Friday, March 15, 2019

"True Colors"

Those of us who tie flies, especially those who tie soft-hackles and spiders know that a famous maker of fly tying silk which is used in the construction of so many of the soft-hackles and spiders. The Pearsall Gossemer silk is no longer on the market. The availability of some odd colors and from sources such as estate sales and ebay are pretty much the only places to get Pearsall's. A couple of years ago I was made aware of another company offering a silk thread. The company name is YLI. Since I first learned of YLI's offering's I have purchased several colors and have tied many flies using it. It offers the same quality as Pearsall's, and it holds what I consider to be most important factor in silk thread it's true color when wet. Above is a spool of YLI olive thread. Olive is one of my staples and many of my flies use olive silk as a body.


Here is a spool of Pearsall's silk thread. It is a chestnut brown and one of my favorite colors for soft-hackles and spiders.



I have several flies tied with both YLI and Pearsall's. Using thread bodies and both grouse and woodcock feathers for hackle. The first is a Woodcock and Olive.


This one is a Grouse and Olive


This one is a Woodcock and Chestnut


And this one is a Grouse and Chestnut. Now you can see the colors of both silks as they are dry. The test taken was to show what they look like when wet. You will see that they hold their color. Some threads will darken when wet and that's OK in some cases. But I prefer they stay true.


Woodcock and Chestnut, wet.


Grouse and Olive wet.
Does all this color make a difference to the fish, I would say it does.











15 comments:

  1. I've yet to try the YLI silk, though I should, my stash of Perasall's is going to run out some day. That Chestnut is a truly beautiful color; does YLI have a color that is comparable to the Pearsall's Chestnut?

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    Replies
    1. mike
      Thanks
      Mike I have to check the website to see if they have a thread similar to the Pearsall's chestnut. I love that color.

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    2. Mike I found a color similar to the Pearsall's Chestnut. It's Light Taupe Brown #254. This is the company I buy my thread from.....
      https://www.roserushbrooke.com/yli-100wt-silk-thread-200/yli-100wt-silk-thread-200.html

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  2. Hi Alan
    What a lead you have just provided from your post!
    I have just had a look on line and YLI is available in the UK from various outlets, I am definitely going to have to order some as my supply of Pearsall's / Langley silk is diminishing somewhat.
    Thanks
    Alistair

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    Replies
    1. Alistair Corbishley
      Thanks
      Alistair I have found that both Pearsall's and YLI are the same. Quality threads indeed. I have a few spools of Pearsall's in my vault...

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  3. Beautiful classics tied by a master. Not only beautiful, but trout like them!

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    Replies
    1. Parachute Adams
      Thanks
      Sam I had my best day fishing in March yesterday. A couple of soft-hackles were all that were necessary.

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    2. I look forward to reading that report, Alan. You have had a heck of great winter fishing with many connections and beautiful sights to boot.

      The Swift yielded no hits for me today, but no complaints, it was still nice to be out.

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    3. Sam winter has been very good. March lived up to it's lousy fishing until the other day. Slow day on the Swift but I'll bet there is no where else you would rather have been.

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  4. Replies
    1. William Shuck
      Thanks
      Bill I love that saying "lovely wee spiders"

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  5. Alan, Some lovely posts there and previously too. I've often wondered, particularly in still water what trout see, is it colour or silhouette? Perversely they do show colour preferences and better men than I have studied this subject their whole life.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous
      Thanks
      I think in some situations both color and silhoutte are important. Now fishing small streams that hold wild trout is different. Because of the scarce food offerings in these streams anything that is close to looking like food will be taken. Heavily pressured trout in tailwaters will be more selective as to what they will take. Color varies also as to the depth the fly is fished. Yellow near the surface will be different than viewed at say 10 feet.

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    2. Alan,

      I've fished black midge pupae and red midge pupae fourteen feet down in a reservoir and all the trout I caught one day were on red. It just shows you have to ring the changes. When you think you have cracked it, you haven't! Regards, John

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    3. John they're only fish....but have Masters Degrees in avoiding anglers. So much to learn.

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