In my last Reader’s Cast article I wrote about how we perceive objects in our environment. Our brains rely on shape and behavior to quickly identify objects that we encounter. We don’t need to stare intently at objects that we routinely encounter in order to identify them. Likewise, it seems logical that fish use the same system when determining if something they encounter is food or not. If it has the general shape of a food item and it moves like a food item then it must be a food item. However, what about color? How does the color of the object affect their reaction?
… there was an interesting thread about priorities in fly tying and selection. My take is that color is the least important priority, following size, silhouette, and action.
As an experiment, I tied an FEB skwala with a flourescent red and bright white abdomen in place the of the usual drab dark brown and olive, speckled red legs in place of the usual speckled brown legs, and natural deer hair rather than died dark brown hair. Took it fishing and did quite well with it.
The fly …
… and one of many fish it caught …
After reading Neil’s current article, I decided to do another experiment. The FEB golden stone / hopper has been fishing well lately on my home water. The usual color combination was used for the two flies with the yellow, green, olive, tan accents. A third fly was tied with a radically different color combination, to include the flourescent red, bright white, plus burnt orange FEB, speckled yellow, red, and orange legs, a dark brown foam body, and dyed dark deer hair for the wing. :shock:
Will post the results of the experiment later today.
… on that gaudy red, white, orange, yellow, and dark brown thing !!!
Outgoing, that would be. He’ll be a lot bigger when he gets back from the Pacific in three years, if he makes it. The incoming guys are generally well over 20" by the time they get back from their 1500 mile roundtrip to the ocean.
I did have a lot of action on the gaudy thing, but mostly smaller fish with only one cutt that went about 13". He slipped away just before I hit the shutter release.
The next spot I fished, nothing on the gaudy thing. Until I hooked a tree that broke it off. Of course, I only had one of them. So I tied on a standard FEB Hopper - and proceeded to hook and then lose a cutt that looked to be 18". It would have been really cool to catch ( and land ) that one on the gaudy thing.
At another spot a while later, still with an FEB Hopper …
… 19 and 1/2 inches of West Slope cutthroat. That is the biggest West Slope I have landed in four years of fishing my home water. West Slopes don’t usually get over 18", and while I’ve had a good number at or just over 18", I’ve only had one other that I figured to be 19" and one that I lost that might have gone 20".
Guess I’ll be tying up a few more of the gaudy things and going back to where I’ve hooked few of the big guys in the past week or so. Still have something to prove - or disprove ??
John
P.S. Neil - I was expecting the “color discussion” in the last bi-weekly edition after your heads up a month ago that it was in the works.
Tied a collection of flies based on a productive pattern in a random and wide variety of color combinations, none of which I would normally tie, or even come close to considering if I were really going out to catch some fishies.
But in the name of science ( to the extent that limited anecdotal evidence proves anything ) here are the flies for tomorrow.
