Fishingjunky15
Did you get the chance to read what was posted at
http://www.bigfishtackle.com/Articles/freshwater38.htm ?
Here are a just few quotes, if you didn't get to read it that may apply to "shallow water fly fishing" and flies. It should apply to most all "surface type fishing" techniques such as "fly fishing", because most fly's are fished on the surface or just shortly below.
"5. When fishing topwater lures, color is far less important than size, shape and action. A fish coming up below a surface or shallow running lure has the light behind it, making the lure appear grey or black. Try it for yourself - hold a fluorescent lure up to the sun and view it from below. Black and dark colors remain the best for surface lures because they throw a great silhouette."
"Time of day/year
I know it seems unlikely that your lure could appear to be a different color depending on the time of day or the month of the year, but it's a reality. To put the idea into a terrestrial context, think about how we see color on a clear day in the afternoon compared with a cloudy day at dusk. On a clear day with the sun overhead there are fewer gas molecules and airborne particles to scatter the short (blue) wavelengths, so the sky appears blue. Towards dusk the light travels through a lot more gas and airborne particles, so lots of the blue wavelengths get scattered and don't reach our eyes. Red and orange wavelengths eventually give way to indigos and violets as the sun sets. The many changing hues of the sky also change the color of other objects we see in the colored light."
"Other influences
Any ripple on the surface of a water body has the effect of increasing light scatter and hence reduces light penetration into the water. Pollution, both air and water, can also influence light penetration and hence the color that lures appear underwater"
"The aquatic environment not only emulates what happens above the waterline, but magnifies the effect. So the loss of blue wavelengths at each end of the day is much greater underwater and starts earlier in the day than it does above water. Remember that these are the ones that penetrate deepest, so the period over which colors are visible deep in the water are much shorter than they are at the surface."
"In a similar way the sun is more directly overhead so fewer of the short wavelengths get scattered and on land we tend to get brighter and more intense light (and the really short wavelengths get through, hence we get sunburnt!). In winter we get more subdued light, partly because the light travels a greater distance through the atmosphere and partly because clouds add water molecules to the atmosphere to further filter out light. This means that many wavelengths don't penetrate as deeply into the water during winter, so a lure travelling at a depth of 5m in winter could appear to be a different color than in summer, all other things being equal. This effect is much more pronounced the further you travel from the equator."
Personally, I think that all of those "beautiful fly colors" are mainly used for selling "flies", and the material to make them! Like they say, think what a fish sees when he is looking up from down beneath. Most likely, it is the shape, silhouette, and pattern and not "the color" that gets it's attention!
Anyways, that's how I look at it, and my wife thinks that I am only half fish!
Others may look at it from "above" if they choose to, but most fish look at it (flies) from beneath!
Think like a fish!
Cowlitzfisherman
