last year, i had a fly fishing guide friend come into town during the sandbass run. we got to the water and started fishing. we were throwing clousers all day long that both of us tied. both of us are evenly matched on casting a fly and both of us were using clousers we tied separately. both were white. my catch ratio was was 3-1 to his sandies..... he tied on one of my flys and started catching them 1-1 with me...... the only thing i did was add pearl chinille to the body and pearl flashabou like below....

but the thing was they were both white? so why would they hit my fly over his most of the time? well while i was tying jigs for crappie last year, i knew the crappie always look up.......... so i took my fly and put it above my head in the sun and saw something that made a lot of sense and threw me for a loop....

-at the Ft. Worth and Dallas Fly Fishing Association, i did a seminar in total of about 100 people, when i told them this, i think every person was dumbfounded when i showed them this....?




-Turns pink with the light while looking at it from below! the lighting i used here was low lighting, but in the sun, its even pinker.... take a look at some of your flashabou above your head in the light and you might see a different color.

So that mere color change was what did it that day. and i use this color of flash on all my flys for sandies, hybrids, striper, and bass....... Crazy huh?

So, now what we need to do is look up at our flys (or materials) while we and they are submerged in water. The fish eye view.

Fish also see in a different spectrum than us. The choice in materials can also be the difference. While I agree that the holographic color changes of flashabou may trigger a stike, I believe the fluorescence of materials is a better trigger. Next time you tie a fly, look at it under a black light. The flies that glow tend to do better than those that don't. You'll also notice that just because the material is white, doesent mean it has fluorescence. Chenille is a great example of this, while the dyes used in bucktailswill also vary.

Next time you speak at the FWFF, ask to speak to Pops. You can learn alot about fly and lure design from him, especially when it comes to colors and materials.

on my list.....

Cool observation Carey...thanks for sharing that with us.

i looked up at a fly in the sun & were blinded, I aint falling fer that again.

I have an idea...

We go to a pool with every fly we have and look at them under water from underneth. While we are we do the 10 wt tied to someone ankles (I think Wader-Noob volunteered) and he starts swimming.

LET'S DO THIS!

The pool idea is a good idea. I design a lot of flies and do test them in my swimming pool. It is amazing how bad the newest and greatest fly can act once it actually hits the water LOL. By the way I am having a problem with my pool, maybe some one here can give me some ideas. I have heard about these salt water pools. If I convert to this do you think I can put some salt water fish in it? I have tried to put some in but for some reason they keep ignoring my flies and keep trying to sun tan their bellys!

fish have more sensitivity in their eyes/optic nerves to uv light than humans do by quite a margin (and less in what WE call the visible light spectrum and almost none in the ir spectrum). this is actually true of a lot of animals, especially noctural animals or any that operate in low light conditions (like underground). uv light travels through water better than ir or visible light. thus, natural selection has heightened the fishes' uv perception over the eons. the way a material fluoresces to our naked eye isn't even a really good indication of how it differs in the perception of fish, but it's better than nothing. best is a uv light and those filtered glasses they wear on csi that blocks out most other light and lets uv pass through. just remember: over-exposure to uv light makes you go blind. that's why any decent pair of $15 sunglasses say "100% uva/uvb protection" on them. today's tying material mfgs are doing more and more research on this sort of stuff and using materials that incorporate more and more of this knowledge. but it's still hard to beat polar bear and baby seal fur. lol

What if I were to flip over the flash and hold it OVER a light bulb? Would I still see a pinkish hue? Or is it a gravity thing - pinkish hues only fall to the ground?

Reminds me. Why is "a pinkish hue" swimming around in my brain?

Is that a pinkish hue or a pink elephant?

I think this is a pinkish Hugh

I know its actually more red, I did find a pic that was really pink but one of the girls werent wearing a shirt and Robin don't wantin no pics of wimmens that can't get all the way dressed on here

I've done extensive analysis and can assure you that the elephant in the corner is in fact white. Anyone care to buy it?

BassBug, I didn't know that silicone gave off a pinkish hue.