UV dubbing

[ducksterman]

I see there is a UV powder paint...any experience with it? I've been thinking of powder painting some bead chain eyes ,etc. wonder if UV eyes on say a nymph would be a trigger or a turn off.

Maybe we can stay away from the philosophical stuff.

[Silver Creek]

The UV subject is interesting--and a bit complicated and at times abstract.

The two most important parts of the subject revolve around the difference between UV Fluorescence and Refleced UV light.

+1. Exactly right.

UV materials that are reflective don't look any different under a black (UVA) light because we can't see under about 400 nm. But fluorescent materials do.


What fluorescence does is to convert a higher energy photon that we can't see to a lower energy that we can see. The higher energy invisible photon is absorbed and a lower energy visible photon is emitted. And it does not have to be UV to visible, it can be blue to yellow in the visible range.


This is important when the fly is under water because light penetrates water depending on the energy of the light and the lower energy red end of the spectrum gets absorbed first. So a fish that is attracted by red may be attracted to a red fluorescent dubbing because the fly will look red when there is no red light available to reflect.


There is a theory that in dim light trout can see green the best because the green chlorolabe cone becomes the most sensitive, the opposite situation to bright light. So green fluorescence or phosphorescense may work best near dusk.


There is a lot known about trout vision but whether this translates to attraction is less known.

[ducksterman]

There is a powder paint fluorescent available. Are you saying it would likely be better than the UV one?

[Greg H]

Which brings me to these questions: Why not use some Lure Scent or rub some insect lubricant to the fly and continue to call it 'fly fishing'?

There is no need to go to extremes for analogies and examples. I used to have the 'New Scientific' book and found it very interesting, although a little hard to wrap my head around, because as mentioned above, we cannot see UV. I loaned it to someone and now don't remember whom - too bad, so sad - but I digress.

As I recall, one of the images in the book was of white feathers, some of which fluoresced more under UV light. In particular white goose biots (like on a Prince's Nymph) glowed more than white hen feathers. Thus it is possible to employ 'traditional' materials in traditional 'fly fishing' patterns and obtain the fluorescent effect without resorting to chemicals, live bugs, synthetics, or looking down one's nose.

[NJTroutbum]

Exactly.....each material has it's own unique characteristic when wet. It's usually not a single material that makes a fly effective, but the combined affect.