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Gene L

UV size 4

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This is in my learning process. I tied this using UV Pearl and Red UV. It ain't great, but I think it'll catch fish. It's a big fly/lure, and I tied it on my 50 year old Universal 2 rotating vise, which I'm beginning to like. Bad photo...I'm learning. a slight gap between the tail and the zonker strip. Lead eyes tied like a Clouser. Should strip nicely.

 

BTW, in reference to my post about below on the No 2, for demo purposes, the jaws are turned 180 degrees to display the fly. To tie it, you'd rotate the jaws down, to allow the hook to be set deeper in the jaws and allow spinning the vise and line the hook shank up with the axis of the jaws, which I did.. I like the vise, btw. I haven't tried it on small flies.

 

 

4.jpg

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I've never been a fan of the "traditional" white/red lures. They never worked for anyone I've fished with who used them. But I do like the design of your fly.

 

You should tie a couple of those with non-UV materials of the same color.

It'd be interesting to see if the UV version got more/less/same# hits than the non-UV.

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I'm not criticizing your color choice, Gene.

 

Red and white has been around since forever. DarDevl spoons have been around since the ... 1800s?

 

I know it's got to produce something, or it wouldn't have lived so long.

 

Just never did well around me.

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What kind of "UV" material did you use? UV fluorescent, UV phosphorescent, or UV reflectance?

 

I suspect the material is UV fluorescent but you did not mention the brand or kind of material.

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Have no idea. It's EP Sparkle material, looks very reflective. First time I've used it....long strands, not especially easy to dub.

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Have no idea. It's EP Sparkle material, looks very reflective. First time I've used it....long strands, not especially easy to dub.

 

I found it. It is UV reflective:

 

https://www.flyfishbonehead.com/product/ep-sparkle-fibers/

 

Maybe this it TMI but I think this is pure marketing. It would be an interesting experiment it you tied the fly with non UV reflective materials and fished them both to see if there is a difference. The UV reflective material may actually catch fewer fish. This is why that may be so.

 

Here's the deal with colors. We try to imitate the colors that mimic the natural. Since we cannot see UV, we don't know just by looking at a natural whether it reflects UV. So by using UV reflective materials, we are changing the color of the fly.

 

For example, we have blue, red, and green rods in our retina and all the colors we see are caused by the activation of these cones. For example, there is no yellow cone. We see the color yellow is because both the green and red cones are activated. If we added UV reflectance to that, we still see yellow but to an animal that can see UV, it would not look like what we see as yellow.

 

48761721963_31bc063262_c.jpg

 

 

My other point is the red material in your fly that supposedly is a UV reflective material. UV is on the other side of color spectrum so I don't know how a red material reflects UV. Maybe it is coated with a UV spray of some type. We have no idea what color a UV seeing animal see but it would not be the color red that we see on the fly.

 

Another concern of mine is that UV covers a wide spectrum of wavelengths and we really don't know what spectrum the material reflects in. I suspect it is near UV which is ultraviolet but I don't know.

 

48761698928_c70f0b2a40.jpg

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Well, I like the way it looks, and got the word from a guy who is a consummate fisherman that it works very well in trout sizes. For all I know, the pattern came from Richard Farino, who does a lot of fishing up in the DC area. I got the idea from a post he made on a board of which we are members. He didn't claim to invent the pattern.

 

There are other colors that will work, but I haven't tried them yet and may not. I'm not trying to second guess fish, or what/how they see, just having fun. Traditional dry flies look, to us, nothing like the real insects. But they fool fish, and fool us into tying them. I enjoy tying flies, and while I'm not good at it, it gives me something to do in my declining years. This was the first time I worked with UV and, for that matter, zonker strips. And I learned from the experience, a process I enjoy..

 

I tie trout flies, but my wading days are over, I can't get in ankle-deep water without falling, and at one time, I thought I had Parkinson's because of a tremor in my left arm...don't think so now, but maybe... so I tie them for the mental/fine motor exercises of tying, not to fish,

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I've never had a lot of success with Red/White in fresh water,but that is one of the deadliest color combinations ever for saltwater. The Mirrolure 52M-11 was my best selling plug of all time when I ran a Tackle Shop at the coast.

That color combo flat out smoked Trout and Reds on Coastal NC

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Your logic makes sense Silvercreek Thanks for that.

 

This color/UV thing is an interesting subject. As I recall, a few years ago the UV craze got started and many manufacturers started providing all kinds of materials in UV. It's seems to have waned a little the last few years and I don't see as much.

 

Like many people I bought some feathers and other stuff in UV and tied a bunch of flies with them to see if it made a difference. For me, It did not.

 

I fished UV right along side of my buddy who fished the same flies (tied by me) with regular feathers. For us there was no difference. We fish where nobody else fishes so there is no other pressure. If you fished where there was a lot of pressure and the fish were looking for something that might look just a little different, UV might give you the edge.

 

On the other hand, it might just look wrong, like Silvercreek suggested.

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