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I have browsed thru a few salt water patterns. It seems that pink is a legit color for Florida saltwater patterns. I noticed a u tube video touting bubble gum pink, paddle tail soft plastic as a top color and lure for sea trout. Do many favor pink materials in tying for the Florida gulf?

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Absolutely! The old adage down here is if it ain't pink your hands won't stink (like fish). Pink is one of my all around favorite colors, they absolutely love it for some reason. Chartreuse being the other, and combing the two in electric chicken is deadly. The colors really pop in the tannicy waters of the gulf.

 

One of my all time favorite flies for the gulf, I prefer it with a chartreuse head though.

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Here on the other side it is popular too.

Pink is one of the few colors I have in most materials. Many a day have been saved by pink and white clousers, bendbacks or gurglers, and when I am messing around with new flies I often reach for the pink.

 

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Dont you guys remember the bubblegum craze of the 90s ?

Every lure known to man could be bought in the bubblegum color.

 

I use to have to dye my own bucktail,hackle and deer hair in bubblegum because you couldnt buy it back then.

I still use it a lot for Bass.

 

Works great in the gulf coast but you need some flies in brown/gold too.

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I remember some floating plastic bubblegum worms I had. I got them because they were the thing, but I never had any faith in them and I do not remember catching a single fish on them.

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I remember some floating plastic bubblegum worms I had. I got them because they were the thing, but I never had any faith in them and I do not remember catching a single fish on them.

My best friend and X-Fishing buddy started that bubblegum craze. He use to the pour his own worms...His daughter wanted some pink ones so he made some...We were on Lake Fork one day just slaughtering bass on these things.. I can’t post what he called them back then because it’s not PC correct in this day and age but there were some reps from “Culprit” worms watching us and they came over to see what we were using..They cracked up and my buddy gave them some and they started catching bass also.

 

About 2/3months later you could find bubblegum colored Culprit worms on the shelf.

That started the whole craze

 

I have caught 100’s of Bass and Crappie on pink colored flies and plastics.

If I’m having a hard time catching fish on my normal stuff it’s my go to color.

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Great story.

Confidence is an amazing thing.

Did not like pink for bass, but, if you told me that we are going saltwater fishing tomorrow, I would tie a pink and white gurgler first.

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Legit? Heck Ya! I can't answer to fly color specifically, but I've probably caught 80%+ of my snook on some sort of pink. Whether it is a hot pink, a stripe of pink,(ie rainbow trout), or chartreuse and pink, it works period. Even in the black of night, I've switched from other color combos to a pink lure and always had better results.

 

When I get to fish the flats on the gulf, I always make sure to bring some pink and chartreuse gulp baits. In the few outings I've had on the flats of pine island the last few years the electric chicken jerk shad produced more trout than any other.

 

Surely, this year will be the year that I finally cast a fly into the salt. You better believe that there will be pink somewhere in my box.

 

My apologies for these pics being non fly related. I just wanted to show some proof. Pink is good.

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Many years ago I used to fish with a fanatic snook angler who would toss plugs at them all day long... His go to plugs had been hand painted - you guessed it, in pink colors (mostly Mirrolures and similar type plugs...). As a result I began tying a bug or two in pink with good results. I'm very fond of pink and white as a color scheme for Seaducers, Silhouettes, and similar feather streamers. Unlike red and white color combos (where the darned red dyed stuff bleeds out onto the white portion...) pink dyed materials seem pretty color fast - so that's another point in their favor. Pink and white (or pink and tan....) are also standard colors on the bonefish flats in the Bahamas and other places as well...

 

Lastly on days when the water is downright muddy and visibility is poor at best - an all pink pattern simply gets noticed... Here's a Tarpon Snake in pink- if a fish can't see this it's time to hang up the fly rod and go to bait (at least that's my take on it...).

 

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It's not just a Gulf thing or just salt even, salmon in the fresh waters of Maine like a little pink in the fly too. Rainbows here on Cape Cod in the ponds at times like pink marabou. Out west a pink hot spot is fairly common in nymphs and wet flies.

 

Funny it's mentioned today actually, I was looking for pink color shift paint at Micheal's yesterday but what they had was too dark. I'm going to airbrush up some trolling lures and paint them smelt colors with a touch of pink. I already have the color shift paint that goes from purple to silver and a hint of gold depending on the angle it's viewed from but it needs a hint of pink in there someplace.

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I have a couple of pink and white clousers that I pull out for salt water. It's one of the go to flies up here for weakfish, sea trout for those of you south of the Mason-Dixon line. I always add some pink to the sides of my peanut bunker/shad flies. A tyer I knew showed me that trick. Told me that the peanut bunker will flash pink when stressed/attacked. Not sure if that's true or not but I add it anyway. I've caught fish on them in fresh water and salt water, so maybe the pink does help. I do have some pink mop flies of varying sizes. I've caught pan fish on a pink mini-mop fly(size 10 and 12). I've got some larger ones which I haven't really fished. I'll have to give them a shot when it warms up a bit

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Bob- those pink and tan tarpon patterns you tie look deadly to me, and I am sure they have sold well in the shops. I have been tying for the local shop for about a year now, so I know what will sell good and when. Also makes me a better fisherman since I'm more intertwined with the patterns, weather, etc.

 

Back to the thread - Those are some very nice looking flies, Duke. I have also experimented tying black and pink flies, just need to see if that actually works lol.

 

Flats

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