearly visible. It is only when light is reflected off a surface (which gives it its color properties) that it can then blend in with a back ground. So a shad seen from an angle up high could blend in, or even one deep enough that light has scattered to the point of losing direction.

Changing light conditions makes a shad more vulnerable because of the visual advantage afforded the predator. Think of looking into a lit room through a window at night while standing outside in the dark. Or ponder why we wear ballcaps and visors or use our hand to shade our eyes on a sunny day...to give us a visual advantage.

Didn't mean to get on a rant with this one or single anyone out... just wanted to clarify some points and add to the discussion . Oh ya, another term as relates to bonefish's post is Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT).