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Stir crazy.
Wed 1st February, 2012
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Hi Guys I'm not going to be able to fish for a lot longer than first expected so as you can imagine I'm starting to go a little "stir crazy". When I can I'll grab something from a different part of the site and stick it on. This week its line color... another topic where the answer very much depends on who you ask and their personal experiences.  Before I finally left the UK for good several years ago I often fished catch and release venues where the trout were pretty spooky. Over time like many other anglers I used lines of various colors. Bright Orange, Fluro Green, White, Yellow, you name it... and we all caught fish. As far as the Tongariro is concerned I don't think it makes that much difference. You would like to believe that line manufacturers will obviously field test a product thoroughly before it's release to the fly-fishing community so why on earth would they deliberately produce something that didn't work.
On saying that... and I'm going to shoot myself in the foot here... most "wet lines" are normally dark or muted colors like brown or green and yet some experiments with sinking lines have revealed that the two least visible colors below the surface are white or silver. When talking floating lines years ago I read a book that was written by John Goddard and Brian Clarke entitled " The Trout and the Fly " and I remember that had an interesting section on line color accompanied by some underwater shots. Their verdict was that while the line is in the trout's window and viewed against the sky it would appear as a dark line no matter what the color was. They also mentioned the area outside the window called the mirror. Because the light hits the water at an acute angle here, its reflected off it, instead of passing through it. They maintained that the fly line would be seen against a backdrop of the reflected river bed and a drab colored line would be the least visible to a trout. You can see this clearly demonstrated in the photograph above which I took a little while ago. Ideally, especially when fishing the dry we all strive to keep the actual line well away from the target fish, so again I don't personally think the color matters that much on a river like the Tongariro.  When talking about lines for nymphing a number of specialized lines are indeed olive or grey but have a short bright orange front section to aid bite detection.
On the Tongariro most anglers fish with a large fluorescent colored indicator so why should they worry about the line color. Even when fishing shallower riffles without an indicator from the trout's view-point I would imagine because of the rougher surface water it would have the effect of breaking up the lines silhouette into shorter, much less threatening sections. So it wouldn't matter what color fly-line was being used.
This discussion has been on going for years and I’m sure that it will continue for as long as anglers fly-fish. Most of the colored lines that I originally brought out have long ago worn out. Like a lot of anglers I sometimes use a well known nymphing line which has a front taper specifically designed to help “turn over” heavy flies. It also has a brightly colored tip section and the fish don’t seem to mind. When taking beginners on the Tongariro for the first time I find it an advantage to use a line that they can easily see. As they cast they can watch the aerialized fly-line and see exactly what their loops are doing. Once on the water its also much easier for them to spot any drag and perform the appropriate mend. Good drifts generally mean more takes so a brighter color line is ideal. On the other hand if you feel better using a drab colored line then that confidence in your choice of tackle will probably put a couple more fish on the bank.
At the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference if you are enjoying a day on the river and catching a few trout then that's all that really matters. Take for instance Ross and Kent, two well known local motel owners who were fishing a small lake not to far from here recently. It was their first visit so they decided to hire a row boat to cover more water. Whichever fly they cast out was immediately snaffled by a fin perfect hard fighting rainbow and by the end of the day they had caught an awful lot of fish...something that doesn't often happen to either of them. When they got back to shore Ross said to Kent...
" I hope you marked the spot where we caught all those fish " Kent replied, " Do you think I'm stupid...of course I did...I put an " X " on the side of the boat " Ross snapped back " You bloody idiot...next time we come how do you know we'll get the same boat ? "
Tight Lines Guys
Mike |
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