Spirit River UV2 Giveaway!

Win $100 worth of UV2 materials!

We're excited to kick off the holiday and tying season with an awesome giveaway in conjunction with our friends at Spirit River. The winner will receive a cool $100 worth of UV2 materials from Spirit River. Here's the way this giveaway will work:

• The giveaway will go from today through Wednesday December 4th. 
• A random winner will be chosen from all entries submitted
• You can submit an "entry" by any of the following methods:
• First, go and like the Spirit River page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SRflies
• Comment on this post
• Share or Comment on any photo on the Spirit River or Fly Fish Food Facebook pages or Instagram feeds.
• The more entries you have, the more chances you have to win. There is a limit of 4 entries per day.

In the meantime, we have a great write-up from the Bill Black at Spirit River, regarding their great UV2 product line.

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It's always a challenge to decide what lure you should present to fish especially during off color water situations  A lure is anything that catches fish, be it a fly, jig, spinner, or even bait. One of the most important things to consider is making sure the fish sees your offering.  New developments in the Ultraviolet world have the potential to change the way you tie, fish, and certainly will change what you choose to fish with.  These new developments allow your jigs or flies to throw off a broad spectrum of color or wavelengths.  And sight and color are just as critical as is scent, silhouette and movement.

As a lifelong flyfisher and a small business owner,  I have had the opportunity to interface with a lot of anglers and guides.  In collaboration with these experts, we have discovered that UV enhanced products are worth researching. Likewise there have been a lot of reports from anglers around the world that substantiate a unique and  new double-dye method called UV2(R). One guide in the Seattle area told me last year at the Lakewood Fly Fishing show that the benefits of using UV2 flies and jigs are so strong that he always tells his customers about UV2.  In his words " I tell my customers in advance that if they want the best chance of hooking steelhead they should be using UV2 materials in their flies.  In fact, I have seen such a increase in our catch rate that I will even supply the flies and jigs if they do not have any.  These folks pay me good, hard-earned money and I want to give them the best chance of getting a beautiful fish or two.  I am soundly convinced that using UV2 helps me do that.”

The owner of another fly shop has experienced a surge in his sales of UV2 buck tails which is a key ingredient in Bob Clouser's famous Clouser minnows.  This is a relatively simple pattern to tie requiring Real-Eyes, strong thread, some flash, and UV2 buck tail.  You can find tying instructions his Clouser Minnows on You Tube or numerous other popular web sites.  These steamers imitate minnows and most larger species of fish gobble them up. Experienced anglers will agree that the advantage to a Clouser minnow is the versatility and wide range of species it catches. And it now a difficult pattern to tie.

Bob Clouser himself recently fished some of his freshly tied minnows and was elated at the performance of his flies tied with UV2(R).  At first he and his group fished regular flies with no luck.  He tied on his UV2(R) minnow and started hitting fish after fish.  He felt lucky that he had tied extra and was able to hand them out.  His entire group of anglers started catching fish.  He caught 7 species of fish including large and smallmouth bass, Muskie, rock bass, walleye and trout.  He commented that, "all I care about is whether the fish like it and there is little doubt about that. I had to give the rest of my flies to anglers before I left the lodge and I hear they are still using them.  UV2(tm)  flies can make all the difference.  I am sold 100% on its benefits."

You might think some anglers just get lucky and you are right.  But usually they are doing any number of things right.  UV2 strengthens the ratio for them.  The science behind what fish see in the Ultra Violet range is still being researched and what you read by the experts is many times contradictory.  Yet UV2 has strong merit in a couple different ways that are hard to refute.  In a nutshell we have combined two separate ultraviolet dye techniques that add UV Fluorescence (UVF) for heightened visibility, and UV reflectance (UVR) which is a lower spectrum of light humans do not see but is widely found in nature.  Obviously nothing is going to bite your lure, fly or jig if it is not seen.  So consider the UVF as a visibility attractant.  The UVR is a bit different in that it reflects a tremendous amount of different color wavelengths.  This prism of colors often contain the one or more spectrums that will trigger a strike.  

A good example that better illustrates the multi spectrum aspect is seen in UV2 dubbing  Start with a base color.  Then blend from 3 to 6 other fiber colors in small amounts.  These 'other colors' must have been dyed separately with both UVR and UVF.  Youend up with a spectrum blend from 7 to 13 colors in both UVF and UVR.  Each color has it's own energy or reflectance.  This is a more realistic coloration for insects or minnows.  No bug or minnow is one single color.  Just like a tree in your yard or a scale on a minnow.  There are multiple colors in everything in nature.  It can be an important factor on what fish see and eat. To impart even more energy or light wavelengths from your dubbed areas on your flies you can add a base layer of tinsel or a bright silver rib so any light that that enters the dubbing will be reflected back out in various color spectrums.  Always brush it out so individual fibers have the best opportunity to bounce light.  Again you're adding all these subtle yet realistic colorations to your offering with can be another ace in your hand.

No one is saying that the new UV2 materials, jigs or flies will always work.  What is does do is it gives the angler another key to attracting fish.   Many of these unusual materials can be found at your local fly shops, online, or better box stores throughout the country.

Bill Black has owned and operated Spirit River since 1990 and prior to that was one of the founders of Umpqua Feather Merchants.  He has 60+ tying videos on You tube.  His passion is Tying, Scrimshaw and photography

. He can be reached at bblack@spiritriverinc.com.