Tying with Glow in the Dark Materials

Probably one of the most over looked fly tying materials for the salt water is the large array of glow in the dark materials. I like to fish flies tied with these materials primarily under low light conditions, but they should not be over looked during the day either. Now you might ask why would a fish want to eat a glowing fly?? The simple answer is bioluminescence, i.e. creatures that glow. The most common bioluminescent creatures are dinoflagellates, but krill, squid, some crustaceans and certain fish also have the ability to do this as well. Ask any diver and they can tell you all about this.

Is there a light in the water??? Nope just an example of bioluminescence in the Pacific. Photo Credits (Kevin McCoy)

This is where glow in the dark materials come in. Night or day, deep water or shallow water, glow in the dark flies fish great and look cool while they are at it. The only issue with glow in the dark flies is that the tier can be quite limited by the materials that are currently on the market. However each year a few new materials arrive on the market and today there is a fair selection available. These include glow in the dark head cement, thread, poly yarn, tinsel, chenille, mylar braid, ribbing, krystal flash and perhaps the most important glow in the dark flashabou.

By night a great krill imitation - Everything in this fly glows but the bead chain eyes...

Each material has its uses and here are a few things that I have done with them.

Polyyarn - Can be chopped up into 3/4" or smaller pieces and blended into a dubbing. By keeping the pieces longer, it will pick out very nicely and works great and krill imitiations.

Thread - Although glow thread comes in 3/0 it is not nearly as strong as standard threads. As such I will use it as a floss for bodies or for doing heads on flies.

Chenille - Like normal chenille it makes great bodies. Furled worms with this can also be quite effective though.

Hareline Saltwater Krystal Flash - This glow krystal flash is very stiff and probably best suited to making antennas on flies.

Flashabou - Probably the most useful material on the material. It can be used for overwings, throats, twisted and wrapped for bodies or spun into a dubbing brush and wrapped like a hackle.

Glow in the dark flashabou is probably the most versatile glow material and comes in white, green, pink, yellow and orange.

A glow in the dark baitfish - The Gig Harbor Glow Fly

These are just a few of the uses for these materials, and in the end what can be created with them just boils down to how creative the tier is.