While the rest of you debate whether it adheres to the spirit of things I’ll be quietly mixing it into my head cement.  I’m preprogrammed to break ranks with the crowd at the first opportunity, exploit fish horribly, then asks forgiveness in a cataclysm of guilt.

My theory is fly fishermen are the last rung on the outdoorsman ladder, if you’ve tried everything else and failed – ours is a sport that celebrates its lack of scent, there’s no stigma if you don’t wash your hands.

Real outdoor types pull guts out of deer, blow daylight through a duck’s arse, or add cherry-flavored salmon eggs to a hook – and resume eating their sandwich. They regard our mincing gait and “ew-ew-ew” sounds with mild scorn – and we fancy them boorish cavemen without the good sense to bring either silverware or napkins.

We’ve always recoiled in disgust at chemical use; we curl lip at a fly tinted with magic marker, get enraged at spritzing our flies with anything other than floatant, and backpedal at the sight of things that sink or scent our flies.

I don’t, as I’m a reformed killer. I lack all those social graces and spurn proper behavior; I dipped my anchovies in dish detergent when trolling for salmon, spritzed whatever was necessary to kill more than the other fellow, and was amused by Pautzke’s fingerprints on my Velveeta sandwich, then wolfed it quickly so I wouldn’t be forced to share.

When I see something that violates all them lofty principles, it’s twice as compelling.

Vision Baits has introduced a substance called “Ecto-Plasm” – a brownish gel when wiped on lures flies gives them the same eerie green gelatinous color we’ve admired in all the horror movies.

… once it is in the water it gives off a luminescent green glow that lasts up to eight hours.

I keep thinking of the Stripers we chased from the breakwaters of the Marina at night, and how nine inches of conehead equipped bucktail, would be vastly improved with a generous dollop of the above.

Saltwater flies have similar issues with visibility as brownlining, it’s a lot of water to cover – plenty of seaweed to obscure movement, and a short lived tide controlling your destiny, why wouldn’t vision enhancement be anything other than a boon?

The gel is activated by contact with water, so you’ll need to be cognizant of the dog walkers and joggers – if they’re pointing and laughing – you may want to wipe your nose.