"Toning Down" Flash?

[Troutastic]

Hey guys,

Just thought I'd get another discussion going. Do you ever find yourself tying on flies with less flash than you normally do for certain rivers? Can too much flash on a fly actually hurt your chances for catching fish on some rivers?

I'm a believer that it can, especially with bead heads.

[Adam]

Well...I guess I agree since I have 4 or 5 different versions of a beadhead pheasant tail. Some with brass...some with black nickel, some with hot orange or pink...and then of course the pt nymph without the bead.

Can't say it is a conscious thing for a particular river or stream. Sometimes I happen in to the right one through trial and error. And some days flash works...some days it doesn't....and some days you throw an egg pattern and vladi worm on the end of your tippet and pretend your fly fishing...

[Magnet]

Pretend? ???

[Mantis]

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[Adam]

poor attempt at sarcasm on my part Bob.

[Troutastic]

Mantis,

I finding out that some of the rivers around here that is the case. I tie my WD-40 midges with and without a small piece of pearl mylar, some rivers I do well with it, some without it. I have also steered away from the atypical brass bead on 80% of the nymphs out there, either putting on a different color bead, or none at all and just weighting the body. I do like the mercury glass beads though, I feel like its a "different" kind of flash.

[jason]

I definitely think too much flash can turn a fish off..especially gold beads. I feel that after a fish gets "stung" a few times by a gold beaded nymph, it would learn to turn tail and swim away when it saw one! I have no way of backing that up of course, just a confidence thing on my part.
My favorite way of adding flash to a fly is the pearl mylar under a drop of epoxy.

[AaronJasper]

Mantis,

It's funny that you say that flash does not work the majority of time on your streams. How frequently do you fish flies with flash? The only fair assessment would be to fish th equal times for a long time. I agree that there are times where it puts them off and I am sure that it makes a world of difference other times. For subdued flash I really like the peacock tinsel. It gives you flash, but it's not overpowering.

[Mantis]

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[Magnet]

[quote author=Mantis link=topic=4180.msg32955#msg32955 date=1267550669]
I absolutely think it matters. Most of home waters full of heavily pressured, well fed wild trout. They don't buy much flash. They just don't.
A hot collar, a bead and flash on one fly just turns these trout off 90% of the time.