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Blue..... the new purple??

Spey 
7K views 66 replies 30 participants last post by  golfman65 
#1 ·
Variations of blue intrigue me. My all important confidence is with purple, but I would like to try blue this fall. What have your experiences been with blue as opposed to a usual purple
pattern?
 
#59 ·
Here is an interesting article regarding color and depth of water.
http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/cephschool/LightQualityandQuantity.pdf

Instead of reading the whole thing (a lot that I don't understand) you can scroll down to page 6 and then continue scrolling down to see how color changes a various depths. They have a color plate that they photographed a different depths.

Then on page 30 they have a graph of what happens to the primary colors at different depths.

As you can see blue will stay visible longer as light diminishes. Red is the quickest to lose it's color. So does color matter as much to fish as we think it does? Maybe...I sure don't know. The guys that state "As long as it's black." may be the most correct. Again I don't know. All that I really know is....it's just a kick in the ass being out there fishing regardless.
 
#60 ·
What about maybe? Orange, pink, red, Oh I have never done well with red, scratch that one out. How about burlap, oh is that really a color? Maybe black, oh that would only be of use in the right conditions, Oh yeh! I could try blue? But what about purple? Does purple still work or is it the knew blue? This internet stuff is so confusing.
 
#64 ·
In my experience and from what I have been told by olde tymers, size is far more important to silvers than color.

They can be very selective this way so tie many different sizes to whatever fly you tie and go through them systematically when around silvers.

A little too big or too small can make a huge difference.
 
#66 ·
you know how you get those nervous tying fits once in awhile and have to tie something stupid to get the poison out?
I made a fly with loads of holoflash in the tail, tail of purple and red marabou, put on a simple body of purple ice dub over some lead wraps, palmered a blue hackle over it, and finished with a purple dyed guinea collar. too hideous looking to name. looked like a feather duster on acid.
caught a steelhead with it the next day:hmmm:
who knows what the hell a fish wants? I'd been fishing blue, purple, other colors, low waters, bunnies, got most of the box wet that day and scored on the misfit fly.
I'll have to say degree of contrast in materials, amount of sparkle/flash, action, and visibility in the water column is what triggers the take. What makes it tricky is that each fish is an individual too.
 
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