When it comes to clear plastic lures, whether a clear plastic crankbait or soft plastic lure, there is no such thing as no color in water. It's not like looking through a pane of glass which is totally transparent, flat and thin.
Lures are thick, bent and curved resulting in whatever light passing through clear plastic to
outline whatever background color is behind, beneath or above them resulting in a three-dimensional colored object fish easily see regardless water clarity. Here are two examples:
they are probably slower to identify it as a fake.
As regards that statement, I have an opinion many may disagree with. I've caught fish casting pretty much ever lure design ever made and find more every year when I make lures of varied designs. Based on thousands of observations, here is my
simple explanation of why fish strike lures:
Fish sense prey and lures. Both must be of a certain size for them to attack. The action of prey is natural and defined for that species; the action nor the appearance of lures need be natural or realistic copies of anything in nature.
But lures must meet certain requirements live prey don't (except size) in order to
provoke a fish to strike.
Convincing fish that a lure is a real animal is a
human assumption
why fish strike lures but with many glaring exceptions. Just the variety of lures presented above is enough proof fish don't think but simply react when certain lure parameters are in place.
Coincidental life imitations may happen, but fish simply react because
lure size and
action, as well as
presentation are precise and within a range. When choosing lures, they are my
only considerations.
This is a theory anyone can prove for themselves.