Here is a little trick you can use to aid in your color experimentation. There is one very easy way to decide if color is important or not. I know it is not the most user friendly method but it works. Use teams of flies. Let the fish make an instant decision when they have three or five flies to pick from at the same time.

Throwing flies one at a time while even at the same fish can give you feed back but there is not that instant menu of choice. A cheese burger looks good when there is only one to pick from and a hamburger looks good when there is only one to pick from, but when they both appear together at the same time which one am I going to eat first. Same size, smell, and proportions, but one has got that extra sliver of yellow or white goodness on it that the other doesn't.


If you see a pattern of color choice starting to emerge start changing the order or your flies in your team and see if the fish really are keying in on color or something else, like depth, speed, or closest line of sight.

I play with this a lot with my favorite quarry of striped bass. They can be as picky as the wariest clear water trout and at times as selective as an empty trash can.

I will tie the same pattern in the same sizes but with different colors and will throw three to five at once. Some nights fish have picked off the same color no matter which position in the team I put it, from the point to the head fly.

Some nights the fish will pick off a certain spot on the team no matter what the color I have as I keep changing the position of the colors. I think those nights the fish are keying on depth or speed of the drift more than color or pattern.

Some nights fish have come on random patterns and colors where it didn't seem to matter. Other nights I have seen fish come and inspect every fly I have in my box and leave without a nibble.

From my observations I have come to the opinion that sometimes color matters and sometimes it does not. The same can be said for any trigger that will make a fish strike. There are trends but very few hard fast rules.