i know this has probably been posted before.
and there is probably no real answer but, does line color really matter?
i have always used colors like willow, buckskin, and olive for floating lines because of their drabness. i have a chartruese line on my five weight and im not sure it makes a difference in fish spooking/catching.
just wondering what the thoughts are on this one or if theres some scientific explanations.
i think bright is not great, but i am young and can see a drab line. so for the older people with eyesight failing them fast i bet the bright colors help alot.
I’ve fished in high mountain lakes and streams where the line color does seem to matter. One particluar example is a time a friend and I were fishing relativley side by side with the same size leader, tippet, fly and pattern. I had flourescent green line, he had white. He caught fish, i didn’t. It would be easy to say that it came down to presentation, not line color, but we were both dead drifting the flies or letting the wind push them around. When he started catching fish, I tried to mimmick everything he did. It didn’t really matter, so I can only assume it was the difference in line color.
In the most excellent book The Trout and the Fly, A New Approach by Brain Clarke and John Goddard, (1980) they cover this subject extensively
They tested three lines, a white, a brown and a green, above the water, on the water in the window, and on the water in the mirror (the reflective surface area outside the the trout’s window of above surface vision)
To make a long story short, They found the the white was less visible above the water, while on the water in the window there was little difference.
In the mirror on the other hand there was a great deal of difference.
In every case, the white fly line was vastly more visible than either the green or brown lines. It lay like a great bright crack in the face of a mirror; and when cast into the mirror, it fell like a flash of white light across the whole field of view
I’ll take any edge I can get.
The only time I use bright lines is for practice casting and teaching and in the salt.
The way I ‘see’ it, it’s not so much when the line is on the water that I worry about, it’s when it’s flashing around in the air during the cast.
This is the same reason I took 120 grit to my Winstons… NOT!
I like white because I can see it the best in all light conditions and being able to see my line helps me during the twilight hours when I LOVE to fish.
As far as the fish go; on regular sized streams I almost never fish a leader less that 12 feet so I don’t worry about my fly line as long as I don’t false cast right over their heads. I have caught more than my share of fish on fly lines that are peach, white, yellow, chartreuse, grey, dark willow and olive.
You should always use a line color that does not clash with the colors of your rod/reel, waders, and vest. My wife’s TFO CFR rod is purple with pink accents. It’s fitted with a TFO Midge reel in pink. And the line is hi-viz green (dayglo). It’s very sporty!
I’ll rate this one up there with camo shotguns for waterfowl and turkey hunting: if the quarry gets spooked by your flat black shotgun with walnut-stained wooden stocks, it should have been dead already. If the color of a fly line spooks a fish, you aren’t going to catch him no matter what color it is. He shouldn’t get that good of a look at it if you want to catch him.
I only use clear lines while fishing lakes like intermediates and clear floaters. The lake produces more fish for me when I use them as apposed to any color line. Keep in mind I still use 12ft. leaders or more and that makes a difference too. I use a clear floater on spring creeks and still scatter fish because those fish designed the line.
Yeah color matters…when you’re 60 years old with 4 eyes (all poor) & olive line on a 2wt trying to see your back cast! I think I heard the fish laughin’ at me. :lol:
Mike
I have one line that is peach colored. Several that are bright green, a couple of yellow, one bright orange and one olive colored. The orange and olive are SA Trout. The only reason I bought an olive colored line was because I convinced myself that I needed that line for fishing small spring creeks. Has it made a difference? I’m really not sure, but it gave me more confindence. But I like the orange colored line because it is easier for me to see on the water.
I fish dries upstream 99% of the time. The only thing the fish will see is the leader. I’ve used the dull colors of silk lines to the bright green on Rio plastic lines. I don’t see any difference except I can see the bright colors much better.
With todays floatants. I see no need to false cast over a fish.
