Hot Orange isn’t high on the list of trout colors, so it’s only natural you suspect I’m up to something gaudy. Not the case, us Impressionists are freed of the narrow confines of caddis larvae and Giant Stone dry flies and recognize Orange isn’t really Orange if you don’t want it to be …
I’m still smarting from the “Polyester Sink Strainer” episode, wherein I subjected the kitchen to hideous odors and obscene colors, just to garner a couple of new halo colors to try.
Being a fan of the “Chaos Theory” of fly coloration, and believing that Mother Nature’s bugs are never a uniform coloration – and there’s always an inherent mottle effect besides the very obvious color difference between belly and back.
Angling books love to describe the “ … mayfly tumbling in the current” representation of nymphing, which I don’t subscribe to either. Throw a cat off the garage roof and he lands on his feet, ditto for dogs and in-laws, so invertebrates likely tumble briefly to regain balance, then swim like hell for safety, or the surface.
Colors can dampen as well as provide highlight or halo effects. My earlier example of adding neutral gray squirrel to yarn blends shows the “dampening” effect of gray, how it can take the bright edge off of the yarn dander and make it an earth tone of the original.
Highlights and halos are often wildly different colors added to dubbing to offer a flash or hint of color to the fly. A bit of boldness on the choice of accent can yield some surprising effects.
Like Hot Orange becoming muted and obvious and all at the same time.
Above are two examples of marrying odd colors together to seem much less so. Black and Hot Orange Angelina, and Black mixed with the Grannom Green. (Original colors shown here)
The bright portion of both has been overwhelmed by the surrounding black, and Hot Orange is now coppery colored, and most of the green has vanished.
My war on monochromatic is well documented. I have a goodly supply of the time-honored traditional colors, but most of the unique flies I use each season are a mixture of effects – but almost always polychromatic.
Which isn’t saying much, as any guide can tell you of the client that scoffs at the flies offered him, loudly proclaiming, “I catch all my fish on an Adams” – and if that’s the only thing the gentlemen uses, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Real differences in flies can only detected when pals are present. Count the number of outstretched palms, and figure you’re onto something.
Impressionists aren’t limited to flights of fancy, despite our being able to list a hundred great uses for Claret. We can use the scientific method when it suits us – or succumb to the inner child as we deem fit.
Glance at a natural then immediately glance away. What color was it?
Likely you’ll say brown, or dark, or olive-black – you’ll retain a distinct impression of the predominant color and identify it. Flip the bug on its belly and do the same thing. Now it’s tan, or olive, or another color, Mother Nature always provides a light belly and dark back.
The back color is your base – and make the belly color the halo. It’s quite possible that fish on an intercept may get a glimpse of both – and a foraging fish that’s uprooted the insect from instream vegetation or the bottom will see the tumbling variant – guaranteeing both.
Above is the traditional AP Black tied with the mixed black/green on the body, and mixed black/hot orange for the thorax. Those Angelina fibers that are visible are quite muted, but also very obvious.
Moving the perspective a couple inches further away and we’d call both flies … black.
Fish vision and perception are still hotly debated topics, far above our pay grade. What I do recognize is that most artificials are largely stiff compared to the wild gyrations of real insects – and anything I can add that implies motion is as good as the motion itself.
… and Science be Damned, the real fun is in spattering the canvas with Puce, Mauve, and Day Glo yellow, as it upsets conventional bug theory and masks the fact I’ve never been much good at painting within lines …
Tags: Soft Crimp Angelina, AP Black nymph, dubbing highlights, halo dubbing, fish vision, Chaos Theory, Impressionism, evangelical fly tyer
Looks like I wasn’t the only one mixing Angelina fibers to make nymphs last night.
I got to about here:
“Hot Orange isn’t high on the list of trout colors, so it’s only natural you suspect I’m up to something gaudy.”
and started screaming: What the hell is he talking about?? 2/3 of the attractor dries I fish (and therefore, something that’s on the end of my line about 50% of the time I’m on the water… year round) are orange!…. and then I read on… they are huge stoneflies and Caddis. Guilty.
I just bought a spool of that “Fire Orange” Danville a couple weeks ago… nice stuff.
PS – are you getting all that mottling effect in the dye bath, or are you blending fibers afterwards?
The mottle is all blended. The black is a new Angora-Mohair yarn I’m testing. Once shredded I start adding a pinch of halo color – and often two or three more just to test outcomes.
If you remember there’s the blue opal angelina, the aurora style, and the crystilina flavor – each offers tints of different glimmer. I’m pairing the glimmer with the base colors – and also adding in some wild ass stuff just to gauge effects.
KB,
As a measure of reassurance would you please define “adding in some wild ass stuff” as several images have appeared in my mind that are most unwelcome.
Please tell us you are using hairs from feral equines. Please.
Don’t worry Reed, they were all mules.
Keep on painting and stay out of the coloring books!
One of my mentors and a great fly tyer in his own right, the late Fran Betters loved to use Hot Orange thread. The color seeps through a Haystack or a Usual just enough. Why not brown, green or grey? I’ve caught fish with all.
Don’t doubt the blend. I’ve been doing it with bucktail for a few years, and I just started playing with dubbing. I find that when blending natural with syntho, little is better than lots. One part or less to ten parts natural. With buck tail, I just stick to color blending.
I take back most of the foolish stuff that I said about dyeing hair and feathers. I remembered how I dye the feathers for squid flys. Are you ready? Jell-O. Yup, Jell-O. Yellow from Lemon, red from cherry and green from Lime, etc. White strung hackle comes out in delicate pastels that tie beautiful squid patterns. I just soak the stock until I’m happy and rinse well. But, I don’t feed the Jell-O to the kids. I’d get busted for sure.
@John – I get this really uncomfortable feeling that were a fellow to hook up consistently with plain white – you’d pop one of those Jello flavored concoctions in your gob and suck frantically.
… even with a big hook sticking out.
I’ve heard that tea and coffee do a reasonable tan – brown. I’d be especially vulnerable to one of those if it was early morning and the bite was slow.
Maybe it is the flavor that attracts the Striper…Hmmm.
Never feed a blogger a straight line?
One the other hand, some of the best saltwater flies are basic white or black.
I use the AP Nymph myself. More blending next week…
“and Science be Damned, the real fun is in spattering the canvas with Puce, Mauve, and Day Glo yellow, as it upsets conventional bug theory and masks the fact I’ve never been much good at painting within lines …”
Amen to that!
my personal watershed moment was a soon to be unemployed fellow, who told his class..it really doesn’t matter what or how you do it, somebody will like it.
and so it goes.