The Purple Flies...............

[Byron haugh]

I have a question.

I have seen the "purple fly" movement gaining acceptance in recent years. I guess my first notice of this was watching Walter Wiese's video of tying the Loop Wing Purple Haze. Since then, I have seen a lot of pretty famous tiers/shops extolling the virtues of the fish catching ability of purple bodied flies.

More recently, I have found that using a small number of "sprigs" of UV pearl ice dubbing on my caddis flies really did seem to improve the number of takes.

I took this somewhat grainy photo of a little caddis pattern on the water in my slant tank the other day. Granted, I am sure it all depends upon how the light hits the fly, but I noticed that some of the few sprigs of UV material presented some "purple" spots around the fly.

Just wondering if others use this material; does it also improve your take %; and do you think it might be because, given certain light conditions, it gives off a "purple" reflection?

[sagefisher]

Byron,

Just talking about purple colors in flies, yes, they are very effective as you know. The Purple Haze is a great dry fly and very productive at times on the rivers of eastern WA and western MT. Purple San Juan Worms can also be very effective as are purple Woolly Buggers and Leaches. For the dry flies, the purple remains purple on the surface, but for the wet flies, depending upon the color of the water, after about 4 feet in depth the purple can actually turn to red.

Just my observations.

Larry ---sagefisher---

[Joe Billingsley]

I know a couple of guys that incorporate purple somewhere in all of their flies - dries, nymphs, streamers, everything.
As far as the UV pearl Ice Dub, I tried it in a bunch of flies when I saw Galloup's video about it but I haven't seen any increase in takes at all. I do use pearl Mylar for ribbing in a lot of flies, though.

Joe

[Byron haugh]

What I'm wondering.......is the improved success I have found by adding some sprigs of UV pearl ice dubbing, because it tends to appear to have a purple tint/spots? Or do the strands help for a totally different reason?

[Bruce Norikane]

What I'm wondering.......is the improved success I have found by adding some sprigs of UV pearl ice dubbing, because it tends to appear to have a purple tint/spots? Or do the strands help for a totally different reason?

Violet (purple) is right next to UV in the color spectrum. As far as light goes, UV is only special because it's outside the range of human vision. If our eyes had photo detectors for UV wavelengths, they would just be another color.

I'd guess that fish that react to UV reflectance will also react to purple. It's like bright green and chartreuse. They are close in color, so sometimes the fish will accept either.

of course, nothing is always true in fishing.

wavelength_figure.jpg

[Byron haugh]

Thanks Bruce. That makes sense.

Of course, the 800 pound gorilla in the room is why purple/near purple is attractive to them.....

If one were fishing a hatching period of, say, PMD's, would you dress a Dun in purple?? Or, is purple more effective as an attractor in non-hatch periods?

[Uncle Jesse]

Byron, sometime it's the reason your mom gave you, "because that's the way it is." One of my favorite baits when using casting and spinning rods was a purple plastic worm. It was my favorite because it caught fish and it caught fish because it was my favorite and I kept on in the water more than other colors. The greatest factor in catching fish with a lure or fly is keeping it on/in the water.

[fishbum]

Spleachj.jpg

Spleech / Spleach

I developed this fly in 1986 for fishing to Great Lakes steelhead. I still use it a often. It has been used on the great lakes streams as well as west the coast from northern California to Alaska.

Purple is very good.

Jerry

[Byron haugh]

Jesse,
I get it........Thing is, that the fly fishing community is a broad group. There are casual fly fishers, new fly fishers, long-time fly fishers, fly fishers who only fish with purchased flies and those flies they are told will work. There are fly fishers who only fish with the flies they tie. There are those who read voraciously all the books on flies, fly fishing, insects, etc. etc.
I guess I happen to be in that last category........those of us who are pretty much obsessed with all things fly tying/fishing.........and always curious about insects, imitations, trout biology, stream ecology, reading water, etc., etc., etc. As an often quoted phrase: "Enquiring minds want to know"......

[whatfly]

Purple is hardly a magical nor new color. Steelheaders have been using it for years with great effect.

That being said, I've never caught a darn thing with the Purple Haze.