...than a darker coloured line?

I think there was an article in one of the mags a while back about the difference between the two and with an under water shot of both a white and an olive line the white stood out by miles where as the olive lines edges seemed to blend into the water.
I don't know whether it make a difference to the trout but I will be choosing an olive or non white line in future. Not that i'm certain it makes a difference I just wouldn't like to risk it.

I think it makes a difference in intermediates even clear slime line as opposed to camo slime line. The camo being better.

But that is just my opinion, please no one shoot me.

Snowbee , Barrio , Shakespeare oddysey etc etc all sell white floaters so I wouldnt think so .

This year in Scotland my son and I were fishing at a stocked trout water. I was using an orange floater. I had just cast out when we saw a large carp - 15lb (ish) - a foot below the surface, swimming close in, along the bank towards us.. When the carp saw my line it very carefully changed course and swam out into deeper water until it cleared the end of my floating line (not the leader, which it ignored) then having rounded the end of my line swam back into the bank and resumed its original course !!!!!!

I'm not sure if trout can see orange floating line but I know carp can !

Nigel

I don't think it makes a difference. I use an airflo hi vis orange line & my mate uses a snowbee white line i sometimes out fish him & he sometimes out fishes me.....

__________________
Chris (RAGGOT) Roberts

www.iomff.co.uk

Anglers can probably see the end of a lighter-coloured floater better for takes, but I should have thought since white (or light colours) reflects light more than dark colours, wouldn't you get line flash on brighter days?

This debate is a real old chestnut and no doubt it will go on for many more years.

The best evidence I ever saw for dark coloured floating lines was photographs in the book: "The Trout and The Fly" by John Goddard and Brian Clarke. They had put a camera underwater and proved that outside the fishes window a white fly line is seen against the dark colour of the lake or river bottom.

Richard Walker also spent a lot of time and magazine space telling people to dye their lines the colour of cowdung using Dylon dyes. I did this with all of my floating lines, but whether I could prove that dark coloured lines were more successful is doubtful. I have caught lots of trout on white or even fluorescent coloured lines.

Walker's logic behind his choice of dark floating lines was that many anglers: "succeed in spite of the line colour, not because of it." Nevertheless I do feel that on catch and release waters where fish wise up to the presence of garish coloured fly lines it might be a good idea to dye the first 30 feet say, of the line. It's easy enough to do with cold water Dylon mixed up double strength, and it doesn't damage your line.

I wouldn't think it would matter with buzzer/nymph when the fish are deeper. I was thinking about dries when they are right up there.

My £0.02:

If you line a fish then it doesn't matter what colour the line is - you'll most likely spook it - the fish shouldn't see your line. Ron correctly states that Goddard and Clarke's book is somewhat of an authority on the subject but to say one colour is better than another is fatuous. Why? Well, a light grey or white line may be OK-ish if the trout sees it in his window against the sky, but will stick out like a sore thumb against a foliage background. The reverse is true of a dark green/olive line: it will stick out when viewed by the fish against the sky but not against foliage... To say one colour is better than another simply fuels our line-buying fetishes (me included).

I have caught as many fish with a lemon yellow line as I have an ivory line as I have an olive green line as I have a heron grey line. However when I've lined fish by accident with all 3 then they've spooked.

As ever; one small exception. Some perceived wisdom says that where reed cuts happen (I'm thinking chalkstreams primarily) then the fish sometimes get used to thin green things floating on the water (reeds) and maybe, just maybe (but not in my experience) they won't be spooked by green lines on the water. However, all this does is prove that while one colour line may be ideal for one particular circumstance, it won't be for another. To argue that one line colour is better than another is therefore fruitless IMHO.

I do agree with what you are saying, I never take colour into account, I normally have white floaters, green intermediates, black sinkers, I have been given to understand in the past that trout are colour blind, I once saw a film taken from the bed of a river, it showed dry flies on the suface, each one was a different colour, but, they all looked the same because all one could see was the silouette .......