What color Pearsalls is this?

[Ron Eagle Elk]

When I tied at the local Symposium earlier this month I had three Orange and Partridge in my dunk tank. Same hooks, same size and color partridge feather, same number of wraps of hackle. One tied with 6A, one with 19 and one with rayon floss. No one picked the 6A as an O&P, most went for the rayon floss.

[Theroe]

REE
Interesting -I have some vintage orange rayon floss from Reed tackle, I will give it a try!

Dana

[zen leecher]

if you use rayon floss wrap an underbody of white thread. Otherwise the hook color will "bleed" thru and not allow the floss to shine.

[bearbutt]

Another thought: if this spool is as early as it appears to be, it would reinforce the argument for 6a. When Edmonds and Lee published Brook and River Trouting in 1916, there was no 19 on their chart--colors stopped at 18. I'm not sure when 19 was introduced, so that's something we'd need to sort out--.

bb

[daringduffer]

........ I'm not sure when 19 was introduced, so that's something we'd need to sort out--.

bb

+1, urgent need.


dd

[redietz]

When I tied at the local Symposium earlier this month I had three Orange and Partridge in my dunk tank. Same hooks, same size and color partridge feather, same number of wraps of hackle. One tied with 6A, one with 19 and one with rayon floss. No one picked the 6A as an O&P, most went for the rayon floss.

That's kind of the point of using 6A, though. When wet it's rusty brown -- matching a whole lot of insects. I personally wouldn't have as much confidence in a bright orange fly. (I've caught more trout on an O&P over the years than any other fly, so it's a very high confidence fly for me.)

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Bob, Eactly! That's why I try not to deviate from the classic patterns. A lot of the old fly designers used certain colors of silk on a fly, not because of how it looked in the shop window, but how it looked wet. Those guys, like James Baillie, fished to feed their families and guided the swells, so their flies had to work. I would bet they tested their new designs to see changes when wet.