Fly Line Color?
- This topic has 39 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated Nov 20, 2006 at 4:28 pm by
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Flatlander,
I grew up fishing the S. Holston, and I know just what you mean. BIG fish in flat slow moving water are finicky and hard to fool. Long perfect drifts and 16+foot leaders are a must with those spooky devils. My brother and I downsize a white, tan, or peach tuft of treated McFly Foam yarn…and have found the tiniest floatable indicator is the only way not to spook those BIG nymphing trout. If you’re not careful in stalking them, you might as well just plan on catching the stockers.
Swift water makes no difference in my experience—Large and brite is fine,but I still prefer white.Line color: if your casting is stealthy, and you don’t disturb the lanes by dragging lines over your target fish…I haven’t noticed much difference….but I use moss green.
Travis
I’m curious as to how many of you guys have spend anytime underwater in a swimming pool with goggles on, looking up at flies and fly lines on the surface.
Okay Carter. Your telling us you’ve been underwater to observe the color of fly line OUT of the water?
Look, the game of catching or going fishless may not mean any one thing affected your success but it can be a number of things. What you’re essentially saying is clothing color doesn’t matter either. I can prove that wrong and have time and time again. Walk up to my pond with bright clothes on and you can see the fish skurry away. Do the same in muted clothes and you can blend in.
I know down here even a bright watch on your wrist is taboo.
The South Holston, besides being low and slow can be extremely clear at times as can the mountain streams in NC and the spring creeks out west and in Michigan. Most folks I fish with do everything they can to not be seen, including having black felts on their wading boots and wearing camo to fish the SoHo.
It makes no sense to flash a bright line around in some fishing situations. To thinkotherwise might just make or break your fishing success.Okay Carter. Your telling us you’ve been underwater to observe the color of fly line OUT of the water?
Yes, I have, and I politely suggest that you try it as well.
Thanks for the link FL. It reminded me of the “window” that trout have to see through to the surface. In any event, While color of the line may make some small difference, I still think a line I can see and therefore manage better, will probably catch more fish, so I’m not going to worry to much about it.
Thanks again to everyone.
TB
Does this mean I can throw away all my dubbing and just use one color on my dry flies?
Actually, Flatlander, with large popper, hopper, and gurlger type patterns you really cant tell, at least as far as the body is concerned, you can make out color if the light is right on legs, tails or anything else you have hanging off the pattern that light can shine through.
Carter,
I wasn’t trying to argue. I’ve always used the gray or drab lines because I was taught by a much wiser fishermanI love topics like this. This board has some of the best discussions on gear. I’ve usually always chosen some shade of green for my line just because I happen to like that color. That’s real scientific isn’t it?
It is interesting that there are so many colors out there including clear tip/stealth lines and they all seem to work. But do some work better? Are the clear tip lines just to “catch” fisherman? It’s a good question and one we probably can’t answer definitively here. I think I agree with Carter that color doesn’t make much difference. But I’m not sure color wouldn’t make at least somewhat of a difference in heavily fished waters.
Greg
you know I wish I had one of those clear floaters that are available now when I was looking at lines in the pool.
Glm–I agree. There are very good discussions on this board.
Carter,
Out of curiosity…at what distance from the fly does the color become apparent to your eye in the pool?Its been three years but I remember it as still being very hard to tell, even up close, viewing it against the sky is what makes it really hard.
Well we will never know ‘exactly’ what fish actually see but I’ll definitly give it a look if I ever see it on a shelf.
Check out Gary LaFontaine’s book The Dry Fly too. He had some very interesting thoughts about fly color and the theory of attraction. Incidently, he liked to observe stuff underwater too, only he did it at the bottom of Montana rivers where he could actually observe the trout’s behavior toward different flies.
On a side note, both LaFontaine and Borger advocate wearing dull colors and using drab fly lines.
I’ve read articles about fishing in New Zealand and they made a big deal about having a gray or green flyline. One other theory is if you fish big water exposed mostly to open sky use a light line and
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