There are a few additional things that should be added to the above article in light of more recent discoveries: Not just any Fluorescent Color will get the desired results, and Too Much of any FL Color will often turn the fish off. The FL Color that will be most effective will be the color that produces the most Contrast in the Color of Water you are fishing. Water comes in an infinite variety of 3 basic colors: 1. Blue, for very clear water; 2. Green, for algae stained and snow melt stained waters; and 3. Red/Brown for muddy and Tannin stained waters, so your Hot Spot colors need to be chosen with the possibility of fishing those kinds of conditions in mind.
Blue Waters: Shallow blue water has a light blue color but, the farther down the fly is fished, the darker the blue water gets, and this holds true for all water colors. The Operative Colors in blue water are: FL, White, Blue, Green and Chartreuse, with silver and gold Plate being effective as metallic finishes. White and silver are effective in direct light at short range but lose contrast in indirect light as they reflect the color of the water around them. For high contrast short range effects, FL Red, Pink and Orange are highly effective, as long as not too much of it is used.
Green Stained Waters: The effective Fluorescent Colors are, Chartreuse, Red, Orange and Pink. In green water, the fish’s vision is limited to short range only, with FL- Orange providing the most contrast in my experience.
In Red/Brown Turbid colored waters: The Operative Colors are Gold Plate, FL - Chartreuse, and plain Black.
Low-Light Conditions: For fish to see color, the light has to be bright. Under darkness, the fish are running on their Rod Cell vision instead of their color cell vision, so the only “colors” they can see are black, white and shades of grey and this is where the Glow-In-The-Dark Materials become important as Hot Spots. A little Light where there is almost none is very apparent to the fish.
I hope providing this additional Hot Spot information will enable anglers to utilize Hot Spots to their highest potential…Karl.
I am sorry the above article did not appear and I was unable to locate it again, so here is another piece covering much of the same information:
Of course, Hot Spots can be utilized on any kind of fly pattern, including Keberi and other popular Tenkara patterns.
Most of the streams we tenkara anglers fish are not very deep, and most of the patterns we fish are not weighted, so a lot of the above information would seem to not apply for tenkara anglers but, the color shifts (from what ever color you are using to black) hold true with distance in the same shallow waters we fish. With tenkara’s short casting ranges being an inherent part of the sport, being able to pull fish from some distance to take our flies is a strong advantage to have. FL- Fly Tying Materials and Hot Spots can give strong advantages to the tenkara anglers who are willing to learn how to use them properly. Enjoy…Karl