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
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"......
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.
Whatfly,
Understand that. However, it has become more widespread in dry fly tying (trout flies) in this decade, I believe. Am reminded of a recent post by Craig Mathews of Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone over some purple died feathers, as I recall.
I can tell you that back in the 70's I was fishing in a trout stream in Missouri. Another guy was catching trout on a jig. I asked him about it. He said "Use a marabou jig....any color is fine, as long as it's purple".
So, again, I'm talking more about purple bodied trout dry flies over the last 7-10 years. Seems to me that there has been a decided uptick. And, I'm wondering what the principal reason for their touted effectiveness is.
Last edited by Byron haugh; 02-22-2017 at 02:54 AM.
The snipe and purple is one of the basic flies if you're fishing soft hackle wets. Right up there with the partridge and orange, grouse and green, and starling and herl. Must be a reason for that, no?
Chuck
Yes..........
When you get down close and look at a trout stream, there's a lot of stuff floating down the river. Most of it is not trout food. I think trout learn to ignore stuff that's not food. They are looking for things that don't look like common debris.
I have no evidence for this, but my theory is that purple makes the fly stand out from all the rest of the flotsam. Sparkly stuff or orange hotspots have the same effect. Once the trout is focused on the purple fly, it may decide to eat it, if the fly looks like food.
There's no doubt that the S&P is a great fly -- I use it a lot -- but when wet, I don't find the silk to be all that purple. It's just a dark fly. The older name for it is "Dark Snipe", which may be a better description. I suspect (but can't prove) that it uses purple thread for the same reason that Stewart's Black Spider is tying with brown thread -- black silk thread was (and still is) notoriously fragile. (It's got to do with the ding process.)Originally Posted by Chuck441
Last edited by redietz; 02-22-2017 at 03:54 PM.
Bob
This past Summer, on a certain Sierra high alpine lake, my son and I used this Purple Pattern, in #12, tied with UV2 Dyed Peacock Herl:
...and caught and released a bunch of these guys:
Back in 1987, I caught one of my largest Rainbows to date, on the East Walker River, with a Purple R.A.M. Caddis...
PT/TB
Daughter to Father, "How many arms do you have, how many fly rods do you need?"
http://planettrout.wordpress.com/
Has it? One or two new guide flies from MT in the last 10 years is a trend? Are the a number of others I'm unaware of? I'm assuming you are not merely asking about the UV craze, which has been dealt with elsewhere ad nauseam.
In some ways the question just boils down to, does a bit of flash help or not. While you may be fixating on purple because of the additive you are using, you are in fact adding purple FLASH, and it is the latter that is significant I suspect. Have you tried adding blue or green flash? Result? If you were actually adding purple natural dubbing, then this might be a different question.
As always, just depends on how much you believe in the order of importance of presentation, size, color. Question reminds me of the craze not too long ago surrounding the 'magical' qualities of blue nymphs.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
