Trout Cam = Bug Colors

[Fox Statler]

Phil,

Have you ever read the book, 'What Fish See', by Collin J. Kageyama (an eye doctor). I did and it changed my ideas of why some flies are great producers and why some are poor, why some materials are useless and others great. The book is the reason I designed my Spinner's Minners. The book is mainly about how the particles in the water filter out certain colors of light and the colors of light the fish see best under different conditions, bright day vs. dull day, clear water vs. green water vs. muddy water, hot vs. cold, and dark background vs. light background, and so on. Though the author is not a fly fishermen he is the number one Steelhead fishermen on the west coast catching over 160 Steelhead a year.

Anyway, your trout cam is a perfect way to test the materials that are used in flies and different colors of the same pattern, like scuds, under varing conditions. By putting the material and/or bugs in view of the camera we could see how they appear to the fish during the different periods of the day. Let's say a tan scud tied with red thread works great in the early morning but not at mid-day. So would a tan scud tied with blue thread be better during mid-day? When would a tan scud tied with dark brown thread be at its best?

You could even put live scuds, minnows, sowbugs, etc. in a jar and their colors could be noted during the day, highwater, rainy days and stuff like that.

Just a thought.

[Phil Lilley]

I could drop flies to the camera but I'm sure the fish would eat them before they got to the bottom...

But what you say is interesting and worth trying, esp the part about dropping scuds down in a jar. Let me chew on it and see what I come up with. We're still trying to get the actual pic (video) to come up in a frame or some other php format without having to go thru a media program. Also, we may have to upgrade the computer that's handling the transfer (acting as a server) and possibly up the upload speed (using 512k presently).

Thanks for the ideas.

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

Hey Phil,

I saw a bag of minnows floating in front of the camera today. Was that by accident or are you experimenting with the "fish's view of things." Anyway, it gave me some great ideas on a minnow pattern. I'll let you know when I get it done.

John

[Phil Lilley]

It was on purpose... an going to try live scuds next.

[Phil Lilley]

I have 5-6 scuds in a bag and 2 sow bugs. The scuds are #18 and #16's but the sow bugs are #22- real small.