Clear Coat on Subsurface Patterns ?

GAT

GAT

Dumbfounded
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Coating subsurface patterns with a transparent sealer seems to be quite the rage. I haven't jumped on that bandwagon. They do look interesting but I'm wondering if anyone has determined that adding the clear coat has increased their catch rate.
 
I'm not sure how much the clear coat adds to the catch rate, but it certainly adds to the durability.
SF
 
Ah, I didn't think about making the pattern more durable. As long as it doesn't work as a fish repellent then adding the coating for durability makes sense.
 
although, I'm also thinking in terms of streamers. For trout nymphs? I think it helps, like the wing case on a pheasant tail or something like that...there, I definitely think it can make a difference, but I don't have a data set to go off of outside of anecdotally.
 
I can certainly see coating a feather wing case as those on a GRHE.... I use Sally Hansen to hold the wing case together. But I see a lot of patterns where the entire fly has a thick clear coat so I started to wonder if there is a fish catching advantage to adding the coating.
 
GAT said:
I can certainly see coating a feather wing case as those on a GRHE.... I use Sally Hansen to hold the wing case together. But I see a lot of patterns where the entire fly has a thick clear coat so I started to wonder if there is a fish catching advantage to adding the coating.
Click to expand...
Gene - I use UV resin to coat the bodies of chironomids, I use it to add eyes to streamers and sometimes I use Sally's here and there but for most of the other flies I fish (jigs, streams, woollybuggers, hare's ears, etc.) I don't use the product on the bodies. I like the UV products versus Sally's because it cures in seconds.

I think your question about increased catch rate is a good one and can be debated. As Brian says, the flies are more durable.//Pat
 
GAT said:
I can certainly see coating a feather wing case as those on a GRHE.... I use Sally Hansen to hold the wing case together. But I see a lot of patterns where the entire fly has a thick clear coat so I started to wonder if there is a fish catching advantage to adding the coating.
Click to expand...
Like a perdigon?;or perdigon derivative?

I think those are mostly to cut down on material that would impede a faster sink rate.

Although some of those patterns that use a lot of uv clear to build a body like what Wes Penny ties are just insanely cool looking.
 
clarkman said:
Like a perdigon?;or perdigon derivative?

I think those are mostly to cut down on material that would impede a faster sink rate.

Although some of those patterns that use a lot of uv clear to build a body like what Wes Penny ties are just insanely cool looking.
Click to expand...

I wonder if the glossy finish on some patterns might cause them to be more shiny or reflective, possibly depending on the materials used?
Like does a thread body chironomid pattern fish better if coated with a glossy UV finish?
Interesting question that @GAT brought up.
SF
 
I dunno though, it's tough to tell when there have been more than a few times on the Deschutes where I've sat and watched fish eat multiple little sticks and blades of grass in a row, quickly expelling it either through the gills or back out the mouth only to rise to a big ole chubby Chernobyl in the middle of winter.

Gene, you've probably seen similar as you've probably fished that river long before I have (and back before the crappy mixing tower went on when it was a really good trout fishery). A mutual acquaintance of ours used to only fish 2 size 16 PTs (standard) and would just clean up....no extra clear top coat necessary.
 
I used too much resin on this chironomid:
1736457197865.jpeg
I wanted a thinner coat so that the wire ribbing would be raised, but all I had left was a medium thickness resin and I overdid it. With some reflective materials, like holographic dubbing, the strip of flashabou on a flashback nymph, or the flashback material I used for a body on this fly, a layer of resin makes material 'pop' visually in a way that it does not on its own.
 
Yup, I've watched trout "mouth" items floating downstream just to spit them out when they discovered they were not edible... which makes me wonder if they are checking for some manner of give to the item. Obviously a small stick doesn't not have the same texture as does a free floating stonefly nymph.

I remember the gold fish in my aquarium would swim along the bottom and pick up bits of gravel and spit it out when they found it wasn't food. Kind'a a trail error approach to feeding.

Obviously the clear coat does make the patterns look really cool to humans and maybe to the fish too. It isn't worth any specific tests to determine if the clear coat works better. If some anglers are convinced they do catch more fish than the non clear coat variety, then that's the ones they should use.
 
Then one thinks about flies for stillwater, like what @Zak posted just above. Perhaps it matters more because fish have a longer amount of time to inspect a potential food item. That clear coat on that chironomid probably represents the air bubble that forms just prior to "hatching"....

I know relating to musky stuff I tie, because I fish stillwaters for them out here, I have to make sure that the fly does a lot more on it's own vs allowing for the current to create the movement on the fly based on materials....not sure if that makes total sense, but I know that I'd have no issue fishing my stillwater musky patterns for river fish but I'm not sure I'd feel the same with some of the standard river musky patterns going the other way around.

Then again (again), all of this could just be that you fish what YOU, the angler are confident in (as @GAT alluded to) and fish are just too dumb to notice.
 
soaking coated and uncoated on the same leader this past lake season, the fish gave a nod to the coated. Convinced me enough that I coated a few dozen existing Zebra midges. Have personally become a fan of bloodworms, always on one of my rods to start the season, and this one has become a go to.
 
clarkman said:
although, I'm also thinking in terms of streamers. For trout nymphs? I think it helps, like the wing case on a pheasant tail or something like that...there, I definitely think it can make a difference, but I don't have a data set to go off of outside of anecdotally.
Click to expand...
Start fishin’ for trout then…
data will follow. 😳😝😂
 
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