Are we getting obsessed by trying to make our tippet invisible to the fish.
I have watched underwater shots of lures etc. and you can clearly see the
tippet attached to the hook.
So our efforts are not working-that is unless trout have got bad eyesight.
We also go to great lengths to make part of the tippet section sink
( I do it myself-sometimes with frustrated results)
I have stood on the river bank or by the side of a loch and watched all
sorts of vegetation go by
Bits of tree,bits of grass,bits of weed. etc.
This doesn't stop the trout from sifting out the flies amongst it all.
Under the water we have growing weed and a host of other items passing
by.
Surely the trout is used to it and can pick out the food items.
In carp fishing they disguise their weight to look like a stone and their
hook length is weighted to lay on the bottom and blend in with the bottom
of the pond.
Rather than all the effort to make the tippet invisible wouldn't it be worth
trying to make it look like a strand of weed or twig by using green or brown
coloured tippet.
I tried brown Maxima while dry fly fishing up my local pond
and it seemed to worked ok.
Has anyone else tried a coloured tippet rather than the standard
clear?
We try and match the hatch why not try and match the above as well.

Aye we can be surprised by what we can get away with sometimes. Untill the fish have learnt to associate the leader with danger that is,which they certainly do after being caught or jagged once or twice.Even then, I dont believe that using a dark brown coloured leader would prove to be advantageous over a less obtrusive coloured leader.
I can remember thinking I had found the Holy Grail when I switched from brown Maxima to Racine Tortue,which was green...my catches seemed to quadruple overnight...Likewise when Drennan Double Strength came along,finer diameter for the same strength,suddenly big,picky fish were catchable,it was a revelation.Leader material development has came on leaps and bounds since those days.Dark Maxima belongs in the Dark Ages....

I wonder about the fish seeing this delicious insect they want to eat, with a dirty great hook hanging out its ****. One would think that this would make them think a little more.
I think the fish see it, the same with tippet, but they don't register what it is. I don't think its the colour or visibility of the tippet that's the problem, but more the drag it causes, as well as any line shadow that is caused by tippet floating. You need to get under the water and look at a pice of floating tippet, you wont believe how the surface tension of the water magnifies the effect.

We can clearly see the tippet and hook and I'm sure the trout can too but they haven't the intelligence to associate them with danger, until they've been caught and released several times, and learned by experience.

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How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind - Isaac Walton.

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