I fish alot of pink flies for rainbows when they arent feeding on natural stuff.

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Not about fish but colour and dogs. My lab can not see red. Have it trained to find golf balls when out in the morning [no pheasants there] We can go home with a bag of new balls. There was a red one lying in a ditch beside a white one. Even after standing on the red one it could not see it.
Bob.

 

Maybe it doesnt like red or it doesn’t get thanked for a red ball, have you tried yellow ,blue or green, just a thought.

 

The construction of trout and salmon eyes indicates the capability to discern colour. The great unknown is how they process those inputs into an image, and the nature of that output. Consequently I can’t offer a definitive answer to your question, beyond suggesting that as nature and evolution don’t do redundant features, they may well do so.
The salmon’s eye has some extra features endowed by evolution: superb low light performance to enable feeding at high latitudes in winter and at depths down to 400 feet; supporting that, some capabilities in the infrared spectrum; offset optical lenses for bifocal imaging; and 3-D image roll stabilisation to provide a clear and consistent view of prey while manoeuvring at speed. All very wonderful capabilities.

 

No idea how it works but ive made slight changes in colour like buzzer cheek colour or hackle colour on a dry which has meant going from the fish having zero intrest or turning away from the fly to them nailing it.
No idea of the science bit just trial and error.
On wednesday i changed from a red apps bloodworm to dark pink and had 3 fish in 15 mins.

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I had a great day on Grafham Water on buzzers a few years ago. As the day went on I realised all my fish only wanted the bright red holo versions. I had 2 different colours of red holo but only 1 worked. I was fishing with 2 other boats but only my boat was catching. As an experiment I shared my secret and then my flies (reluctantly as they were brothers) but did not tell them which was the red that worked, as I was not certain I believed myself, They all agreed that the slight colour difference would make no difference. After a hour those who chose incorrectly came back to get the correct colour of red as their boat partners were catching and they were not. I honestly would not have believed the tiny difference would matter. It was not the line or the position in the water of the fly, only that it contained the exact colour of red. We all caught but only with the correct colour of red. Now I know fish can be fussy but honestly it shocked me to the extent they could be. So can Rainbows see colour, yes they can see reds. I also have a spool of red holo going cheap. I need to hold the two red spools side by side to make sure I pick the correct colour, it honestly is that close to human eyes but not trouts.

 

I had a great day on Grafham Water on buzzers a few years ago. As the day went on I realised all my fish only wanted the bright red holo versions. I had 2 different colours of red holo but only 1 worked. I was fishing with 2 other boats but only my boat was catching. As an experiment I shared my secret and then my flies (reluctantly as they were brothers) but did not tell them which was the red that worked, as I was not certain I believed myself, They all agreed that the slight colour difference would make no difference. After a hour those who chose incorrectly came back to get the correct colour of red as their boat partners were catching and they were not. I honestly would not have believed the tiny difference would matter. It was not the line or the position in the water of the fly, only that it contained the exact colour of red. We all caught but only with the correct colour of red. Now I know fish can be fussy but honestly it shocked me to the extent they could be. So can Rainbows see colour, yes they can see reds find out more. I also have a spool of red holo going cheap. I need to hold the two red spools side by side to make sure I pick the correct colour, it honestly is that close to human eyes but not trouts.

Are any species of trout more attracted to bright colors than other trout are? I see some wet flies with bright colors like pink, blue, and orange. I'm assuming as an attractor? Not so much with dries.

 

Compaired to a lot of living creatures we only see a small portion of the full light spectrum. But looking at google your wright dogs can’t see red. 👍

 

I’m absolutely sure trout are loads more fussy than salmon when it comes to fly choice, I tie salmon flies but not trout for the simple reason they don’t seem to like my tyings.

 

Red fly patterns have saved me from a blank day on many occasions .l also feel that the takes are more aggressive. I don't understand why it gets this reaction but it has happened on so many occasions that l am hesitant to put it down to mere coincidence

 

I’m at that stage of ocular deterioration that I choose my fly colour based on what I can see on the water, never mind the bloody trout!

 

I think its just another confusing issue that humans overthink.
Many years ago fishing for wild brownies in Orkney I changed the tail of a kehe to a pink tag. It was instantly succesful, so all of our party fished it, so it was the most succesful fly of the trip. The next year it hardly caught a fish.
Flies just go in and out of fashion. Human fashion.
A stocked rainbow in a loch this season doesn't know that dog nobblers went out of fashion in the 70's and it should just take the latest fluo tiger zonker booby !
As does the returning salmon. A size 1/0 traditional thunder & lightning has as much chance as catching as the latest scandi conehead or hitch etc
Because the fish has never seen any of them, unless its a returning multi s/w fish which are becoming rarer than rocking horse ****.
It doesn't stop us tweeking old patterns and having boxes of flies that will never get wet.
But until a trout or salmon write a book we will never know what they see .

 

I think its just another confusing issue that humans overthink.
Many years ago fishing for wild brownies in Orkney I changed the tail of a kehe to a pink tag. It was instantly succesful, so all of our party fished it, so it was the most succesful fly of the trip. The next year it hardly caught a fish.
Flies just go in and out of fashion. Human fashion.
A stocked rainbow in a loch this season doesn't know that dog nobblers went out of fashion in the 70's and it should just take the latest fluo tiger zonker booby !
As does the returning salmon. A size 1/0 traditional thunder & lightning has as much chance as catching as the latest scandi conehead or hitch etc
Because the fish has never seen any of them, unless its a returning multi s/w fish which are becoming rarer than rocking horse ****.
It doesn't stop us tweeking old patterns and having boxes of flies that will never get wet.
But until a trout or salmon write a book we will never know what they see .

Would you fish a size 1/0 traditional thunder & lightning all of this season as an experiment

 

No. Don't have one , but I'll fish the same fly, spring , summer & backend. And its the same pattern I've fished for 20 plus years.
I don't know if I would have caught more chopping and changing, but I am one of many folk that just like the look of somebodys new pattern and must tie it. And therefore have many boxes of nice flies, but I'll always put on my old faithful.
The confidence thing is king.
You just have to look at Ian Bains videos and he catches fish on the same pattern , on different rivers, at different times of the season.

 

Light olive, medium olive and dark olive…… 🤔 do you think the trout can see the difference against a sky? Just present the closest thing you have in your box and hope for the best

 

If you are interested, both Stan Headley in Loch Fisher's Bible and Topher Brown in Atlantic Salmon Magic have chapters dedicated to fly colour and when and why it is important. I think size and profile are far more important than colour, but colour is important some of the time as it is now fairly well established fish can distinguish colour, just very differently to ourselves.

 

There is a wild trout loch in the Galloway forest that I fish a couple of times a year with a pal of mine, in a three fly cast a black fly with a red red tag will out fish the others 9 to 1 including black flies without a tag.

 

As an aside , anyone thinking that all fluorescent colours are equally effective at all times of day , in all weathers , and in all water clarities would do well to read this from Mr Clegg.
It might just be an eye opener for those in favour of multiple applications of different colours within the same flee.

THE TRUTH ABOUT FLUORESCENTS. By Thomas Clegg.

1967 1st edition. 8vo stapled paperback (140 x 220mm). Ppiv,44. B/w photographs, illustrations. Chapters include: The development of daylight fluorescent materials; About fish colour-vision; A basic series of fluorescent wet flies; Fluorescent nymphs and wet flies; Fluorescent lake flies...

www.anglebooks.com