Saturday, July 5, 2014

A Tale of Two Colors

             While at the bench, oftentimes we will get caught up in tying patterns that catch fisherman more often than fish. Either by tying in a popular style, or by tying with materials or colors that may look great in the vise, but are non-functional in the water. The latter is in my opinion, the most impacting attribute to a flies effectiveness. And the most often neglected attribute in tying.

Two Identical C2C Nymphs

            To demonstrate, I tied my C2C nymph which has proven itself over 20 years on both coasts. While it is a simple variation of the much copied Hares-ear Nymph, the C2C  is specifically tied slender with straight Hareline Ginger rabbit. No spikiness is intended with the C2C, so no hares-mask is used.

            At first glance you would think this nymph was intended for Golden Stone nymphs with it's gold rib and nearly gold colored dubbing. However, its real colors come through when wet. Since there is no glint or flash in the dubbing itself, or spiked thorax, the dubbing changes completely.

Same identical C2C Nymphs, with the one on the left wet.
                      The change is obvious once wet. The color turns to a cinnamon brown when in the light, but remains a charcoal color when submerged. So next time your putting together a new pattern or thinking of substituting a new material for a proven color, get it wet first. you just may be surprised.

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