Saturday, September 19, 2009

Do Trout See in Black and White?

Does anyone really know for sure?  If they do, here's what our flies may look like to them.  Compare these to the same flies I posted the other day and besides the obvious color difference, you'll see the same bright and dark areas nicely contrasted.  In some ways, I prefer the subtleness of these over the colored versions.  The lack of color also allows the mind to focus on the textures of the materials - natures way of letting our eyes "touch" them with our mind.
  
The Leadwing Coachman wet fly - see the hardness of the steel, the smooth, ridged mallard feather wing, and the soft peacock herl body?  To us, its pleasing to the eye; to the trout its food....or maybe the trout also have an artistic lobe in their tiny brains just as we do when a well prepared dish is set in front of us.  "That looks almost too good to eat!"  Then we dig in anyway.



The October Caddis - the simple contrast of the soft fur body and thorax combined with the stiff elk hair wing over a bed of light bending antron.  I'm betting the trout would take it in this colorless state just as they do in our world of rainbows.



The Peach Sulphur - something about that quill body disturbs my eye.  Its too perfect, no taper or edges as might be found in a natural insect..................they work though, so who's to argue with a trout?


That's it for the art show.  Nothing earth shattering, but interesting all the same...to me at least.  When I convert my photos to B and W, I always see something in them that I didn't see in the color versions.

Kind of like taking off rose colored glasses..................

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey,
I think trout talk to each other.. I was fishing the other day. Several good size fish were rising in a small pool. I tied on a size 22 poly-winged midge and took a cast. bang fish on..two casts...two fish...five cast three fish...all released six cast 5 fish 7 casts 5 fish 15 casts five fish. I rested them and watched..the feeding pattern never changed still sipping consistently, why did they refuse??? I know..i released three fish i caught, they told them what i was fishing, I know they did.
Another fifteen minutes of refusals and I put on a size 22 bwo and fish on...twice then guess what?!?!?! Fish and learn