If you were going to fish this fly, currently a blank slate, for trout in a tailwater stream how would you color it. Please keep in mind I have a fair selection of colored Sharpies and nail polish. BTW, this is what is get when I try to follow the instructions for Puglisi baitfish using the synthetic[FONT=Tahoma] [/FONT]material from a prescription drug bottle. This is tied on a No. 6 hook.
Thanks
Shad gray or olive are always a good bet, IMO.
Looks like a Shenk White Minnow.
http://www.danica.com/flytier/eshenk/shenk_white_minnow.htm
Leave it alone. 
I would think a sculpin olive, or a pale yellow would work.
Shad like warm water, and may not be prevalent in a trout tailwater?
How 'bout a baby rainbow trout color pattern?
Give a couple a crawfish coloring, being a tailwater they must eat them sometimes. Other than that Shad or Silver minnow color.
Fatman
Whatever the color the baitfish are in the tailwater that you will be fishing… Best Regards…
What he said!
While the Letort isn’t a tailwater, I can attest to the effectiveness of a white minnow or sculpin pattern in my cold home waters.
Leave at least one of them alone.
Do I see a circle hook? Wow!
No. 6 Eagle Claw Aberdeen
How in the world did you get to THAT from a Puglisi fly???
It looks like a killer minnow pattern for trout, bass and crappie. For a generic minnow, just color the top OD green, place a small thin black lateral line on the sides,and leave the rest white. Draw on a pair red gills and a pair of eyes, and this should work anywhere.
Or you could match any of the local baitfish. Catch one, and use it for a model (keep it alive, because dead fish lose their true coloring rapidly).
[FONT=Tahoma]NEVER underestimate the power of a high level of ineptitude! It’s simple really watch the video on the Puglisi baitfish, sit down at your vise with a slightly different material than fish hair or whatever they were using, tie it in to the best of your understanding and clip away everything you think doesn’t look like a baitfish.
[/FONT]
I would fish it in the all white for sure. The only other thing I would do is add a few strands of silver or pearl flash in the tail. I have to assume that white thread was used to tie the pattern and another thing I would do after doing your whipfinish is go over the whipfinish with black thread and whipfinish over the white. This would give it a black head/eye affect.
Another color, other than white, would be all chartreuse with some flash in the tail.
Another thing you could do and it has nothing to do with coloring this fly, is to do a soft hackle collar up front in gray and allow the hackle to flow back along the sides. That would make it pretty much a “Murray’s Stremph” which was a good smallmouth fly and I have found it to be a pretty good trout fly. I have them tied in black with brown hackle up front and vise versa. Overall, it is a great pattern.
I didn’t mean that in a derogatory sense. It’s just that your fly is completely different (and I’m not sure that I don’t like it better). I think you may be on to something. Could you post the recipe and technique you used? I’d like to try a few of these myself.
No offense taken; I could have probably trimmed up the original clump of fibers to a more Puglisi but without anyone at hand to direct me I trimmed until I got it down to a minnow or fry size and shape. Actually your suggestion for a dark “spine” and some gill crescent and eye was where I was leaning.
