SilverArdea

Traditional \Tra*di"tion*al\, a. [Cf. F. traditionnel, LL. traditionalis.] 1. Of or pertaining to tradition; derived from tradition; communicated from ancestors to descendants by word only; transmitted from age to age without writing; as, traditional opinions; traditional customs; traditional expositions of the Scriptures. [1913 Webster] 2. Observant of tradition; attached to old customs; old-fashioned. [R.] --Shak. [1913 Webster] ..so within that context, we might say that feather-wing flies are "traditional", since we've found more effective flies. That doesn't make featherwings any less fun to tie or fish. Another thing to keep in mind are the origins of "tradition". Here's a little story; One Christmas, a woman was preparing a ham for the family dinner. She worked in the presence of her grandmother, who's hams she'd always admired for being so unbelievably tasty. At a point in the preparation, the woman cut 2" of meat off each end of the ham, before placing it in the roasting pan. Her grandmother turned with a look of horror as the cut meat hit the garbage. "Honey, why did you throw out nearly a pound of perfectly good meat?!" In reply, the woman said "Grandma, I love the way your ham turns out and that's always how you've prepared it. I was following your traditional recipe!" ..and then the other shoe dropped; "My dear, I cut off those ends because my pan was too small and couldn't fit the whole ham!" So, we might be tying what we think is traditional, but depending on the author, they might have gotten it from somewhere else, not had all the materials the original called for, and then changed it to suit their inventory. In a recent thread over at CFT, I did a little visual analysis and presentation of singular patterns variety within the Caerhowd Collection of salmon flies. The results were rather enlightening. "Traditional" isn't always what we think it is.

Uni 6/0 and 8/0 for fishing flies .. Lagartun 74d (x-strong) for the pretty flies. Like TroutBum said, it's $5 a spool, but it lays flatter than a pancake and behaves incredibly well. Just not for use on flies that might end up wedged in a log or rock.

I'm with Ray on this one. Doesn't matter if I'm working on a full-dress or freestyle salmon fly or buggers or ::shrug:: anything. Life is plenty hectic enough, I don't need to rush through something I enjoy. I keep a couple vises around - if I'm going to work on a salmon fly and take 20 hours to build it, I'll put it in another vise for safe-keeping while I tie something else for the upcoming weekend's fishing. Part of what makes fly fishing enjoyable to me is tying a really nice fly. The fish probably don't care, but I do.

Alec Jackson *are* Daiichi. Probably been mentioned a dozen or more times, just not keen on reading all the replies.

Interesting way to phrase it, flytyinfreak! I've got 25 years in on Great Lakes steelhead and while these fish don't have anywhere near the pedigree of the 'West Coast Steel', I tie my steelhead flies in the same way, for the same reason. It's simply what the adversary deserves! If I want to do numbers, sure, a glo-bug will work. Somehow, this feels so hollow though. A well-done fly finding purchase in the corner of the mouth, after being carefully presented ..then the resulting battle (and subsequent beaching if all goes well) makes for a complete, soul-warming experience. Back to the topic .. eastern fly - no idea what they think it is. Steelhead are aggressive by nature. They're predators. When the water is right and anything gets near these guys, they'll pounce. There's a bit of biology at play to explain why some colors work better than others in a given river/stream on a given day with various amounts of sun or cloud cover. UV and florescent colors also have a basis in the physiology of the trout/steelhead's eyes. Egg patterns would work on rainbows & browns, for the obvious reason. I've also hooked stream rainbows & browns on various bright steelhead flies ..smaller ones (8's and 10's) ..over time, but I think that's largely a curiosity thing.