Strike Indacator Colors

[plumeja]

What colors do you guys and girls use for the day and night. I want to try to make them just cause I enjoys making things and I will most likely be buying as well.

[DRock]

yellow, orange, white, any color will work

[Muffin]

White is a classic and then really anything bright/neon. I find everyone's eyes will find it easier to pick up a particular color. Also things such as polarized lenses could have bearing on it.

[SilverDoctor]

White is nice on a dull day as it can blend in the foam on a bright day. Orange or green on a bright. Have a yarn indicator that is 3 colors that is nice

[Hawgstoppah]

I tend to use the bright orange ones myself. My reaction time in seeing the take just seems to be that much quicker, and I feel like I miss less chances. I've tried the other colors and find myself always a bit slow on realizing just when it has indeed gone down.

[scel]

I also find the orange ones tend to be easier to see as in gets darker.

[Jayhad]

I tend to use the bright orange ones myself. My reaction time in seeing the take just seems to be that much quicker, and I feel like I miss less chances. I've tried the other colors and find myself always a bit slow on realizing just when it has indeed gone down.

I've noticed the same thing Hawg, weird how the brain works eh?

 

 

For night time if I am nymphing I use black...... sounds wierd but black is the easiest for me to see at night.... besides the glowing ones. Try black at night

[monger]

I use bright pink ones as they seem to stand out well. When fishing on dark, cloudy days, chartreuse glows.

[Guest Grinr]

I like white for stealth,I think it's the most natural,unimposing color(non-color) but sometimes hard to distinguish at distance in chop and foam.I've found hot pink or orange is the easiest for me to see in most any conditions,chatreuse as mentioned above ^^ on gray days but it's harder to see against bright glare.

[Gil]

Small and white for smaller water. Bright orange for deep, larger waters.

[Hawgstoppah]

On this topic, I really like those bi-color orange / yellow ones for fishing smaller rivers. I flip it so the orange side is up and yellow is down. I do find it to be less spooky on the fish (they see the yellow side) and I can still focus on the movement very well. Best of both worlds

[DonAndersen]

I just plain don't get it. Fish respond to natural colours - you know the ones - earth tones. Therefore your indicators

shouldn't be about you but about the fish.

So what is to be done?

Use colours that are part of the natural world. I tend to use snow colours or Alberta Wildrose colours (note: don't confuse my indicators colours with endorsement of any political party), and of course dirt colours.

Depending on the season, adjustments are made to the colour used.

Now there is nothing wrong with bright pink or chartreuse on HOT PANTS!

 

Catch ya'

 

Don

[Mitchell0724]

Red is my favourite colour for indicators, I don't know why but I see darker colours better then lighter ones on the water. I bought a pack of multicoloured thingamabobbers last year and all I use is the red one because I see it so good. Pink is a close second but it's not as good as red.

[LastBoyScout]

The orange / yellow ones seem to attract the most strikes. They let you know when to tie on a stimulator.

[monger]

I'm confused...indicators are a foam ball/yarn whatever that is about 4-20+ feet from your fly. Why would I want my indicator to be a natural color? The indicator has nothing to do with the fish biting my fly. My indicators are telling me when the fish has the fly, therefore I want my indicator to be both as big and as brightly colored as I can get away with.

What am I missing Don

[DonAndersen]

Monger,

 

In heavily fished waters, fish learn! They learn that large ugly balls followed by a rip of the lips means they should move away from large ugly balls.

Certainly there is a lot of fish that don't learn quite as well or the water is faster/deeper where fish are not effected. For Stillwater guys, I suspect that fish are not as badly effected. There are few still waters that are as heavily fished as some of the following water in Alberta.

For that reason, I tend to use more subdued colours often smaller in size.

Fish even learn that some dry flys are " heap bad medicine".

 

Regards,

 

 

 

Don

[monger]

I thought this might be what you were getting at Don. I agree with you. That is why I try not to fish in the kinds of areas you are describing or do something out of the ordinary. Luckily no one else uses wine corks like me so the fish don't get it yet.

[DonAndersen]

Monger,

 

What I found in fishing some of these "tougher" waters, I got my butt handed to me. I either got better or the fishing ( catching) was poor. Challenging fisheries are learning experiences although I must admit they do cause hair loss/incoherent mumbling & nervous ticks.

 

Don

[monger]

Agreed...trying to will a fish to bite your "incorrect" offering can cause one to speak a different language. Making it tougher can make you grow.

[tika]

Ilove this tread!

He said "heap bad medicine" lol.

Generally, I like to drift pale yellow and white thingama's for the the same reasons proported in prior posts. The question I would like to pose is this; What to do, to be able to see that effing thing as it drifts into the brightest light of the day. Late afternoon, facing west. After fishing riffle, run and pool for most of the day, you finally reach THAT piece of water only to be blinded by solar radiation...bright chart,orange, every option disappears. But one.

 

Guess which indie to WIN an afternoon fish with me. DO

 

[DonAndersen]

Black is where it's at. . . . . . . . Do I win ?

 

And if I win, I must share that the smell of breathable waders cause me puke often. You better be wading wet.

 

 

Don

[scel]

I dunno. I figure if you choose a golf ball colour on the city section of the Bow, you will be OK.

[monger]

Great point...is Willow Park yellow your favorite

[SilverDoctor]

Ilove this tread!

He said "heap bad medicine" lol.

Generally, I like to drift pale yellow and white thingama's for the the same reasons proported in prior posts. The question I would like to pose is this; What to do, to be able to see that effing thing as it drifts into the brightest light of the day. Late afternoon, facing west. After fishing riffle, run and pool for most of the day, you finally reach THAT piece of water only to be blinded by solar radiation...bright chart,orange, every option disappears. But one.

 

Guess which indie to WIN an afternoon fish with me. DO

Here you go

 

[ggp]

Damn Lornce that's one big indi. might be a little tough to cast!

 

Colour really doesn't mean a whole lot to me, simply because I rarely use indicators when nymphing rivers and streams. I prefer to rely more on my instinct's. Line control is critical, then my other senses come into play. Visual (watching the line on the drift). Feel, you can still feel many of the bumps that occur throughout the drift if you have good control of the line, but the one sense I have learned to rely on the most is intuition. I just seem to know when a fish is there even when I don't feel or see anything. Indicators, in my opinion, came about because more people are visual than anything else, but I really believe that if one learns how to use their other senses it will greatly improve their skill. Even when I first began to fish Chironomids in still water it was without the use of an indicator, and I caught fish. I do now use indicator's more often than not when fishing Chironomids and several other bugs, but only on still waters. There's just something about a suspended leech that triggers a fishes predatory instinct's. This is just food for though, and I do highly recommend learning to fish without that visual aid. I firmly believe that those who stick with it will become better fly fisher's. I am in no way saying that I don't miss some fish, because I do, but I definitely catch lot's of fish this way.