I see that Berkley Vanish comes in red too…also the line called Cajun Line is red…
My understanding is that it’s because red is felt to disappear at about 3’…
Seems to me that there would be situations that it would be good stuff for furled or regular leaders…what do you think?
ducksterman,
That is a good question and I have been looking at it for making furled leaders. I just cannot convince myself that in river situations, that it would, as they say, disappear. It may and if it did not, it may not spook any fish. Since I add 6 foot of fluorocarbon on the ends of my 7 foot furled leaders, I do not think the color would create any harm for my style of fishing and the kinds of trout I fish for, which is 2 stocked rivers, and I know that wild trout may react differently to it. I do have a furled leader made from Ande 4 pound mono in the light pink color and it turns over great and does not seem to affect the fish. The Berkley Vanish Transition fluorocarbon has a color to it that I can only describe as a “bamboo” golden light color and I like it. I may just have to make some up in the red and see how it works out. I really need to check it out anyway because you never know how stiff or limp it would be until you furled it and try it out.
As alway, you have another great question! 
I sure would love to fish with you one of these days.
I haven’t figured out Maxima Chameleon yet
One thing at a time
That thought is certainly circulating - I had thre special requests for red leaders this week.
My logic may be flawed and my knowlege is limited, but I guess I’ve thought that the silhouette of my leader appears as a line, much like a long twig or piece of grass. I’ve also wondred why some fish adopt red in their spawning colors if it goes unnoticed, but there are good reasons, I’m sure.
For my uses, there is enough tippet between the leader and the fly that I haven’t looked into it very much.
Kat
Red is one of the first color wavelengths to be absorbed by water depth, but I would tend to think that if the red color disappeared the leader would look black (no red color) under water.
If so, I’d want to stick to clear or a tint to match water color.
Duckster;
I’ve used an orange Uni thread furled leader and It seemed to do just fine.
I recently found Yo-Zuri fluorcarbon in what they call Camo Green. Can’t wait to try it.
I found the water depth vs color when doing a Google search. Red goes black at around 2 feet and purple loses it’s color at 4 feet.
I’ll also throw my hat in the ring for a chance to fish with you.
Guys, Thank you, I’m a little embarrassed…it would be my honor to be able to fish with you.
Jack, Interesting you mention the Yo-Zuri…just last night I marked the 2# Ultra Soft green in the Cabela’s catalog…not a bad price point.
Your point about the orange uni-thread is partly what got me thinking of the red…a couple of advantages over the thread.
this is just a random fact, but that claim about red disappearing the quickest is true, but RED LINE doesnt disappear at short depths. I bought a spool of 4 lb cajun red and I unraveled it and put it in the swimming pool in the deep end. At about 9-10 feet of water, using goggles I could still observe the line from about 1-2 feet away. red line disappearing is bogus. fluorocarbon really does disappear though, i couldnt see my p-line 6 lb at all around 1-2 feet of water.
Red cannot disappear so quickly, why? Red hooks, are they invisible to the fish? I’ve used plenty of crankbaits and spoons with red hooks and the theory of a red hook is the fish is it mimics a bleeding fish. How can one claim red disappears and the other claim it causes fish to strike ?
Weird thing is, I honestly believe my red hook spoons and crankbaits get more strikes than silver nickel hooks. at least a 2 to 1. and for instance, if my rear treble is red, usually the fish is hooked to that red hook or if the front hook is red, the fish is mainly hooked to that hook. I find that unusual. Don’t believe the bull that red line disappears, it may be harder to see, but fish and I see red very well. This is why I carry red nail polish and add a dab to some of my lures.
I have read several reports of Guys using this stuff for regular Bait or jig fishing. They claim their catch rait was effected by it. But by adding 3’ og clear, their catch rait went up. I think I will stick to Flouro :lol:
Makes me wonder about those wee little red larva imitations I use. And how the colors of every other fly or lure I use are affected by the depth of the water.
I agree with the posts that say the red color will disappear, but not the line. Think about those fish on TV that bleed green under water. The red disapears, but not the blood.
Good question duckstream.
Tracy
Isn’t it amazing what fishermen will do, buy and try in the name of fishing tackle! I’ve got no less than two tackle boxes full of “stuff” that I’ve bought over the years that really never lived up to their expectations of promise. Along with all this memorabilia I’ve tinkered around in fly line and leader colors. Somewhere along the line I tried (and still have) some green leader material … which kind of made sense in that it might blend in with green aquatic plant growth, or surrounding trees and bushes. By mistake I’ve bought some mono leader material that had a blue tint to it. Likewise, I listen to a “pitch” on how the red mono was going to absolutely disappear underwater to at least the fish’s eye sight, so I picked up a spool of the “Shakespeare Cajun Red” and put it to my little own acid test. Although my little experiments are anything but scientific, my experience is the red did not even do as well as the green; and, let me say … nothing has worked like the crystal clear mono. But then, maybe I was’nt studying the tide chart or the moon cycle as I should have … or maybe it was wearing those new waders … or maybe it was the way I scratched my nose? Ya think?
Dale
There is so much written on the color red and what it will or does under water. 20+ years ago, when I was heavy into tournament bass fishing, there was an article written in the Bass Master catalog on crankbaits that were red and why they caught more fish. The article was well written and gave the results of a test where a large color chart was taken down under water at predetermined depths and they filmed what happened to each color as they went deeper. According to this article, the color red changed to the color brown before it disappeared. They concluded from this that a red crankbait caught more fish because the bass mistook it for a crawfish. Just reporting what I read and nothing more.
thing is… crawdads are brown, so what happens to brown when its at a deep depth? would it turn a different color or stay brown? i’d still use a brown color pattern to imitate crawdads. but then again… maybe if im using bait for trout and decided to throw a boiled red crawdad into a deep spring hole, maybe they’ll smell it better and will think its a crawdad b/c red = brown in deep depths as the study said… eh, i doubt ill do it, i dont think im going back to bait fishing for trout, except maybe… maybe, tipping some of my streamers with a spike (maggot) on those super slow days.
Sure would be neat to tie a flew flies with a red hook. I know they have red hooks for normal use, but I havent seen any specifically for tying. Could be an interesting twist on streamers and other terrestrial patterns.
They do make red hooks for flies. I have some 200 shaped ones. I don’t notice them making any difference. I thought the same think for blood midges, but do just as well with red thread, wire, or dubbing. Even red Flashabou works killer.
Here you go…
I don’t think that anyone can say what a fish sees underwater. They have a different amount of rods and cones in thier eyes which means that they will see things a bit differently that a human. Take deer for instance, they cannot see the red color spectrum, but they can see the blue color spectrum very well. The only way to tell exactly what a fish sees would be to develop a camera with the exact characteristics of a fish eye and then do a color chart test.
Clear, however, is clear, no matter what the depth of water.
Just a thought,
Thunderthumbs.
I’ve tied deer hair ants on red hooks for a friend of mine. He fishes them with a spinning rod and bubble bobber. Loves 'em!
Oh Ill be buying some of those red hooks, thank you!
I didn’t say they didn’t work, I just didn’t notice any difference between them and regular hooks.