Material Question

[RexW]

This weekend I wanted to fish a white clouser and the only one I had with me was one that I had bought several (many?) years ago. I thought it was just a white buck tail clouser will a little bit of flash in it. The flash was the thin, stiff plastic stuff about the thickness of buck hair. I use a lot of it but I'm not sure the name of the material - flashabou maybe??

Anyway the color of the flash was basically clear. It blended in with the hair well enough that I didn't pay any attention to it when I tied on the fly. It was a standard commercial fly, so the material shouldn't been anything too fancy, but I don't know what it was.

However, in the water the flash changed color and was a chartureus green color. It reminded me of the effect that you can get with a plastic worm by dying the tail. Basically, it looked like a white clouser with chartruese tips. It was working very well, that is until I lost it.

I don't know what the color of this flash is called, but I would love to get some and start using it in some of my own flies.

Has anyone used this type of flash before, that turns green in the water? Does anyone know what this material might have been?

Now I wish I had stopped fishing the fly and kept it so that I could find out what was in it. Oh well, it is hard to stop fishing a fly that is working!

Thanks,
Rex

[flyfisherjoe]

Rex,

Sounds like pearl color Krystal Flash; a readily available and common material.

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Joe

[RexW]

I didn't know Pearl turns green in the water. I have been using either Rainbow which just adds some sparkle to the fly, or one of the solid colors such as Red. So, the color change surprised me. I'll try some of the Pearl.

Thanks,
Rex

[Gary Miller]

Rex -

I agree that it is "Pearl". My experience has been that the "color change" pearl flash material varies depending on water color, light penetration, and the color of the other materials in the fly. I get the same variation when using Sally's Hard As Nails in pearl with glitter to coat popper heads. The glitter color looks blue & red on a white popper head. On a black popper head, the exact same bottle yields green & yellow glittler.

Has to have something to do with light refraction/reflection.

- Gary

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