Color, Size or Shape?

[Fish R Food]

When you belly up to your tying desk for session or wasting time at work (like I do) gazing out the window contemplating your next new steelhead fly, or find yourself doodling on an old gas receipt instead watching you child’s music recital or soccer game; what do you think of first, color, size or shape?

For me it is color. I spent some years chasing Alaskan steel with nothing more than a size 4 Gamakatsu octopus hook tied via egg loop knot and a small tuft of latch hook rug yarn (small lead shot to get it to the bottom), and I was very successful with just that. I had about 25 or 30 different colors to choose from, but the colors that stood out and were always producing fish were turquoise and dark pink almost mauve color in the AM, burnt orange, moss green and pink colors in the afternoon. Those years really cemented my belief that color plays the single biggest part of my fly design.

I also believe color carries more weight than the other 2 based on what little I know of what colors in the light spectrum that penetrate through murky water, on cloudy days, sunny days, water depth, and position of the sun on the water. I’m no Bill Nye the science guy, but that color stuff looks good on paper.

If you were to look into my box you would see a common color theme, but the styles and sizes would be different.

Question? If you were to experiment and change or alter your favorite fly, what would you change? Color size or shape?

Tight lines everyone!

[Marcel DuShrimp]

i carry light color flies, dark flies, and natural (olive/grey) flies. i'll choose between those depending on conditions.

for inland trout
i'm going to tie up some larger that usual nymphs this spring for early season looking for more aggressive fish. so i would say size.

for steelhead
i would say shape or design. i don't experiment with color so much. black, purple, orange, chartreuse, and white. i usually ponder where to add the flash. i think that's more in the category of design than color.

if you're not matching a hatch, i think color can be broken down to dark, med, and light. i get out-fished a lot too sooo...

[westsidefisherman]

size, color, and then shape. imo.

[Fish R Food]

Size huh? I've read articles and even seen a guy or two hook-up on nothing more than a tiny piece of lint. Wild trout that feed do so because they need fuel to do trout things, so why would they expend the energy on something so small you need a magnifier? It would be like if I went to a restaurant and the waiter brought me 1 sunflower seed to eat every few minutes, why do that, when I could get a fat juicy burger and be good to go. Maybe fish instinctively know the calorie count of the different bugs in their diet, which tells me they would know a big fat juicy burger-fly would go right to their fins.

I like what DuShrimp says about bigger nymphs in the spring. That could be a good idea for higher murky water. The need for a large dark silhouette against murky water could prove a big benefit if your only day to get out and fish is fraught with hell and high water.

Hey DuShrimp, I’m sure you have out fished your share on MANY occasions, you just didn’t notice because they went standing next to you. They were up river out of sight snagging every rock and twig on the bottom!

[Marcel DuShrimp]

Wild trout that feed do so because they need fuel to do trout things, so why would they expend the energy on something so small you need a magnifier?

wisconsin's trico hatch brings up some of the biggest fish in the system. those are tied on size 20-26 hooks. still hoping to join the 20/20 club. i think they're also just very curious creatures and will mouth something just to find out what it is.

you're right about the calories expended vs. calories gained. trout count calories too. but i digress, this thread is about migratory trout. i have a lot to learn about the way color penetrates water and what colors steelhead tend to prefer. isn't this what keeps us so hopelessly preoccupied with fly fishing?

[Fish R Food]

Don't digress! I mainly started this thread to get some conversation going. Seems everyone is either fishing, working or everything about steelies has already been discussed.

Whats the 20/20 culb? Never heard of it, is there a brass pole in the room?

Since being stationed in Hawaii for the last 6 months and new to bonefishing, I did just find out where Christmas Island is located. <----- sad, i know. It's a large hop skip and a jump south of Oahu. I'm going to start planning a trip before i retire from the military!

Fish on!

[Marcel DuShrimp]

Whats the 20/20 culb? Never heard of it, is there a brass pole in the room?

i haven't been to that club either.

20" fish on a size 20 hook.

hawaii bones eh? i hear those are some big boys. great for making sushi, pm me if you want a recipe. here i go digressing again. this is the fly tying forum of a steelhead site for god's sake!

good fishing to you.

[fontinalis]

Don't digress!

Whats the 20/20 culb? Never heard of it, is there a brass pole in the room?



Fish on!

usually graphite or bamboo

its 38 degrees and raining right now fishing in Hawaii sounds pretty good right about now!

[Fish R Food]

Being that there isn’t to many other threads going and barring anyone having a major heartache about talking about something other than a steelhead, I say let’s talk bonefish for a bit!

This 20/20 club, is it just for trout in a specific region or can I count a steely if I landed one? It sounds very challenging. My only concern would be over stressing a fish trying to play it out. I wonder if my new bifocals I just got have the magnification needed to see a #20 hook.

Since i started fishing for bonefish, I've landed seven and lost 4, not to bad for a less than stellar “NOOB” new to catching these fish. I will tell you this… My casting and casting accuracy has improved tremendously. I haven’t landed a fish since December 26th, so I have been in a slump. I stopped fishing for a month or so to recompose myself. I was getting to the point where I wanted to leave my rod and reel on the flats as an artificial reef. It is aggravating and frustrating to say the least . Saturday I’m heading to the fly shop to restock my leader spools (damn coral ripen me a new one) and some materials, and I’ll be hitt’n it hard again.

My fish landed vs fish spooked percentage is probably 5% to 95%, might even be lower. Hard to say, there were somany spooked. Easy to figure which percent is attached to fish landed.

What a rush when you hook up!

Tight lines