Natural colours preferably also translucent

The colours of baitfish, prawns and shrimp, crabs etc are all good choices for flies that are imitating those naturals and have been the most successful colour select for me in salt water in Central Queensland. In the salt they are my first choice for daytime fishing in any salt water fishery that is isn't carrying too much colour. Those natural colours include olives, browns and tans, silver and silver dun, off white and lighter shades of pink and lilac. My mud prawn, pregnant prawn and jelly prawn are great examples of matching the hatch with natural colours.

Qantas colours of red and white

This definitely my favourite fresh water or dirty water colour colour choice in Central Queensland. For some recipes, such as my articulated swimmer the red is the colour for the whole of the articulated shank in an articulated fly in others such as an articulated woolly bugger it's just a turn or two of red hackle in front of an otherwise all white fly head or part of the head of the fly. In flies like my scrounger baitfish and articulated baitfish fly the back of the fly rather than just the head is red.

Brown Bomber colours of browns and black

Brown bomber hard body lures have a fantastic reputation as barramundi lures and inspired by that I tie just a couple of recipes, such as articulated boobies" and my articulated baitfish flies in colours inspired by those lures. They work best in the salt and often get a response from barra when cast next to structure that creates a pressure point that hunting barra can stage an ambush from.

Orange over pink

This is a great combination in two situations. I use it for a couple of flies that are designed for targeting Salmon, Fingermark and Grunter that are scrounging around the bottom searching out mainly shrimp, prawns and crabs. It's also a great dirty water combination in both fresh and salt water fisheries.

Chartreuse and white

There is a popular adage up here in Central Queensland "if it isn't chartreuse it isn't no use". I don't subscribe to that but I do carry both articulated swimmers, articulated buggers and articulated baitfish flies in chartreuse and white as they turn out to be a great offering to big trevally and queenfish that are on the chew.

Pink over white

This is a great colour combination and I used it in quite a lot of flies including my pelagic candy scrounger baitfish and scrounger jelly prawn flies.

Black over Purple

I only use this colour combination on my articulated baitfish fly and I only need that fly in that colour when I come across GT's or queenfish attacking baitfish in shallow water.

Blue, grey and white