[Lucian Vasies]

Hi guys,
In the past, I did not give much importance to UV materials. The general patterns work for me and I didn't give importance to the realistic ones or the very imitative ones. For example, I did not consider that the insect's olive should be imitated precisely because there are very rare times when the fish are extremely cautious.   so I didn't take into account the buzz on the forums from 10-15 years ago when some fishermen thought that UV materials would be revolutionary.
Now I discovered that I use such materials without knowing. Some fly patterns catch, but maybe they catch fish because I use them a lot. I am curious about your habit. What do you think about UV reflective materials?

An example below:


Under UV light:

[James Laraway]

I don't tend to deliberately buy UV materials as I'm not wholly convinced they make a big difference.

Saying that my #1 pattern from last season, the 'pink tailed kate ordies' tail really fluoresces under UV light so maybe it does make a difference 

Personally I think confidence in a pattern probably makes a lot more difference than a bit of UK material...

[Sandy Nelson]

An interesting question
To my knowledge trout can see into the UV spectrum so there is good reason to use UV products.
However a lot of natural feathers and fibres also have UV properties, like Starling , jungle cock and things like Pheasant tails. When you dye some of the natural materials it destroys the natural UV properties which is why a Melanistic pheasant tail works much better than a dyed black one.
I like some of the body dubbings that have a small amount of UV and I do add a pinch of UV black to my Troutstalker highland Peat for my nymph thoraxes.
So I’m very much in the camp that believes a little bit of UV improves a fly but I prefer it to be natural , where possible. It can be very interesting to shine the UV torch over things and see what shines and what colours they shine
 

[Robert MacDonald-Lewis]

I use UV materials or highlights in quite a lot of my flies, especially loch flies.

Could be wrong, but I recall reading or hearing somewhere that only juvenile or young fish can see in the UV spectrum.

[Lucian Vasies]

in the last few days I started testing some of the materials and I was surprised to see that many threads from veevus but also other "traditional" materials such as feathers or dubbing are UV reflective...
But for me, if I don't do comparative tests, it's difficult to say if it works better or not . I wish I had that much time to go fishing

[Allan Liddle]

Always interesting as to add UV or not but same as Robert i do tend to put quite a bit into some of my loch flies, less so on rivers.
I do feel that sometimes too much is, well too much and can put fish off so tend to carry flies with and without.  That said it's probably more a confidence thing for me.