Trolling Fly Color Question

[eastcoasttransplant]

Hey guys, quick question.....

We all know that your blues, greens and pearls all work well for kings but do any of you guys troll other fly colors with success?

I mean, look at spoons....you have all those different colors, that seem to work one day or the other, but flys are usually limited. Is it worth the extra effort to try and tie flies that resemble a few popular spoons or do you just think sticking with the blues, geens and pearls is enough?

Here's just one example......the Kevorkian spoon is a great color that seems to work at many different depth ranges. would you guys tie anf fish a Kevorkian fly or are you just sticking with the three basic king colors?

Thanks guys.

[ChampionShip]

Give a call to Big Weenie- he'll give you a good idea of what flies produce when and where. I've run Siggs and A Tom Mik and, of course, Howie with success too. Didn't have much of a fly bite this year out of Algoma, but the bites we did have came on some flies that just came out this past summer.

[Killin' It]

Even thought I just started this years...

Blacck/silver/glow fly with a black/glow spin doctor was our hot ticket. in the off color section of spinnies and flies

[KJ pluggin]

Hey guys, quick question.....

We all know that your blues, greens and pearls all work well for kings but do any of you guys troll other fly colors with success?

I mean, look at spoons....you have all those different colors, that seem to work one day or the other, but flys are usually limited. Is it worth the extra effort to try and tie flies that resemble a few popular spoons or do you just think sticking with the blues, geens and pearls is enough?

Here's just one example......the Kevorkian spoon is a great color that seems to work at many different depth ranges. would you guys tie anf fish a Kevorkian fly or are you just sticking with the three basic king colors?

Thanks guys.

I usually just stick with the three colors you listed with the addition of glow. I had a lot of success with my glow flies last year, even during the day. I will experiment with speed and troll direction before I start switching out my stock colors. That goes for my flashers as well.

This is also something that will change from port to port and talking to people who fish the same area will be able to provide you with the best information.

[Line Dancin]

I always start with a few colors mainly lil boy blue on a large white slick spin doctor. m best combo. then i have a few blues and greens and pearls that i use. if they do produce then i try different stuff out. Purple and white some days on a whit spinny is deadly when nothing else works. I have a opper colored one that works some days. kind of depends on the fish though. I do have a bunch of different colors.

[1mainiac]

I think a lot of it has to do more with the number of guys all running similar programs and having success. None of my flies have official names and I don't use a pattern to make them all of them work I tie a lot of reds and yellows and glows as well as UV patterns and have found many of them are depth and light condition dependent. I pretty much gave up on pre-tied flies years ago when I realized how little it costs to tie them. My problem is I tie way too many of them as it is a great way to work out the winter blues.

[eastcoasttransplant]

Thanks all.

To me it's just funny that you have hundreds of different spoon colors to run. Some effective, some not, but the basic selection of flies seems to be much smaller.

I'm looking at tying some derivations of different productive spoons and was curious if anyone else did the same.

Basically, I separate my spoons into the following color schemes:

-Herring/natural patterns (silvers with some highlight colors)

-Whites/Pearls

-Metallic Blues and Greens

-Dark Greens

-Purples and Blacks

-Red, Oranges, Flo. Yellow/green

-Glows

I would say that I utilize my herring, pearl and metallic blue/green spoons the most. I guess that makes sense why those same colors of flies are the most popular.

I am toying with using some popular spoon colors as a guide for a bit more diverse selection of trolling flies. Who knows whether it makes a difference or not but something to do during the winter.

Now ocassionally I'll troll a purple fly here and there, a glow fly with highlights but I don't tie any red or orange flies and don't see many others trolling them either. I assume that has to do with light penetration and how reds and oranges are lost at depth and flashers and flies being more productive at deeper depths, spring cohos excluded.

[1mainiac]

I also have never understood that so i have been running more colors that match the spoons and rest of my spread Dark Blue with UV was killer many days last year. I also have a couple of yellow flies similar to Yellow tail spoons that worked good for me. Also white flies I run a lot.

[eastcoasttransplant]

Last year I only had a few flies I tied. I ran light blue crinkle (90% of the time), pearl, silver and green crinkle. all were basically one color mylar.

This year I'm still tying those colors but mixing in different hues or contrasting color strands to give them a little something extra. I also really like adding estaz or crystal chenille heads with large dome eyes. i think it gives the salmon even something more to target on.

Now some like sparse flies but I figure if they are hitting flasher and flies they should be pretty aggressive, which is why I tie a full bodied fly with a big head to push water. we'll see if they work this year.

[1mainiac]

I don't make any single color flies just counted the desktop and have 26 in front of me plus the dozen in a bag I tied last week. Add in the couple hundred or more I have in the basement in my tackle and you can see where my illness has taken me LOL.

[SUPERTRAMP]

The spring pattern is usually bright red or orange 000 dodgers with small crinkle body flies in green silver, green gold. red gold and red silver they are Coho Candy.

I still like to run some Black Squids by LJ behind hammered silver Dodgers or Trash Can dodgers. They always seem to catch some Kings. Biggest drawback to dodgers is speed (slow) and short leads off the ball. Spinnies run well even on long lines as do Bechold Flashers. Mix it up and experiment until u find a pattern that u like. I have about 250 flies in assorted colors and body make up including deer hair and any other material I can tie a douple hook harnes to. I really love the new Flash and Opti type fly material really interesting to see them in the water. This last season we did well on all colors of the 11" Opti Flashers and flies with longer leads behind them usually from chest to floor about 40".

[Lone Star]

Mainiac, where do you get your material to tie flies?

[1mainiac]

Several places Big Weenie, Purple Taco and Atomic. I don't make very many tube flies anymore I do most of mine on Glow heads.

Here is one I just tied it is UV blue with a green glow head and gold crinkle

[eastcoasttransplant]

Above are a few of my flies. I prefer to make them bulky, although they obviously form a tighter profile under water pressure, and really feel the addition of a large eye and head helps the overall presentation. We'll see if the fish like them as well

[KJ pluggin]

The flies look great Phil, you will enjoy catching fish on them!

[eastcoasttransplant]

Thanks.

I've always gotten more satisfaction out of catching a fish that I caught on something I created.

Our very first trip out last year, just breaking in the boat and motor, we ran just a two rod spread with divers, flashers and flies I tied. We got three salmon that day but then the flasher fly bite dies for us. Looking forward to inproving that this coming season.

Thanks again.

[Seawolf XI]

Take it from someone who has about 10,000 flys and squids laying around its not really worth it. For some reason it seems fly colors doesnt matter much....But i will add that in a particular year you usally find a hot pattern or one color that the fish want. Green, aqua, glo, black, or blue, or clear mirage or uv and somekind of white and combos of those should cover about ne thing that the fish will want.

[1mainiac]

Here's one under a UV light

[Pioneer]

Pretty much 99% of what I run. I change it up by changing flasher color or mixing in a spoon here or there. The middle one is the secret weapon: crinkle mirage, LBB and green silicon with red flecks. Run over a green/yellow/green/yellow beaded tourniment tie behing a white sprinkle UV pro-troll can't be beat.

[1mainiac]

Here is a couple more pics of a new fly I am tying. Same fly 2 pics one under UV the other in the dark.

that was under UV this is the glow pattern

Can't say what the materials are yet as they are still not available for retail but should be in a few weeks. Just got a advance sample to try out.

[Pioneer]

Curt's super U.V. stuff?