Pink San Juan worms are excellent on trout streams.
SF

 

I crushed the grayling last time I fished for them, using a pink nymph with a black bead. I have no idea why it worked, but it did.

 

Sometimes pink hoppers work great. Sometimes tan works better. Why? Fish can be very unpredictable.

 

I made fun of @rotato for using a bright purple wooley bugger for stocker trout until he started schooling me. I'm sure pink would work. Especially on Valentines day.

 

This pink thing is strange. I understand added to patterns as a hotspot because angler have known for years and years that red attracts fish... maybe because it resembles blood? But short of a few weird-ass mayflies, pink is not really a natural color.

 

It seems like you might be assuming that fish act out of some rational motivation similar to human thought, like, "That thing is the same color and shape as the last thing I ate and seems legit" vs. "Aw hell no, that's an unnatural color!" I just don't think we can assume it works like that in fish brains. And who is to say that a trout thinks like a sturgeon thinks like a smallmouth bass thinks like a tuna?

 

I can understand using purple because purple is one of the colors that a fish can see quite well at depth.

 

im guessing pink/red is easier to see at depth too. the deeper you go in the water column, the more red/pink are filtered out and there is a general "greening and bluing" of everything the deeper you go. thats why some dive masks have a pink filter to help bring back some of the pink/red underwater. that applies to human eyes. not sure how light/color underwater is seen through the eyes of a fish. i know ive had good success with pink eggs, globugs, san juan and squirmy worms as well as pink and orange scuds, bright flashy pink moto minnow like flies and bright red mohair leeches. although im guessing that water depth does not have much to do with it as most of the water i fish is less than 6ft deep. i always attributed the fish to taking those flies mostly because of curiosity and looking "good enuff" than anything else. theres always a fish out there curious enuff to keep using these flies. they are also pretty easy to see from above the water so you have an idea of where the flies are. ive had some but less consistent luck with bright chartreuse flies.

 

One of my save-the-day flies is a big, yellow, bead-headed woolly bugger. Nothing swims in my local ponds looks like it, but some days it's all those fish want. Fish be trippin', yo.

 

Like wise same fly in pink on Strawberry here in Utah, no idea but pink works

 

I have seen locals use pieces of car chamoes on a hook and kill rainbows and browns below damns on the Missouri River . Go figure . I have found tiny pinecones in a cutthroat out of Thornton creek many years ago . Go figure . I had a sockeye attack a rock that wobbled a bit tied to my line for a sinker at Magnoson Park back in the 80's . Go figure . I had a striper blow up on and then eat a cigarette but my dumb ass buddy threw in the water at Lake Mead . Go figure . Etc...…………………………………………………….

 

What plaegreid said .

 

"distractor" flies have saved many a day of fishing...eh? jamma?

 

Well, okay. If they work, they work. Don't know why but then again, I don't care. Guess I need to tie up some weird-ass pink flies.

 

Size 14 dries...are killer.
I'll take a dozen please.

 

Personally I believe we will never know why a fish eats any fly. Just because I'm fishing a sculpin pattern does not mean that every fish that eats it thinks it's a sculpin I might have tied it to look like a sculpin to my eyes, but does that mean a fish sees it the same way? Ultimately we have no idea what goes on in a fish brain.

In short... Who knows. If it works, don't argue with it.

 

Here in the Driftless Area, one could fish all year with nothing but a Pink Squirrel, and do very well indeed. I have caught fish with them in every month I've fished. It is THE Driftless fly.

 

Here in the Driftless Area, one could fish all year with nothing but a Pink Squirrel, and do very well indeed. I have caught fish with them in every month I've fished.

Born in the Driftless, I've fished it since ~1964, but never with a pink squirrel. As a grad student, I kick-net sampled many of these creeks. I found that scuds outnumbered any insect taxon, in just about every sample. Also, some scuds (Gammarus spp.) were olive, but most were tan with an orange-pinkish hue. I figure this is why you're likely to catch fish there swinging a gold bead fly with fox squirrel body, and a twist of pink behind the bead.

 

I believe it’s because it stands out. My cousin and I read a book years ago titled “what fish see”. Basically boiled down to hot pink and chartreuse being the colors that stood out the most to fish in water conditions from mocha to gin clear. I tied everything from bait fish to prince nymphs in pink. It works

 

I believe it's because it stands out.

I had a guide who theorized that fish might be curious, and since they don't have hands the only thing they can use to grab on to the object that catches their curiosity is their mouth. I guess curiosity kills more than cats, eh?

 

If you put a big hook in one of the Big Macs with Bacon, I'd be caught!

You guys who always eat healthy are missing out..

 

I've said this before but want to bring it back again. Was fishing the Beaverhead in the open area below the Dam. Well it a ways below the dam. Pipe Organ access. I was chatting with a fellow Fly fisherman and he told me that he pumped the stomachs of a few smaller trout. All he got out of them was tiny pieces of underwater reeds, color Dark green.. They were all about a 1/4 inch long. I'm thinking Green scuds. I was headed home and forgot about it. Until somebody mentions something and then it comes back to me.

 

Electric Chicken everything

 

Thanks Dylan. The absoulue best fly color combination tied Clouser style (copied from the electric chicken "sparkle beetle" jig used in the bayou) is my go to pattern in the New Orleans area for Specs & Reds. Will try this on Steelhead this April on OP rivers and let you know .

 

Stripping wooly buggers in lakes, I often tie a pink #16 Ray Charles 18” behind. I started it in lakes with stockers, but found it often catches most of the fish, stocked or wild.

 

I had great luck a few winters ago with bead head buggers on a full sinker at Green Lake .

 

There are a lot of scuds in the waters I fish. Dead scuds have a small band of pink in the middle (some people thing those are eggs, but not so). So, trout key in on pink colors.

 

Four year old girls are also irresistibly attracted to things that are pink and sparkly. Maybe there’s a link?

I have yet to attempt to catch a steelhead on a “my little pony” but when I do, I am sure it will work!

 

I have alot of success with a fly similar to this fished on the swing, especially during caddis hatches.

A pink soft hackle sow bug can be pretty effective under an indicator.
Also, let it swing at the end of the drift.

 

I'll most likely tie up a few pink soft hackles. I already have some pink WBs I use for SRC (they worked) and I have tried them in lakes for rainbow (they didn't work). Perhaps I need to change the shade of pink

Now, the overriding question in all this is: do real men use pink flies?

 

I think that there was a fly called the Pink Lady. It looked like a White Miller