I was a loud Hawaiian shirt-wearing guy right up until I took a trip to New Zealand, where the guides made me unscrew the tractor bars on my wading boots, insisted I used muted fly lines and wore drab olive shirts. They believe it matters, so I started to also.
And for the waterfowl hunter, I don’t know why we even bother with camo waders in the first place. If you’re like me, you hunt from a blind, and if your legs are at all visible, there’s something seriously wrong. I could hunt in clown pants if I wanted to and it wouldn’t matter. In fishing, on the other hand, your legs are actually in the water the parts of your body covered by waders are presumably within the first line of sight for a trout with conical vision.
Now… I’ve done quite a bit of informal research with scuba gear watching trout behave, and I’ve spoken with a number of scientists, and they all say that motion, more than color overhead is the factor that really spooks the fish. In other words, you can deck out in all the camo you want, from head-to-toe, and if you make 30 false casts over the target fish, you’ll look like a dope and ruin your chances.
But with a stealthy cast and a stealthy approach, the added cover camo might provide certainly cannot hurt, right. I wonder aloud if 10 years from now over 50 percent of the waders sold in this country will have some sort of camo factor. I’m starting to drink the Kool-Aid and believing they actually will.
-Kirk Deeter
