UV Hotspots
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Freshwater Fishing
Forum Name: Fly Tying
Forum Description: Swap tips and techniques for Fresh and Saltwater fly patterns
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=33232
Printed Date: 10 Jun 2026 at 10:01pm
Topic: UV Hotspots
Posted By: Chris Dore
Subject: UV Hotspots
Date Posted: 06 Oct 2008 at 12:06pm
|
What do you think, and do you subscribe to this? Chatting with a mate over the weekend he is convinced that incorperating UV reflective materials into flies will improve their appeal to trout, which can see in the UV spectrum. Jumped online last night and checked out a few entomology sites and was enlightened to uv patterning on many aquatic insects. http://www.overmywaders.com/cblog/archives/85-Appearances-aside,-you-are-Not-a-trout...Part-1-Trout-and-UV-Vision.html - http://www.overmywaders.com/cblog/archives/85-Appearances-aside,-you-are-Not-a-trout...Part-1-Trout-and-UV-Vision.html is an interesting intro (admittedly the bourbon had taken its toll, and my recollection of Simons reasoning is a but muddled. What are your thoughts on this? |
Replies:
Posted By: BumFluff
Date Posted: 06 Oct 2008 at 9:15pm
|
Hi there Chris, I have always liked to use a little bit of UV material in most of my flies. If I didn't have a UV hitspot somewhere in the fly, then I'd make sure that my tying thread showed up or change colour under a UV light. Nowadays, I tend to have a UV trigger spot around the bead (Just a couple of turns of UV Floro Red or Pink around the Bead is all I think you need). Even the midges/nymphs or lures I use on the lakes tend to either have a hitspot somewhere on the body. As for smaller trout, i believe they only see in the UV spectrum when they are very young so anything that has a bit of UV will be a bit more interesting to them. As they grow older there sight changes and they are able to obsorb differently light spectrums. I guess having this traite while being youngings stays with them for there entire life, so if they see a fly with a UV hitspot they would be a bit more reactive to it; compared to one that doesn't have one. I think a study was done a while back on trout vision and colours.. They did a study where they dyed several glow bug different colours and threw them into a pound of fish.. the observation was that the trout like (I'm trying to remember back about 18 years ago and may have the colours round the wrong way) Blue in dull days - and of course I tried blue flies for several years under dull days conditions.. Note that all the old Salmon flies have blue somewhere in them.. Yellow in bright days - that's why gold beads or shiny copper beads work so well on your flies Yellow and black as the best combination colour Just on another small note: Grayling love any fly that has a bit or Orange, Red, Pink and Floro Green :-))) i'm thinking like a fish :-))) |
Posted By: Chris Dore
Date Posted: 06 Oct 2008 at 11:20pm
|
Thanks mate, very interesting.
I have been reading up on this for quite a while now and still dont know how much I believe the hype. However, when going through my entomology phase several years ago became aware of the UV markings on many invertibret and this is why I am wondering about it again now. Kind of a 'going in circles thing' with my flytying - went from basic patterns which I could tie as a beginner, then got into intricatly detailed patterns which imitated to a T, then got into rubber legs and the whole movement phase, and am not back to the basics, following more of the prey image, and urinal cake theory in fly design. Just looking to give my glisters and DHE's a little somthing else.
Chris
|
Posted By: Onecast
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 7:38am
|
Hi Chris; Good to hear tou are still looking for stimulation in your fly tying.
I have a pal over in England and he was very enthusiastic over UV hot spots for a short period as were many in the U.K. Some are stll convinced that UV Hot spots are the Biz, while others have moved back to their old tried and tested Patterns with no noticable fall off in catch rates. "Eeny Meeny Miny Mo"
I dabbled for a spell but console myself that as Mother Nature in her infinate wisdom made the trout's diet very Dull and Drab in the Colour Stakes. I stick with her. Jax ------------- A man is only as big as the things that annoy him RIP 'Onecast' Jax Murray |
Posted By: Chris Dore
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 8:15am
|
Yeah, it was a mate from the UK who put me onto the whole thing, and recent conversations stimulated the brain a little further.
Basically I like glister in my flies. The reason is simply that it adds a subtle flash to my flies. If my artificial was in the drift with maybe up to a dozen other invertibrete within a trouts given foraging range, I want something that is going to catch his eye - stand out from the rest, whilst representing the general prey image he wants, without alarming him. Glister I feel does this well, but incorperating UV hotspots may also assist well here.
Is it true it is only juvenile trout which can see in the UV spectrum?
Chris
|
Posted By: Onecast
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 8:50am
|
Chris; My reading of the data on Juvenile Rainbow Trout being able to detect UV in food sources is that the research has proved to be generaly inconclusive.
As to using Uv materials to act as a trigger for a feeding trout. I tend to agree with you that if your fly is easier to see, then the chances are the trout will home in on it.
I tend to use Bushy Tails on my Hare and Copper Nymphs for the same reason. I believe that a bushy tail tied with Furnace Hackel Whisks with a dark top side and much lighter underside giving a colour contrast, act as a triger as long as the tail is Lighter in colour than the body materials.
Gee! I just read that and I am shaking my head. Aren't we Fly Fishers a bunch of Loonies? But I would not change my addiction for any other. Have Fun. Jax ------------- A man is only as big as the things that annoy him RIP 'Onecast' Jax Murray |
Posted By: Chris Dore
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 9:10am
| haha well said mate :) |
Posted By: Snuffit.
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 9:20am
I believe! In UV preparations on flies that is. Under certain circumstances UV flies have outfished their traditional mates. Like when i have a UV fly tied on and normal fly still in the box! 
But really - on first expedition of the season, fishing 2 fly rig which was changed over the day as I lost flies (bit rusty, caught a few trees, blackberry bushes, dead cow etc) the UV fly outfished standard fly over 2:1. Conditions were murky overhead, I'd like to think the UV was more visible to the fish hence the extra "pulling power".
|
Posted By: Onecast
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 10:36am
|
Hi Nick; That seems to bear out Chris's theory that if the fly is more visible to the trout then He will hone in on it. I am pleased to see that UV flies have Universal Appeal and are not ultra selective which could account for the Dead Cow and occasional tree. ------------- A man is only as big as the things that annoy him RIP 'Onecast' Jax Murray |
JaxPosted By: Pole Dancer
Date Posted: 08 Oct 2008 at 3:12pm
|
I've been using UV reflective materials on both fresh and salt patterns patterns for some time and it certainly has merit. However you don't always have to go for the "marketed" uv reflective stuff. We found, using a UV torch, that many materials that don't appear to be UV reflective actually are. The curious thing we found was that the most consistant glo bugs (Even some of the "appearing to be pastel" colours are the most UV reflective. In saltwater patterns I usually incorpoate some fibres of UV reflective stuff into the wings. While I don't think the UV thing is huge, it i important and the more I experiment with different things involving it the more important it seems to become. ------------- http://www.clarkreid.co.nz" rel="nofollow - www.clarkreid.co.nz FFF Certified Casting Instructor / Umpqua Designer Tier 
|