chugbug27 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/different-wavelengths-science-finds-hummingbirds-see-ultraviolet-light-invisible-to-humans-11594688179 Food for thought... Article just out this morning on some new research conducted into hummingbirds' ability to use the UV spectrum to distinguish food sources... They also used expensive filtering equipment to take pics of foliage and... plumage. Might be interesting to see the pics of the plumage. Sure wish they had photographed aquatic insects... One thing they also learned was that green leaves have different intensities of UV on their tops and bottoms. The scientists hypothesize that this might help the birds navigate better through dense foliage. Translating to trout, I suppose UV might help both identify food and navigate a stream bed. All rank speculation, of course. But now we know that the hummingbird, which shares with trout that fourth UV color type of receptor, can use UV color differences to distinguish edible objects from otherwise identicle non-edible objects. To my mind, this suggests that matching colors of a fly pattern to the naturals might yield better results if we could match the UV characteristics of our materials to that of the real bugs. All it would take is getting them to use those $10,000 UV photo filters on fly tying materials and on aquatic insects in various life stages... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikechell 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 If you're trying to save money tying flies for fishing ... the UV filters to check your materials will pay themselves off by 2094. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sandan 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 Out on the river the other day, I was watching hummingbirds grab caddis out of the air. That was pretty cool Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flytire 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 sorry but i dint have a subscription to read the story and don't want one either good for the hummingbird at least Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chugbug27 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 6 minutes ago, flytire said: subscription Oops. My bad. Can Google Cynthia Tedore (the scientist) and hummingbird for other sources of the current news. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chugbug27 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 51 minutes ago, Sandan said: watching hummingbirds grab caddis out of the air Very cool. One fly tying writer (Allen McGee) says mayfly wings and head have UV and that Caddis fly bodies have it. He speculates the diving Caddis use their non-UV wings to hide their UV bodies. https://books.google.com/books?id=KIQRDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=soft+hackles+caddis+wings+mayfly+body+uv&source=bl&ots=Pzvazv_ZiZ&sig=ACfU3U0nmYWwwHAU3tFyJhf-bmkaaqM7aQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6naqdrM3qAhUPeKwKHTatB6UQ6AEwCnoECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=soft hackles caddis wings mayfly body uv&f=false If that's right (UV body, non-UV wings), a fluttering Caddis fly might look like a flashing strobe light to the hummingbirds Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flytire 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 i fish for fish not hummingbirds 😀 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mark Knapp 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 This falls under the heading interesting but not applicable to practical fly fishing. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sandan 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 12 minutes ago, flytire said: i fish for fish not hummingbirds 😀 Reminds me of when I was kid. At night we'd circle cast flies in the air to try and get the bats to take 'em. Never did have much luck Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve sparkie 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 hi have you tried clear antron in the thorax of your nymphs or dries garry lafountaines sparkel emerger and deep sparkel pupa where the result of 10 years researce into caddis flies and were very sucessful river patterns so if you adapt your patterns on the same pricipal will reflect both UV light and the colours the flie is tied with hope this helps experiment kind regards Steve Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chugbug27 0 Report post Posted July 14, 2020 @flytire Wow. 2009. So much for my living on the cutting edge.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James 0 Report post Posted July 15, 2020 Sandman I agree with you to watch hummingbirds grabbing bug while in flight is pretty cool I was on the upper bear creek suppose to be fishing spent more time watching the hummer fun to watch Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites