I have a tendency of adding a little flash, if not a lot, to trout flies. It seems to have been a good practice. I will add a couple of strands of crystal flash to the legs on PT and similar flies. I will polish up copper wire before using it to rib a fly. My thought are that a trout is more likely to see the fly and therefore more likely to take it. My thinking is probably influenced from using spinner baits for bass with a casting rod. Your thoughts, advice and opinion would be appreciated.
I’ve actually been pondering this very situation quite a lot over the last couple of weeks. And by “pondering” I mean reading, thinking and experimenting at the vise. Based on my limited experiences and not insubstantial reading, I’ve developed the following plan of attack for next season…
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Anything I plan to fish floating high will have no flash. This means tying an Adams or Cahill with things like beaver and avoiding the flashy Antron I have. If a dun has escaped the surface film, it’s likely left it’s shuck and all other shiny bits aside. Flies like the Grittih’s Gnat or hoppers are included here.
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Anything that might be called an “emerger” should have some shine below the thorax. Maybe this means the body is antron or I simply add an antron tail. Any shine that looks like it might be a shuck works for me.
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Anything I fish below the surface should have a “touch” of shine. This might be the tinsel body of a Black Nosed Dace, the G in a GRH or the copper in a PT. I came up with an awesome pattern last year (which I’ll share here as soon as I get a decent camera) that has shine in “all the right places” and hasn’t failed to draw a strike on a single cast. One feature is some gold French tinsel ribbing.
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If I go really deep, go to streamer patterns like the Black Nosed Dace, which have lots of flash.
These decisions are based on both the life-cycle of the bugs we’re trying to imitate and what happens to light as it travels through the water. On the bug front, I’m sure everyone here knows that the pupal/emerger stage is generally the “shiniest”. As for light, with every two or three feet of typical water, a color drops off the rainbow for most fish. Everything I’ve read says after five to eight feet, “flash” becomes more important than a specific color. Obviously these depths are different if you are fishing crystal clear waters or tea-colored/muddy waters.
So, my “rule” for next season is basically: surface = no flash; surface film = moderate flash; sub-surface = subtle flash; very deep = mostly flash.
But then, I’m new at this. 
For years my favorite stream trout fly was tied with a regular chenille body. A few years back I tried a product called “New Age Chenille” which look like regular chenille with little strip of sparkle woven in. Perhaps “Sparkle Chenille” is the same thing. I believe this increased my success rate. Also I believe that those Czech glass beads are also a positive factor on my panfish flies.
Tim
Read a book called Fish Food, by Ralph Cutter. He recommends flash on most nymphs. Seems that a lot, if not all, mid stream emergers ( not the ones which crawl out), use gas bubbles of some sort under the skin to get to the surface. They look like “Diamonds” under water, according to Cutter, and he should know, he has spent countless hours underwater on SCUBA watching bugs.
A great read.
When I’m fishing a fly without flash …my confidence is down.
This past July, I was fishing a nearby lake that had been last stocked with trout in March. I was targeting bluegills initially. The trout weren’t expected to have survived the summer temperatures that long, so we were surprised when we discovered a small pod of trout near shore. Turns out they were hanging close to a field tile that was pouring some cool water into the lake. Anyway…I proceeded to try a variety of fly patterns. The water was clear, and they were within 5’-10’ of shore, so I could watch their reactions to each presentation. I caught a random fish or two using natural-looking patterns in subdued colors, but nothing was working very well. On a whim, I switched to a #10 pattern consisting of a short olive marabou tail and a gold mylar tubing body. Instant action. You could see the fish instantly becoming very excited and following and striking this fly. The water depth there was less than 3’ deep, and it was a sunny late afternoon.
It made me a believer in flash for sure…I still probably don’t use it as much as I should.
… I hardly ever tie or fish a fly with flash.
Beadheads, wire ribbing, and the copper in copper johns or brassies, if you consider that flash, would be the only exceptions that quickly come to mind.
I personally don’t believe that flash has anything to do with a trout seeing the fly and I don’t think that flash makes a properly presented fly any more attractive to a trout than one without flash.
Having said that, there surely are a lot of really good fly tiers and fishermen who swear by flash. Having said that, when I see pictures of and / or capture and inspect larva, and nymphs, and pupa, and emergers, and duns, and spinners, and hoppers, and whatevers, I never notice any flash on them. Maybe I should take my sunglasses off ??
John
Using flash on flies can be very rewarding, especially on nymphs and emergers. However, on really bright sunny days, I tend to use less or no flash on my flies. On overcast or darkening conditions I tend to bring out the flies that have more or lots of flash.
Larry —sagefisher—
I try to always use some sort of flash on everything. I’ve noticed over the years that the fish really do respond to a little, and sometimes a lot of flash. One of my favorite patterns is a caddis I tie on a curved scud hook. I don’t dress the body with anything, just wrap the black thread down, tie in some red tinsel, rib the fly with it and tie in the wing with either elk or deer hair. It’s taken fish everywhere I’ve fished it. I have experimented with different color threads and tinsel, and had pretty similar results. I suppose it would be more of an emerger to the diehards, but whatever it is, it works. Here’s one with crystal flash instead of red.
I believe flash catches more fishemen than it does fish. That being said, I also think if it adds confidence to the fisher then it’s a good thing. I was told years ago that flash was like chicken soup for the flu. It cant hurt.
I have had many instances where I’ve hooked small whitefish, and while bringing them in, have them viciously attacked by trout and smallies. Whitefish flash to beat the band when under stress. A good portion of the streamer patterns I use have flash of some sort incorporated into them. In some cases, I am way too frugal with the use of flash. I keep telling myself that I need to carry at least one streamer pattern with some significant flash, but haven’t done it yet. I think you have to be careful going down the ‘flash’ road, cuz you can become addicted to the stuff. If I were to get too carried away with flash, I might as well just use spinning gear. At least that’s the way my mind works. YMMV!
Best regards, Dave S.
I hate to waste material so I keep a small baggie of all my “flash” clippings (cut to ~1/8" -1/4") and mix a couple pieces into my dubbing. The colors are mixed in the bag so I not only get a little flash but also happy accidents of color in the bodies of my nymphs/streamers.
On the subject of flash, I tend to be in the ‘less is more’ camp. Also, I feel it has much more to do with conditions than the fish themselves. For example: bright sunny day in late June, on slow, clear water…I won’t use a flashy patter at all. Murky spring runoff in late-March on a cloudy day? I’ll pick something with a little subtle flash.
This is for trout, mind you. Warmwater species seem to love gaudy, garish flies, so I’ll usually give my bass ties some flash, sometimes approaching the point of ridiculous, obnoxious flash.
65-70% of my fishing is on small mountain freestoners, so my flash use is largely limited to a few strands of krystal flash on tiny streamers.
It seems like I have quite a few kindred souls here with similar reasoning. The flash while serving as an attractant also appears nature simulating shiny body shells, etc as well as bubbles that aquatic life frequently have attached to themself. I really liked WWKimba’s idea of saving little bits of materials in a baggie, I had been using a film canister (remember film?) but it is not really that efficient.
I made a fly spoon from a chrome artifical fingernail but I haver usd it, I may have to break it out this year.
I like my streamers to have a little flash in them. Here’s an example of one that I think is gonna be just right…
… using only flies WITH NO FLASH in them, and then report back on your results.
You might find a whole new circle of kindred spirits !! or not ??
John
hughfish 80,
You might want to add a little Krystal Flash to that pattern. Might make it a bit more attractive! Trying to help you out, is all! LOL!!!
Best regards, Dave S.
I had a hell of a time taking pictures of those. the first few just looked like big shiny blobs in the photo, and I am not a photographer anyway…
Hugefish 80
You should call that streamer “The Liberace”
I’m sure a number of you have watched some of Bob Clouser’s and Lefty Kreh’s fly tying videos? They like to use at least SOME flash in nearly every pattern they tie.
I’ve heard a number of trout guys on here swear that nymph patterns with flashbacks outproduce the plain ones.
Of course, sunlight conditions may affect whether a flashy pattern attracts or negatively affects fish in a given water. It might also be somewhat species specific.
In my experience, fish that are chasing silvery baitfish are VERY attracted to flash. When using spinning gear for white bass, for example, many times the lure you use is less important than the color, and the best color is often chrome! Spinners, blade baits, crankbaits, surface poppers…The white bass around here have a sweet tooth for shad, which are very silvery, and certainly can produce a "flash"underwater, even on cloudy days.