Color effects of lures on the hooking rates of mackerel longline fishing

SUMMARY: This study attempts to understand the color effects of artificial lures on the hooking rate of mackerel longline fisheries in Taiwan waters. From the results obtained from field work, the order of hooking rates from the different colored lures was red > black > yellow-green > yellow-orange = reddish orange = pink > white > blue > purple > transparent. Transparent, purple and blue lures had the smallest hooking rates and showed significant differences (least significant difference test) from the other colored lures. However, no significant differences could be found among the hooking rates of the other colored lures. In addition, the lumiunous reflectance of nine different gray lures did not show any significant difference in the hooking rates. Therefore, it is likely that the 'spectral' (colored) effects are the major influence causing the differences in hooking rates and the luminous effects play only a minor role in artificial lures.