I'm actually going to be fishing the same lake where the Queen's U research was done - booked a cottage for last week of June and can't wait, will be doing some filming and relaxing, all rolled into one. On the issue of colour, just a few stories I have personally to share.
I have a lake where my family goes, have been for generations. It's a small lake with a healthy population of both walleye and smallmouth. Funny thing is that on this lake specifically, I can put a minnow, grub or swimbait onto a jig head and toss it for either species, but I have to base the colour of my jig head to go for a specific species. I have been out and will catch Walleye around the lake on the greens but never a bass. Switch to my orange jig heads, whammo, bass start nailing it. Can even have the same trailer (say a green pumpkin grub, ok) and they still go by preference of the jig head colour, or at least I have always told myself that.
Also, I heard a tip a few years ago from a well-known pro who said that if you are throwing topwaters and you have a lot of followers or bass nipping at your bait but not taking it, try switching the colour up. So, I was throwing a white popper and had a couple swipes and follows, but no real hits. I switched that topwater up to a darker colour and whammo -a smallmouth erupted on it in no time, followed up by numerous other fish. Since this time I have usually been able to change up colours on topwaters to induce more strikes as needed...
So, the only difference was the colour, I was still throwing a popper. Again, I based the success on the colour, but this article would state there was no preference.
OK, last example. Last summer, I was on a very low-pressured River system. I was throwing green pumpkin strike king zero senko style baits and was really not having the success I thought I would. So, I switched up to the Bubblegum Zero worm , and whammo. fish on and multiple more thereafter.
It probably must just come down to a confidence thing if this "colour has nothing to do with success" theory truly holds any water.
Regardless, I will throw lots of senkos at those Opinicon Lake bucketmouths this summer and be sure to report back if I find any statistical anomolies
Tight lines
~OAO~