Purple – Blue Disco Legs

Purple Disco Legs with Blue Flake

Purple is the color guides won’t explain to clients, mostly because we can’t. Tarpon eat it. Steelhead eat it. Trout eat purple dries on gray days for reasons no entomologist has ever satisfied me on. I stopped asking questions years ago and started carrying more purple.

Nature’s Spirit Disco Legs in Purple – Blue have a deep purple base with blue flake. From below, against bright sky, purple reads as a solid dark outline, which is exactly what a predator keys on. Under low light, the blue flake picks up what little sun there is and throws it back.

I once spent a full morning on a Florida flat with a client who refused to try anything but tan. Six refusals. I tied on a purple toad while he was eating a sandwich. First cast, a 60-pound tarpon ate it. He finished the sandwich before he spoke to me again.

Best for: tarpon, baby tarpon, snook, steelhead, Atlantic and Pacific salmon, trout in low light, largemouth bass at night.

Recipe 1: Purple Disco Tarpon Toad (tarpon, snook)

• Hook: Saltwater stainless, size 1/0 to 2/0 (size 2 for baby tarpon)
• Thread: Purple or black 210 denier
• Tail: Purple rabbit strip or purple marabou with 4 strands of blue flash
• Legs: Purple – Blue Disco Legs, 2 strands per side at the tail tie-in
• Body: Purple and black craft fur or EP fiber, tied in clumps and trimmed into a flat, wide head
• Eyes: Small plastic or bead-chain eyes

Tying: Tie the tail at the bend with flash on each side. Tie in the legs so they splay out behind. Tie clumps of craft fur on top and bottom, working forward, then trim the head into a flat, wide oval shape. Glue or tie on eyes. Keep it sparse so it lands quietly.

How to fish it: Lead the fish by 6 to 10 feet and let the fly sink to its level. Use long, slow strips with long pauses. The flat head makes the toad swim side to side, and the legs pulse with every strip. When the tarpon eats, strip-strike hard with the line hand. Never trout-set. Keep the rod low.

Recipe 2: Purple Disco Bunny Leech (steelhead, salmon, bass)

• Hook: Streamer hook, size 2 to 4, or a shank with a trailer hook
• Thread: Black 140 denier
• Head: Tungsten cone or bead, black or purple
• Tail: Purple rabbit zonker strip, hook-gap length past the bend
• Body: Purple cross-cut rabbit, palmered forward
• Legs: Purple – Blue Disco Legs, 3 strands per side at the head
• Flash: A few strands of blue Flashabou in the tail

Tying: Slide the cone on and lock it with thread. Tie in the zonker tail and flash. Wrap the cross-cut rabbit forward to the cone. Tie in the legs right behind the cone, so they sweep back along the body. Whip-finish and trim legs just past the hook.

How to fish it: For steelhead, swing it on a sink-tip through tailouts at first and last light. For bass, strip it slow along weed edges after sundown. The rabbit breathes and the legs kick even when the fly hangs dead in the current. Purple shows up as a big dark shape in low light and off-color water.