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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?
 
#4 ·
Blue has alaways been one of my favorite colors, particularly for summer-runs. A simple, blue (silver doctor blue) and purple, spun marabou was my go-to pttern for many years. Blue has traditionally been a widely used color for low-water Atlantic salmon patterns (Blue Charm and others). Here's a a simple pattern that I call the Pseudospey (I also tie it in other colors). The other is an Atlantic salmon fly from the Margaree River region, the Big Intervale Blue.
 
#6 ·
Blue seems to work pretty good over here on the Clearwater. Leroy Hyatt of Lewiston has come up with a mostly blue fly called the "Papa Smurf". For the short time it's been around it's been successful.

After it gets colder and the water is clear a small black marabou with a fl blue guinea collar works really well here.
 
#7 ·
As A Perfect Circle sings:

"Such a lovely color for you!" ;)

Blue and black is definitely the new purple. I've had very good luck with blue...more so in the winter mostly though just because I'm always fishing more natural colors or small black something during the summer.

In the winter time try a Blue Exasporator!!! But you had better have a big rod to cast it!!!

Christian
 
#8 ·
Black and blue is a standard on the Skagit at least amongst the people I fish with.

I will have to look into that "Blue Charm"....Thanks Leland.
 
#13 ·
Calvin, did you think I was talking about steelhead?

Perch, guy, perch.
Too bad those perch are just stinky old hatchery boots! :D
 
#15 ·
Interesting this question should come up. Here on the Rogue, which not a lot of folks actually know, is we have two sets of summer runs. The first, and largest in numbers, are the 'A' fish which will run 3-6 pounds on average. The second run ('B's' if you will) enter the upper river usually in October and will be double the size of the 'A' fish.

For the first group, never touched a fish with a fly incorporating a 'light blue.' The 'B-Boys' a whole new thing. :thumb:
 
#16 ·
Blue works, which is kind of shocking.:confused: I mean, yellow, red, purple, black, orange, peach, rust, brown, olive, white, green, pink, red/white/blue, and tan/burlap have all put steelhead on the beach over the years, so it really surprises me that blue would.:D Duff
Just like Trix are for kids, most steelhead flies are for anglers. There are places, times, and other variables where color and pattern are important, but to me most of the time, it's all about presentation for our beloved steelies.
 
#17 ·
Blue works, which is kind of shocking.:confused: I mean, yellow, red, purple, black, orange, peach, rust, brown, olive, white, green, pink, red/white/blue, and tan/burlap have all put steelhead on the beach over the years, so it really surprises me that blue would.:D Duff
:rofl:
 
#19 ·
I hear that argument all the time, but don't entirely buy it. I agree that presentation and fishing w/ confidence are important factors, but color does matter. As everyone knows, some colors are picked up better in various light and/or water conditions. Beyond that, however, some colors just elicit more strikes. I am a pretty average steelheader, but I would be happy to follow any of you through my favorite upper Columbia trib runs with you fishing a bare hook and me fishing my go-to fly. Color does matter. How much? Who knows, but it matters.
 
#20 ·
Thank you for that logical, non-ego driven response Tuna. You are right, color and profile do matter, especially under different light and water clearity conditions. Presentation and a player are certianly the key, and yes patterns are definatley driven by confidence, but the fly does play a part. The bare hook guys I think you are referring to consist of some of the N. Umpqua vets who wake shankless hooks.
 
#21 ·
Steelhead?

Any color's good, as long as it's black.

Black is more visible under all light conditions than any other color.

This has occurred in print an untold number of times. But it won't stop anglers from tying flies in numerous other colors. Me included.

Sg
 
#22 ·
"Thank you for that logical, non-ego driven response Tuna." Direct quote from our own beloved Panhandle......Coach Duff

What are you Phil Donahue now? Pan, stick to spey fishing, the talk show host deal will never work as long as you look like Jerry Garcia.:D The networks will never buy into a show with Jerry Garcia trying to convince everyone about how important colors and specific patterns are to steelhead when they've hit buzz bombs, spoons, spinners, plugs of every size, shape and color known to man, earthworms, rubber worms, dry flies, wet flies, skaters, nymphs, jigs, cut plug, hootchies, bait divers, eggs, fake egg clusters with scent, sand shrimp, Dahlberg Divers, God knows what in the Great Lakes, marshmallows, grasshoppers, hellgrammites, and Power Bait. Hey it's your story and you have fun telling it.:D Duff
PS And I missed a few! It's all about presentation Pan, it's all in the presentation. :beer2:
 
#27 ·
Coach, I've not had the pleasure of meeting you...yet. But I have to ask, becase as I read your above statement I'll tell you what I am seeing in my mind.

Coach Duff, sitting at the computer, oversized for the tiny machine like Linus and his piano, frantically typing the above statement while SHOUTING IT OUTLOUD getting ever louder and louder. Face getting more red by the second and to top it all off you did the whole thing on ONE BREATH. After clicking "submit reply" your face cleared, blood pressure dropped 20 points and you uttered a big sigh of relief.

If I'm not right, don't spoil my visual, just wanted to let you know what reading it made me think of (like one of those wild ink blot tests of what is the first thing to come to mind).

I'm also with Steven Green, I thought this thread was going to be about fashion or the blue tinted lenses in Panhandle's eyewear. It has been much more intriguing than I imagined.
 
#25 ·
I agree that the main way color and pattern matter is in getting the fish to see the fly and not much more.

Here is a good bit of evidence through experience:

Because steelhead patterns that work often don't catch resident trout much. And realistic patterns that catch resident trout often don't do as well with steelhead.

There are cross-over patterns but there is no doubt that in almost any given steelhead fishing scenario with resident trout and steelhead side by side, there are flies that will only catch one and not the other and vice a versa.

This means there isn't much "nature" to what a steelhead bites.

What does a steelhead like to bite?

If the steelhead is biting, in my experience, it bites just about anything that gets noticed, and gets close enough to warrent the fish's attention.

So when Tuna and Pan say that color and pattern do matter, it isn't in the same way it does with trout flies. It is in a purely funcional sense, so I really don't think anyone is disagreeing here and I don't think what they are saying goes against accepted beliefs within Church of Steelhead.
 
#29 ·
Just fish what you are confident in...and you will catch fish. If your buddy is catching more...you are just a bad fisherman. If you are catching more than your buddy you say, "do you know why you aren't catching any?" he says, "why" you say, "because you are a bad fisherman."
 
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