I do 90% or more of my fishing (small streams for trout) with six patterns: three nymph and three dry. I like the simplicity and even catch a fish now and then. Being able to concentrate on tying these patterns has made me a better fly tyer as well, instead of tying one each of a hundred different flies and have a box full of first attempts. I got tired of changing the thread on my bobbin from tan to orange to brown to black etc, so lately I’ve been tying these six patterns all with black thread. The best I can tell in my less than one year of tying is the only part of the thread I can see on a finished fly is the head. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s black on all of them, and so far the fish don’t care either. Does anyone else do this or do you use thread to match the body or look of what you’re tying?
90% of my tying is done with either black or olive/dun 8/0 Uni Thread. The remaining is according to pattern color, etc. I do this for the same reason you have explained.
Kelly.
For just about all of my “stock” subsurface patterns, I go to Black Uni 8/0, like Kelly. For dries, I’ll match color to the body as closely as I can.
One notable exception to the black uni in subsurface patterns is any pattern that uses a floss body. For these patterns, I use a white or light tan UTC in 70 or 140 denier. The reason is because this thread will lay flatter, for a smoother body. Also, I use the light color to allow the ‘shine’ of the floss to really show up. On a black base, a floss body looks pretty lackluster, especially when wet.
I know from past experience I use black thread more than any other. It’s the one color I end up running out of far more frequently than all others, but I do like the option of using other colors as the pattern and my mood suits me. I’ve not yet reached that time when I find changing thread on bobbins as a troublesome task. I will usually keep several bobbins preloaded with the threads I use the most. The other colors that I tend to use or use up are olive and olive dun. But I love all the choice out there in the color spectrum and I’m afraid to say, have a rather deep collection of threads in a variety of sizes and colors. Choice is a wonderful thing!
I’ve found brown and red 8/0 Uni to do for most of my ties. Black looks better on my colorful wet flies and some others, and I use chartreuse or white for my crappie and other warmwater stuff that’s brighter. But I always have brown or red on a bobbin…
BrandonL,
I tie with several different colors of thread (a lot of silk). Many of the old subsurface patterns used a certain thread color because the thread showed through the dubbing. The thread, combined with the tying wax and wet dubbing color gave a more lifelike appearance to the fly. Sometimes those old guys from the days of yore really knew what they were doing.
I also vary the color of tying thread for dry flies, but usually use Black, Olive, Brown and Tan.
REE
i use black red tan and white. when using white, i can change the color with one of about 50 markers i have on hand.
i also use white for the under body color of wet flies that use light colored floss
Both the Dette’s and Darby’s used just white and black thread for many years. The Dette’s went to Uni thread and even though it is waxed Mary still waxes the thread as her parents did.
Tie most of my flies with Tan these days. Black is seen under the dubbing too easily. If I had to choose ONE color it would be tan.
REE, I never thought of it that way. The nymphs I tie don’t show the thread through the body, but I see what you mean.
It depends on what you’re tying, I guess. I could get away with a black thread for much of what I tie, but a black thread head on a light cahill dun would just look wrong - even if the fish don’t care.
Just using white, and coloring the last inch of thread with an appropriate marker just before tying off has become increasingly intriguing to me, however.
I use all kind’s of color’s when tying. Maybe
I’m just to picky. I will say one of the best tier’s
I ever saw only used two diffrent color’s in about
three sizes and could tie any trout pattern you
could think of , black and tan thread only. Just
what ever seem’s right to the tier I guess.
Just my 2 cent’s.
I’ll also add that I use white Uni on light colored glo-bugs, and Fluorescent Orange UTC on many of my other eggs.
I think that more importantly than strict specific colors, is a general shade. Light fly = light thread, dark fly = dark thread. With light tan and dark brown thread I could tie just about all the things I tie on a regular basis.
Mostly black,but white under floss bodys and tags
All thread have some sort of sealant or coating as the final step in the construction of the thread. This sealant acts as a lubricant to help prevent friction causing abrasion on the thread surface.
As for color of thread on a fly pattern, sometimes it makes a difference and other times it does not.
On Soft Hackle Wet Flies, I dress the hook shank with thread wraps that tightly butted up against the previous thread wraps. The color of the thread will give a extra dimension to the fly body, when I sparsely dub the thread with minimum dubbing to allow the color of the thread wrap to peek-out from beneath the dubbing wraps.
As most anglers know that water absorbs color of the fly pattern, the deeper in the water the fly pattern sinks. Below is the wave length of colors and how water absorbs the color spectrum to first turn the color to brown then to gray, and finally to black.
Color/Depth
Red/5 meters
Orange/15 meters
Yellow/30 meters
Green/60 meters
Blue/75 meters
Indigo/85 meters
Violet/100 meters
Have you ever fished a stream and came to a pool on the stream that was emerald green. It is emerald green because of its depth, not from algae or other substances in the water… The air absorbs color also, that is why the sky to us appears to be blue…
The water also may contain green coloration from suspended plant organisms such as algae, or from water that that has been stained a reddish brown color by plant bark and other decaying plant material. Which is a reason to use various colors of thread and tying material on the fly pattern that will standout against a green or red brown background.
Many aquatic life-forms can also see colors in the ultra-violet range of total light, while us humans can only see colors the visible light (for humans) portion of the total light spectrum. Some fish such as Walleye (perch family) have very good vision at night.
I prefer to use the color purple for thread and material for my deep patterns, instead of black…to each their own. ~Parnelli