Question from Dave Robertson from Manawatu – Does fly line colour matter?
Answer 1:
This is another topic where the answer very much depends on who you ask and their personal opinion and 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 and over time like many other anglers used lines of various colors. Bright Orange…Fluro Green…White… 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 intentionally produce something that didn’t work. On saying that…and I’m going to shoot myself in the foot here… most sinking 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 many years ago I read a book 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 an area they called the “mirror” which was the zone outside the “window” where from the trout’s view-point because the light hits the water at an acute angle it was reflected back off it.. instead of passing through it. Here they maintain 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…..pretty heavy stuff eh ! When fishing the dry most of us strive to keep the actual fly line well away from the target fish anyway.
As far as upstream nymphing is concerned a number of specialised lines are indeed olive or grey but have a bright orange end section. On the Tongariro most anglers use a large fluorescent colored indicator so why should you worry about the line color. Even when fishing shallower riffles with the indicator removed from the trout’s view-point I would imagine because of the rougher surface water it would break up the line profile making it seem a little less suspicious.
Most of the colored lines that I originally brought out with me have long worn out so like a lot of Tonga fisho’s when using the indicator I mostly use a well known nymphing line with orange tip…not because of the olive color but being a tight arsed Celt the price was right.
At the end of the day if you are confident with what you are using..enjoying a day on the river.. and catching a few fish then that’s all that matters.
Tight Lines
Mike
Answer 2
Ok guys – this is quick as it is my girlfriends birthday and I am supposed to be getting ready for going out tonight. Ross has just sprung a question on me at the last minute which deserves a lengthy response as I get asked this weekly. Fly line colour does not matter – end of story.
Andrew
(New Question: Is that really the girlfriend demonstrating the line colour above?)