fly colors?

What colors do you prefer for certain conditions and why? now, Im not asking about for imitating the colors of the natural, but for various conditions such as muddy, clear, night, etc. i've heard a lot about using black for night, but i dont understand why. it would seem to me that black would be much harder to see at night and be not as good of a choice.

anyways, hope to hear youre opinions.

The reason for using black in low-no light conditions is because it provides a better silhouette. The dark colors stand out against the ambient light that does enter the water creating a more distinct target for fish to see.

There's a more in depth explanation to this, but the short answer is : black at night because it silhouettes better than color.

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Originally Posted by DDRRedneck500

i've heard a lot about using black for night, but i dont understand why. it would seem to me that black would be much harder to see at night and be not as good of a choice.

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I am new to fly fishing, but the same thing goes for fishing with jigs for bass. It never made much sense to me either, but for me black seems to work better than light colors in dark muddy water as well as at night. Joe's answer is the first time I have heard of the silhouette, but that makes sense.

the colors of the stream/river bottom.

black, brown, olive and tan

go to http://www.flyfishradio.com/podcast.php and find all episodes with norm albiston. he describes the 4 colors of flies

First off let me say this is based ONLY on what I have noticed or read...

Go outside at dusk and look for colors. I have noticed whites are the first to fade out and disappear as the light dims. The darker the color the longer you can see it.

As I understand colors are created by the material reflecting that part of the light spectrum. So if you see red all other colors of the light spectrum are not reflected. Therefore as there is less light there is less to reflect and the colors begin to turn gray. Black remains the same no matter what light level and, even in next to zero light, can still be seen.

That is why darker colors are used in low light or stained water.

OK, now if someone that knows about this stuff wants to chime in and tell me I?m full of it, please educate me!

For me with warmwater topwater flies, the colors are for me to see. The bass and sunfish don't seem to care what color they are. I have seen that the brighter colors work best during bright conditions and darker colors during overcast/dark conditions.

Anything I use subsurface is predominantly brown or olive with the exception of chartreuse, don't know why chartreuse works so well but it does! I do try to incorporate red into just about every bass/sunfish fly, you know everyone says that predators key in on red. I don't know if it really works but it hasn't hurt.

I'm going to tie topwater some patterns for this year that are dark but incorporate some glow in the dark material on top for me to see at night.

Just my two cents worth;

Wayneb

I use darker colors (blacks, purples, etc.., ) in darker conditions because they do silhouette well. In fading light, those same dark colors, with chartreuse added to them, will show up pretty well.
In muddy, or off colored water (lower light), combinations of black and chart. or black and yellow have worked well. In off colored water, under normal ambient light, chart. and yellow have worked real well for me.