Tying the Purple Haze Fly

Paul Hoelscher demonstrates tying the Purple Haze Fly, an effective fly for trout on the Little Red River in Arkansas.

Filmed at the 2008 Sowbug Roundup in Mountain Home, Arkansas.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Fly
• Fishing
• Tying
• Trout
• Nymph

[27tgard]

Not much purple to the "purple haze" This is really just a UV Tan sow/scud. Not trying to rip on the fly, I'm sure it's effective in the Ozarks. But really, knock off the purple haze crap.

[FlyFishVideo]

@27tgard The video doesn't do justice to the purple hue given off by the UV flash. When you see it in person, it's much more obvious. Whatever you want to call it, it's still a very effective fly.

[GUSigmaNu]

I depends on what type of underwater forage is in the river system. If you have a lot of moss and aquatic vegetation. This fly is very generic and can imitate anything from caddis to aquatic isopods (sow bugs) it all depends on what is in the river!

[MrKoiking1]

do you have any idea if this would work in wales and England? look up the river Severn and river Ithon. the ithon is a river in central wales with a huge amount of trout,, slightly less salmon, some graying and a few chub. the severn is one of the main rivers in England, and runs through most of it, its very wide and deep in places and has most river fish in britain in it. any ideas?

[dylanflyfishes]

@ParksFlyShop What's the real purple haze? Is it something else? We've been fishing this sowbug pattern and calling it purple haze since my freshman year of college in 02. Just wondering what else is being called purple haze, since it's a great novelty name for shops to catch anglers...haha.

[ParksFlyShop]

@tgard27

The "real" Purple Haze was developed by Andy Carlson on the Bitterroot River before 2005, not sure exactly when. It's basically an Adams Parachute with a body of purple spandex. They didn't start spreading beyond Montana/Idaho/Wyoming until 2007 or so.

[tgard27]

Have you noticed that purple haze is a fly name that everyone is using?

[ChrisFisher100]

simple and good.very nice

[deadmanis89]

good ly little man keep it up