Haunting Question

[hays47]

If some of you are also fly fishermen does " match the hatch " ring a bell. While some swear by realistic size , color pattern and on and on. One of the most successful flies ever tied is the Royal Coachman. Yet this fly does not resemble any known insect.

I like the approach previously mentioned throw something at them until they bite. if it resembles something in the lake or looks like bozo the clown the final most important thing. Are you or have you caught fish on it ? At the age of 61 I have learned one constant for fishing. Never assume you KNOW what the fish want on any given day. Let the fish tell you by their interest or lack thereof.

Sometimes we fishermen like professional baseball players go into a slump and we start thinking too much. See the ball hit the ball solves the slump. In our palance find the fish catch the fish. I have learned I don't care why they clobber something. I just keep tossing until I find something they will clobber.

[flatfish46]

That's ture in every aspect and has been the door I get slamed into My face quite often. I believe color sometimes triggers strikes when appearance isn't even the question
crazy isn't it and very intriging ,and the main reason I start most days with a multi pole setup with multi slide jigs on 2 pole's to quickly determine what their after sometime's the window of sucess is very narrow.

[shipahoy41]

My most succesful bait is the easiest to tie and the fish I seek know this!
FF

That is why I like to personally tie and use a hackle jig, kip tail jig, or marabou jig. They work well as do the spoon rig I make. Call me an old "Fuddy duddy" or "Old School" but they work just as well in 2009 as they did in 1950. The attracting and triggering concepts of a minnow shaped bait or one with the flash of a spoon are tried and true methods and they still catch fish. These combinations have stood the test of time. The key thing for any fisiherman is CONFIDENCE in the lure you choose and PRESENTATION to the fish so they will bite it.

Chartreuse/Black
Chartreuse/Pink
All White
All Chartreuse
Aqua/White
Aqua Chartreuse
Black/aqua
Pink/White

[shipahoy41]

Not always ture Bulldog I've been doing alittle experiment with under water camera's and a white or silver jig dosn,t look like a minnow!

It would be great if you could post or PM me some of that footage. We'd all love to see it.

[macon123]

A Hunting Question.....if you tinker and enjoy tinkering, if you create a lure or pattern that does well, if you find a combination of materials and profiles, colors, textures, variations that work well, real or unreal, you have to hunt for the combination and there simply is a lot of personal gratification in the journey. I was told once that bass really like fat and fuzzy. For a long time in tying I went by that credo. But somewhere along the way I tied a few skinny and slick....they caught bass too. Jigs don't need eyes, don't need fat, or fuzzy, but some of the fat, fuzzy and sighted jigs work too. What ever catches them is great. It's the journey that counts.

In the book my wife gave me about facets of fishing, there's the old story of two old men who tied flies. It didn't matter that only one or two flies out of the hundreds they tied actually caught the occasional trout, but the inventiveness of the tie, the excitement and the sharing is what they enjoyed. The journey is never for naught.
It's just in the blood.

While browsing a dollar store, I happened upon bags of mylar shredding used normally for stuffing gift bags. I bought some silver, gold and red, and tied some 1/16 ounce red headed jigs. Made a silver fanned skirt vertically on the hook, tied with red thread and put a red stripe down the side.....a lot of flash. So far, twenty species of fish on that little jig. It still pumps me up whevever I think of the little silver jig. It's in the journey.
Never for naught.

Good Luck and Good Tying, Mac

[TreednNC]

Although I use wild colors, I cant help but to think, if I tie a jig that looks like a minnow or shad, same colors, etc.....that they will change colors the same as they go through the depths.....why should one silver or white look chartruse at 15ft down and the other still look silver or white?

My ignorance is probably showing now. That being said....as ive mentioned before, My largest two, one was on a natural colored jig, and the other was on an orange and yellow with a plain lead head?

[Saline Lake Jigs]

well i think the change in color comes to the way light is reflected and refracted it goes through water. water is like a prism white light comes in and is changed into the color scale they say red only reflects so far down and then it is no longer reflected which is why i brought up ultra violet light awhile back and people laughed at me. but i think its true what color spectrum does a fish see. do they have the three color rods in there eyes as we do so they see color the way we see it or are they color blind and that doesn't mean they cant see color but they see it different then we do is green pink and red green. or what. just like with a deer it sees ultra violet light better then normal light. it also only has two color rods in its eyes which means the eyes don't see the same color as we do bright orange can be blue to them and a bright blue at that or a dull blue. i have heard that fish see yellow which is up and black which is down. i am not sure how true this is. but if that is the case maybe on clear days and clear water it is bright yellow and on dull days and muddy water it is dark yellow. hard telling not knowing but i can say this i don't think they see color the same way we do and i am sure the deeper you go the more the color changes

[PawPaw Gene]

My idea over the years is to try and match the hatch so to speak. Where I fish that means I try to use something that looks like a natural minnow or perhaps grass shrimp. I had been a minnow dipper when the original beetle spin came out. That thing took the world by storm. There are a lot of small marsh bass here. They only grow to a pound or so, and that beetle spin was deadly on them. While using the beetle spin I started catching the occasional crappie, usually big ones. Decided to try downsizing using only the jig part and starting catch a lot of crappie. I then started using doll flies tied with polar bear hair. Boy were those deadly. Don't remember which came first the tube jig or the sassy shad. but I became a believer in the sassy shad 1" either white or white with darker back. I use that for years. Although others were swearing by tube jigs especially blue and white, I stuck with the sassy shad. With the introduction of the panfish assassin I changed over. Now I use the assassin or my own tied jigs. I'm successful with both. My favorite assassin is either the white with dark back or the green back with light colored belly. Now having said all that, this is my conclusion. I have fished with a lot of different people of many different talents. We all fish different but I find that where ever I fish, using my tactics of trying to imitate bait fish usually works. I usually try to swim my jigs much like a minnow. I dip and bounce around cover, darting in and out, and up and down. Now I have a friend who is a excellent crappie fisherman. His method is to use mostly tube jigs below a bobber. One of his favoite colors is kelly green with pepper flak and salted. He catchs a thousand plus a year one that color. All I can say is you have to have confidence with any bait you use. I've seen may trips where all I bring is a few jig heads and one pack of shads or assassins and always catch fish. Although color might make a difference, personally I never look for the right color. I'm more interested in making it look right in the water.
"gene"

[1aB]

"I never look for the right color. I'm more interested in making it look right in the water."

Well said !

[Uncle Grump]

Flat

When you do your looking in the water w/ your camera - are you using a color camera?

Assuming you are - and you see the image on screen - are you using your eyes, or those of a crappie?

I'm not tryed to be flippant or a smart *ss here - but trying to make a point.....

We (man / science / wildlife biologists) only think we know what / how a fish-deer-etc see color. We don't really know - as there isn't any way for us to see what the given critter sees.....

Consider the PM you sent me about your 2.6 crappie....that wasn't caught on a jig that mimmiced food....at least not color wise.....

Best of luck this weekend.

UG