When you pick up a fishing lure on land, choosing a color seems pretty simple.

Orange looks orange. Chartreuse looks chartreuse. White looks white.

But once that lure goes underwater, things change.

Water filters light. Water clarity changes contrast. Depth changes which wavelengths of light are available. A color that looks incredibly bright in your hand can look completely different once it is submerged.

So instead of just guessing which SandSpawn colors should stand out, I decided to put a bunch of them underwater at the same time and see what happened.

And a few of the results surprised me.

Why Do Colors Change Underwater?

Sunlight contains the different colors that we see, but those colors don't all travel through water equally.

As light travels through water, warmer wavelengths such as red and orange are absorbed more quickly. Blue wavelengths generally travel farther.

That doesn't mean an orange lure suddenly becomes invisible a few feet underwater. Surf fishing is usually happening in relatively shallow water, and sunlight, water clarity, suspended sand, bubbles, background color and contrast all affect what a lure looks like.

The important part is simple:

The color you see in your hand isn't necessarily the same appearance that lure will have underwater.

That's what I wanted to demonstrate.

How I Tested the SandSpawn Colors

I placed several different SandSpawn color combinations together in my reef aquarium so they could all be compared from roughly the same distance.

Then I changed two things:

• Light: daylight-style lighting vs. blue/violet-heavy lighting
• Water: clear water vs. cloudy water with suspended particles

That gave me four different conditions:

Clear Water + Daylight

Clear Water + Blue/Violet

Cloudy Water + Daylight

Cloudy Water + Blue/Violet

This isn't meant to perfectly recreate the Atlantic Ocean.

My aquarium doesn't reproduce a specific depth, suspended beach sand, waves, plankton or everything else happening in the surf. And a phone camera obviously isn't the same thing as a fish's visual system.

This was simply a visibility test:

How much does the appearance of the exact same SandSpawn change when the light and water clarity change?

Clear Water + Daylight

Under clear water and daylight-style lighting, almost every color was easy to tell apart.

This was the condition where the SandSpawns looked most similar to how they appear in your hand.

But a few things immediately caught my attention.

Chartreuse

Chartreuse was extremely easy to locate.

It had strong contrast against the surrounding rock, sand and water, and it immediately drew my eye.

That became important later, because it didn't just perform well under the easiest conditions.

Solid White

Solid white created one of the strongest overall silhouettes in the test.

It didn't depend on being translucent or reflecting a certain color. The entire body simply stayed easy to identify.

If the goal is maximum body visibility, solid white looks very promising.

Translucent Pearl

Translucent pearl behaved differently from solid white.

It was still bright and noticeable, but it had a softer appearance because some of the surrounding light and background influenced the way it looked.

That gave it a more natural presentation than solid white while still maintaining good visibility.

Clear and Other Translucent Colors

The more translucent SandSpawns blended into the environment much more naturally.

In clear water, that could actually be an advantage.

Not every fishing situation calls for the brightest object in the water. Sometimes a more subtle presentation may be exactly what you want.

Why Did I Test Blue/Violet Light?

The blue lighting wasn't just for the aquarium look.

As sunlight travels through water, the available light spectrum changes. Warmer wavelengths such as reds and oranges are absorbed faster, while blue wavelengths tend to travel farther.

So I used blue/violet-heavy lighting to demonstrate what happens when the available light changes.

It is important to understand what this doesn't mean.

I'm not saying:

"This light setting equals 20 feet deep."

It doesn't.

The test simply lets us take the same lure and see how dramatically its appearance can change when the surrounding spectrum becomes heavily blue and violet.

And that's where things got really interesting.

Clear Water + Blue/Violet Light

When I changed the lighting, several colors that looked very different under daylight suddenly started looking more similar.

Some of the bodies shifted toward blue, gray and purple.

Subtle differences became much harder to see.

But some colors still stood out.

Chartreuse Stayed Visible

This may have been my biggest takeaway from the entire experiment.

Chartreuse remained very easy to locate.

Even though the surrounding colors had changed dramatically, the chartreuse still maintained strong visual contrast.

And that wasn't just in clear water.

It continued later in the cloudy-water test too.

Bright Egg Colors Started Matter More

Something else became obvious under blue/violet light.

The egg color can behave very differently from the shell around it.

A bright egg can create one small focal point even when the body itself becomes harder to distinguish.

That made me start thinking about SandSpawn colors differently.

Maybe the question isn't simply:

"What's the best SandSpawn color?"

Maybe it's:

"What's the best shell + egg combination for the conditions?"

What About UV-Reactive Orange?

I've recently started experimenting with UV-reactive orange filament for SandSpawn eggs.

UV-reactive and fluorescent materials can behave differently from ordinary pigments when exposed to shorter-wavelength light.

During the blue/violet portion of this test, the bright orange egg became an especially noticeable focal point.

That doesn't prove UV orange catches more fish.

It also doesn't prove that UV orange will always be more visible in every ocean condition.

But visually, it gave me a very good reason to keep testing it.

I especially like the idea of using UV orange as the egg color, where it creates one small, highly noticeable target without necessarily making the entire lure unnaturally bright.

The Egg Color May Matter More Than I Expected

A SandSpawn really has two visual components.

The shell creates the overall sand-flea shape and silhouette.

The egg creates a smaller point of contrast.

That gives me the ability to tune those two parts independently.

For example, I can make a subtle translucent shell and add a very bright egg.

Or I can make the entire lure high visibility.

That opens up a lot more possibilities than simply choosing one color for the entire lure.

What About a Bright Shell?

This experiment also made me rethink something else.

Most SandSpawn combinations so far have used a natural, white, pearl or translucent shell with a brighter egg.

But if chartreuse stayed visible so consistently, what happens if I make the entire shell chartreuse?

A chartreuse shell paired with a UV-orange egg would create a completely different presentation from a natural shell with a bright egg.

Instead of having one small high-contrast target, the entire lure becomes easy to locate.

That could be useful in dirty or stained water, rough surf, low visibility, or any situation where maximum visibility is the goal.

Some combinations I now want to experiment with include chartreuse shell + UV-orange egg, chartreuse shell + pink egg, pink shell + chartreuse egg, solid white shell + UV-orange egg, solid white shell + chartreuse egg, and translucent shells paired with high-visibility eggs.

That's one of the things I like most about SandSpawn.

I'm not limited to one lure color.

I can change the shell and egg independently and test combinations for completely different conditions.

Then I Made the Water Cloudy

Next, I reduced the water clarity using suspended particles.

The difference was immediate.

Fine differences between some colors became much harder to see.

Instead of noticing the exact shade of every lure, I started noticing:

brightness, contrast and silhouette.

Solid White

Solid white continued to produce a very strong body outline.

Even with the reduced visibility, it remained relatively easy to locate.

That reinforces what I saw in clear water:

solid white looks like a very strong option when maximum body visibility is the goal.

Translucent Pearl

Translucent pearl remained visible, but it didn't create the same hard silhouette as solid white.

It looked softer and more influenced by the surrounding water.

That may actually make it a really interesting middle ground.

It's more visible than some of the fully translucent colors while still looking more natural than a completely solid-white lure.

Chartreuse

Chartreuse continued to stand out.

This is where I really started paying attention to it.

It wasn't just bright under ideal conditions.

It remained noticeable as visibility got worse.

The More Translucent Colors

Some of the more transparent colors that looked great in clear water became much harder to distinguish.

But I don't think that means they're bad colors.

It means they may serve a different purpose.

A translucent shell might be perfect when the water is clean and you want a natural-looking presentation.

A solid or chartreuse shell may make more sense when you want the fish to find the lure more easily.

Cloudy Water + Blue/Violet Light

This was the most difficult condition I tested.

Now the water clarity was reduced and the available light had changed.

A lot of the subtle color differences disappeared.

What stood out instead were the lures that maintained strong brightness or contrast.

And again:

chartreuse was still noticeable.

Solid white continued to provide a strong silhouette.

Bright orange and UV-reactive egg colors also created obvious focal points.

Meanwhile, some of the natural and translucent colors blended much more heavily into the background.

What Did I Learn?

I don't think this test revealed one magical "best lure color."

Actually, I think it showed the opposite.

Different colors appear to have different jobs.

Chartreuse

Chartreuse was one of the most consistently visible colors throughout the experiment.

It stayed noticeable as both the lighting and water clarity changed.

That makes me especially interested in testing not only chartreuse eggs, but full chartreuse shells.

Solid White

Solid white created one of the strongest overall silhouettes.

When maximum body visibility is the goal, white looks like one of the strongest options I tested.

Translucent Pearl

Translucent pearl was noticeably different from solid white.

It maintained good visibility while creating a softer, more natural appearance.

That could make it a good middle ground between a bright solid shell and a very subtle transparent shell.

Yellow 

Yellow was an interesting color. When light is bright and daylight is strong, yellow is highly visable. It produced a shine that glowed in both the clear and dirty conditions, but only when white daylight was strong. 

Under dark and strong blue conditions, the contrast of yellow faded completely. 

I can see yellow performing strong during the brightest hours of the day. 

UV Orange and Bright Orange

Orange was especially interesting as an egg color.

The UV-reactive version really caught my attention when the lighting shifted toward blue/violet.

I want to continue testing it both in the tank and, more importantly, in the surf.

Clear and Natural Translucent Colors

The translucent colors provided the most subtle presentation.

They lost visibility faster as the water became cloudy, but that doesn't necessarily make them less useful.

Sometimes you may want a lure that stands out.

Sometimes you may want one that looks like it belongs there.

There Probably Isn't One "Best" SandSpawn

That's probably my biggest takeaway.

Different water calls for different presentations.

In dirty or rough surf, I may want contrast and visibility.

In clear water, I might prefer something much more subtle.

And because SandSpawn has a separate shell and egg, I can combine those ideas.

A natural shell with a bright egg.

A bright shell with a contrasting egg.

A completely high-visibility combination.

Or something very subtle.

That's where I want your help.

Help Design the Next SandSpawn

Instead of just choosing the next colors myself, I want the surf-fishing community involved.

Leave a comment below and tell me:

Where do you fish?

What does your water usually look like — clear, green, stained or dirty?

What color would you make the SandSpawn shell?

What color would you make the egg?

Why would you fish that combination?

Don't just tell me:

"Pink."

Tell me why.

Maybe you're fishing dirty water in northeast Florida and want a chartreuse shell with a UV-orange egg.

Maybe you fish very clear water and want a translucent pearl shell with a subtle orange egg.

Maybe you've got a combination I haven't even considered.

That's what I want to hear.

Enter the SandSpawn Color Giveaway

Your useful color recommendation will also count toward your SandSpawn Color Giveaway entry.

After leaving your suggestion in the comments below, return to the SandSpawn giveaway post on Instagram or Facebook and comment:

DONE

I'll be reading the comments and using the feedback to decide which combinations I print, test and potentially add to the SandSpawn lineup.

You choose the colors.

I'll make them.

Then we'll put them in the surf.

This Is Only the Beginning

This aquarium experiment was never meant to answer every question about lure color.

It gave me something better:

more things to test.

Chartreuse deserves more attention.

Solid white and translucent pearl clearly aren't the same thing.

UV-reactive orange looks interesting enough to keep developing.

And bright-colored shells may open up an entirely new direction for SandSpawn.

The tank gives us a controlled way to compare them.

But the real test happens next.

In the surf.

See you out there.

— SandSpawn