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specific colors for specific fish

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First off, I will tell you my real name so we can talk like real people. My name is James Fox. I also have a youtube channel named sports'n outdoors. The only thing I have on it right now is a piano song, but I will post more. i am Learnig whitch colors to use for fish. White for grayling, pink for salmon, and trout love any dry flies. Help me complet my list. I think for crappie it's blue and black. And pike like flashy colors, and flies that imatate red meat.

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Flies should imitate natural prey. Certain colors for certain fish (for the most part) is bunk. Color selection should be based on what color the prey is in that body of water. Then adjustments can be made based on water clarity, sunny vs. cloudy, night vs. day, etc. Trout don't necessarily love any dry fly either. Most of their diet is taken below the surface. Some of my most productive crappie streamers are peacock, white, and contrasting colors such as Black Nosed Dace. It's not about the color, it's about the imitation.

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I will say that red is a color you will see in many attractor patterns, it could be the suggestion of blood or gills, or it could be that it's more visible to a fish's eye. Chartreuse is a color that seems to be more visible in stained water. Black seems to be more visible at night because if the silhouette against the sky. But you will be much more successful if you focus on silhouette and natural color.

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The book "What Fish See" is a neat reference by Dr Kageyama if intetrested. I think it is still under $15.00

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Bait fish:

Extremely clear water, bait fish are white, silver and almost translucent.

Extremely dark water (tannin stained), bait fish are dark, much less "reflective" and scale patterns stand out.

In between those two extremes are stained, murky, muddy, etc., etc., etc.

The more light penetration, the lighter the fish.

 

Insects:

Everywhere I've been, insects are as colloquial as speech patterns. Patterns, colors, sizes, everything seems to change.

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The trout here in the Smoky Mountain streams seem to prefer yellow. Any dry fly, wet fly, or nymph that is predominately yellow seems to work. I tie my version of a local fly called the yellar hammer. It is basically a yellow body made of yellow yarn or floss and a trimmed died yellow duck quill palmered around the yellow body. It is a very ugly fly the way I tie it, but the trout seem to love it.

Joe

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Specific colors - for specific fishermen (or shops)... At least that's the way many of my saltwater orders worked out....

 

Remember as well that the colors we see -look dramatically different to the fish, depending on how far down your lure or fly is operating. Any of those lovely red colors actually looks black when the item is only a few feet deep in the water - at least in saltwaters... I wouldn't have a clue about freshwaters, but will note that some of the areas I guide in start out as pure salt, but 20 or 30 miles later are so fresh what you could make a cup of coffee with them. I can say with some confidence that the fish we encounter way up inside in freshwater areas -both saltwater and freshwater species mixed in together in winter, eat the exact same flies they do down in the salt each day....

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@xvigauge - Great fly. This is very productive and most thinkers of things believe this has always been an attractor pattern, not necessarily matching any hatch. There are some who say there are large (1-2") light colored stonefly nymphs that live in North Carolina streams that may have a clue to its success. Whether it was first tied by the Cherokee or how different it looks today just adds to the interesting history.

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... most prognosticators believe this has always been ...

Learn a new word today? I'm not sure it means what you think it does. wink.png

prog·nos·ti·ca·tor /präɡˈnästəˌkādər/
noun: a person who foretells or prophesies a future event.

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Or "burple" (black and purple)..... for dark waters fish.... at the other end of the spectrum is fl. chartreuse (as in chartreuse and white for the salt....). "Ain't no use - if it ain't chartreuse..."

 

Saltwater is.... different...

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