redietz

I think the idea behind that is just holding fibers together together while tying. It doesn't matter if they come apart later. Wings so fixed can put a twist in a tippet, but some people like to fix feathers used in wing cases, where it twisting isn't a problem.

Embroidery floss. Christmas tree tinsel. SHHAN. Transformer wire. And let's not forget tools: dental floss pullers as bobbin holder threaders; electrical test clips for hackle pliers, piano wire for pulling rubber legs through popper bodies. Sewing machine bobbins.

I'm in. Probably a Grouse & Herl.

I agree. And the slot limits some states have are a good idea, too.

I go one further. I (and the trout) have learned to position myself in a run immediately below a riffle too shallow for canoes or float tubes, and the floater need to get out and wade for a bit. Since they're often drunk, they do a really good job of scuffling up the bottom and dislodging food. They make quite a racket, but fishing always picks ups when the flotilla passes. The only downsides are that I have to pull my line out of the water for a minute or two while they pass, and I sometimes have to rescue float tubers who have capsized.

OTOH, if you omit the wing on a conventionally hackled dry, there is no such as upside down.

Agreed on both counts. Nice looking fly.

Assuming you're talking about conventionally hackled dries, I find that the only real reason to add wings is make the fly easier to see. The hackle itself is all the wing the fish needs to see. Obviously, on a parachute you need a wing post, and no-hackles benefit from wings, but I've caught just as many fish on dries without wings as flies with. I usually add them any way to flies that traditionally have them -- I couldn't bring myself to fish a wingless Hendrickson, for example -- but don't believe they add any real benefit in inducing fish to take them. (In fact, I'd say that my top two producing dries are a Renegade and a Bivisible, even during hatches and on spring creeks with fussy fish.)

I got mine this afternoon. Well done, all. Thanks for hosting, Dubs.

I second that suggestion.

Yes. And then I broke the rod tip.

I can't imagine there were too many green heart rods still being made in 1939. This was almost certainly more common: http://www.yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/cane-trout even if it was filmed later.

I just need to attach toe tags. Will go out on Monday.

A magnet is your friend: https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_669129_669129 I keep one next to my tying desk, and use it regularly.

Accidentally cutting the thread when I trimming something on the fly. You'd think that after 55 years that I would learn to avoid doing that, but no, anytime I tie for at least an hour, I will cut the thread at some point.

Yes, I've been and it is a decidedly different location than the county in England formerly known as Devonshire, which is where the river Dart is located.

I'm guessing that there aren't too many people on this board from Devon. Perhaps if you broaden the question to something like "what flies should I use through the season for wild brown trout in streams?" you might get a better answer, which will be largely the same throughout the world. (Unless of course it's salmon you're after.)

Yes. Size 18 Light Spanish Needle.

Count me in. I haven't tied any dries for a while.

That's why they're split down the middle of the shaft. Ever tie a Breadcrust?

Not at all unusual. In this country, Leisenring tied his wets with "cockerel" (young rooster). Bergman described the Orange Fish Hawk wet, one of his favorites as being tied with exactly the same materials as the dry version, but to sweep the hackle back (this is a wingless wet.) Even today, if you look at some of Davie McPhail's videos, he's using hackle from a Chinese rooster cape as hackle on wets, for example the head hackle in this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Mc7o0ueHM Also bear in mind that many British winged wets are intended to be used for stillwater fishing from a boat, where they may function as wake flies -- meant to create a disturbance near the surface.

It's original intent was to represent a hellgrammite.

Or sulfur duns, Quill Gordons, Red Quills or BWOs.

I don't think anyone is saying that the Woolly Bugger is a bad fly. It obviously works for a lot of people. However, there are also a lot of us for whom it doesn't, which probably says more about our fishing habits than the fly itself.

He's talking about instagram.