Spectrumized....

[hookjaw]

While at the sportsmans show last March, the guys from the fly tying theater who were from Fontenelle told me that if you mixed colors from opposite sides of the color wheel you would get brown. (red - green, orange - blue etc). What I want to know is if there is a formula for getting spec olive, or green. Thanks in advance.

-Hook

[Ouzel]

Creating or matching colors for flies is not difficult if you know 'a whole bunch of stuff'.

Is the bug you are trying to match a dry fly or subsurface, the color you see above water is not the color the fish will see. It will be close but not exact and that may cause for last moment rejection.

Before someone jumps on this let me also add the ektoskeleton (surface) of the bug will reflect light in a different way then the surface of the material you are using to tie the fly.

Another point is that if you are mixing material to get a certain color you need to be aware that different materials have different light reflective values.

Quite recently I tried to match colors for Jeff Brooks's Golen-Olive Spectumized Damsel fly and even through I got close the fly didn't produce. I got in touch with Jeff and he told me Troutsmen Enterprises now mixes the color and Lone Peak in American Fork carries the mix.

As it happens I was working off the color from the computer/printer and the mixing instructions. When I received the mix and put next to the flies I had tied up you could see a color difference, not a big difference but a difference. A few days later a bunch of panfish provided a fish fry.

Formulas? If you have a physics book in your library it should have a chapter or two concerning light and color reflection. If you remember your classes from school you may also remember "ROYGBIV" which has since been reduced to "ROYGBV" (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet). The book may also show the color wheel but probably will not give any mixing formulas. You may have better luck finding mixing info from your local paint store.

Without having a laboratory with a 'mass spectrumizer' the give you the "index of refraction" of the ektoskeleton of the insect and then finding a material and color with the same value it is pretty much a task of trial and error.

Then you may wonder if a fish sees colors the same way you do. Fun isn't it?

[RAW]

Then, according to many, all you need to do is die your materials with diffferent color mixtures of KoolAid!

Ever wonder what happens to all the colors of Koolaid you drink? Your body has a way of taking all the colors in the spectrum and changing them to various shades of yellow! Pee Pee!