Ultraviolet

[Jake Smulkowski]

I was just visiting one of my local shops tonight to pick up some #6 hooks to tie up for the Big C, and I had my interest sparked by some "ultraviolet" material. I saw it in the flashbou form, as well as in dubbing form. Has anyone used this material - maybe in very small amounts as an attractor in various patterns? The stuff certainly caught my eye. I actually kind of stood there flashing it back and forth for about 5 minutes. That might just be a flashback to my Hunter S. Thompson halloween costume though.

Any practical uses for the stuff? I know that at some points in the season, the gaudier = the better over here in Clearwater country.

Thanks,
Jake

[ceviche]

Interestingly, I read about how copper will get "holographic" when you shine it with UV. That's the reason I like to wrap copper wire over peacock herl (think: Carey Specials). You get a two-fer. Then again, who sez that UV is the light spectrum that trout predominately see? Oy...!

[FT]

Yes, I use the ultraviolet Krystal Flash in purple, pearlescent, and hot pink. I don't use a lot of it, only 3-4 strands as a highlight in the wing or tail, or use 2-4 strands as a body veiling. Using it this way provide twinkling, bright spots of color that seem to go on and off as the fly fishes.

[Randy Diefert]

I cut it into small strands (1/4") and put it in my coffee bean grinder with some dubbing mixes and make dubbing ropes with it. On some patterns it just makes that little bit of difference.Most of the dubbing enhancers that I use are a purplish color or that 70's blacklite looking fine hair looking stuff. Did that make sense? The one thing that I should point out though. I use it VERY sparingly when I use it. I just want a glint in the fly.

[Anil]

I am a huge fan of ‘U.V.’ materials. So far I have found them available in Krystal Flash (7 different colors), Flashabou (Ice Pearl Blue), Angel Hair (Pearl Blue and Pear Purple), as well as a few different dubbings (‘Ice Dub’ has 6 different colors). The fall issue of Fly Tyer has an article about fish and their ability to see well into the U.V. spectrum. Let me relate a personal story that seems to support this.
About 7 or 8 years ago I began using the ‘U.V. Pearl’ color of Krystal Flash in my baitfish patterns for no other reason than I thought it looked good. Not long after that, we were fishing Silvers up at Neah Bay. The catching was very good, but interestingly there were two flies that were producing better than anything else in our boxes. We traded rods and lines in order to take as much of the human equation out of the mystery. The flies still produced better than everything else.
Aside from both being tied on tubes, they were vastly different. One was almost 5” long, heavily dressed with a bright chartreuse back. The other fly was only 3” long, tied sparse and featured a dark ‘Kelly Green’ Back. The only thing that these flies had in common was the noticeable clump of U.V. flash material. Ever since then I’ve included U.V. in many of my baitfish patterns. While I often don’t use very much flash, in contrast to some of the earlier posts, I have found that Silvers and other open water gamefish, do not have any concept of ‘too much’ flash. I have even done well with flies that are tied entirely of U.V. flash!
Anil
www.pugetsoundflyco.com

[Jake Smulkowski]

Thanks for the input - When looking at that stuff it just looked flashy as all hell, so I thought it might be good in small quantities.