Does anyone have fly material bias?

[the.atmos 0]

I have this weird thing (I'm among like-minds so it's normal here, I suppose) but I have absolutely zero confidence in flies that use nothing but synthetics. Sure, I've fished many a beetle or hopper patterns. But I've never tied one on with the thoughts, "Oooh yeah this is gunna kill it for me" racing through my head. Even further, I only keep a couple synthetic patterns in my box just in case I come across a friendly angler with solid advice.

 

I've learned that confidence in what you're fishing and what you tie plays a huge role in the sport.

 

I always try to incorporate natural materials into my flies, parachute posts excluded, if I can in a way that doesn't dramatically change the fly. Antron dubbing? Forget it, might as well be a witch's curse.

 

Is anyone else weird like me? Or notice a difference in synthetic vs. natural?

 

[mikechell 0]

Kind of, sort of somewhat similar. Most of what I tie and fish with is 100% synthetic. I catch plenty of fish on them. However, my go to fly is my Attractor, and it's got raccoon tail for the wing/back. I have had times when the synthetic flies outfished the Attractor.

I've thought of this before, and the only two traits I can attribute to the raccoon fur ...

(1) I believe it sinks slower than a similar fly tied with synthetic.

(2) We've talked of scents, and whether it makes a difference. If it does, then the raccoon tails, from freshly killed animals, gives off a scent.

 

I don't know if that's why the Attractor can sometimes get hit when nothing else does ... but I know it's not a "confidence" issue.

[kennebec12 0]

Some nymphs that I use are made completely of synthetic materials and some days that's the fly that catches everything, other days it's a hares ear variant that I tie that catches everything and it is natural (except for lead wire to weight it which is not seen). What makes one of them fish better one day over the other, I couldn't tell you. Maybe one of them is matching a nymph that is getting ready to emerge, maybe the lighting is different. As far as drys go, I think almost every fly in my box has at least one synthetic material or one natural material, whether its synthetics in the dubbing or an antron tail, but my hackle is always plucked off a skin. I don't normally discern between synthetic or natural but ask myself if its the right thing to add to fly.

[Al Beatty 0]

I kind of think like you do and really prefer to use all natural or some natural mixed with synthetic (like a foam beetle with a peacock body) then Gretchen reminded me that one of our better bone fish patterns (original Crazy Charlie) was tied all with synthetics. So I hear where you're coming from but only partly agree. The most important thing about fly tying (I think) is enjoying it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Take care & ...

[shoebop 0]

Similar topic as a recent post about synthetic vs natural materials. I said then, as now, I don't think in terms of synthetic vs natural. I have no bias of which I'm aware. Rather, I choose materials based on the properties that I'm looking to impart to the fly. I think you are limiting yourself if you exclude a whole category of materials based on whether they are man made or not. I don't think the fish discriminate in that way. After all, they will attack an all metal spoon or a plastic crank bait on a regular basis.

[ditz2 0]

I have been looking for some synthetic hair for tying hair bugs.

[Eric Hanson 0]

I'm not too finicky as to using all synthetics, synthetics with natural, or all natural. However, there is one natural material that I'd tie with a lot more if it weren't for its scarcity...polar bear. Flies tied with PB boost my confidence and rightly so.

[salmobytes 0]

For me, for wet flies I'm biased heavily toward synthetic twinkle. We don't do control group experiments. We all work on hunches and they're easily swayed and guided in mis-directions. So it takes decades to know for sure sometimes. My dad only fished wet flies when the dry fly fishing was off. But then the wet fly fishing is no good either. All of which convinced him, over 40 years of fishing, that wet flies were useless. It was only his last few years of fishing he finally realized what he'd been missing. I'm on a synthetic wetfly roll right now. Especially in winter. Bright and twinkly is best. By a long margin too. I think. Now anyway.

 

.........and looks most natural to human eyes is, perhaps, a seductively misleading measure. What matters most isn't even what the fish sees. It's what the fish does. How many strikes this way compared to that way. Synthetic wins hands down for me. Other side benefits like "always available and uniform quality" help a lot too.

[FlaFly 0]

I agree with Shoebop at least in part when he said fish don't discriminate. At least the ones I fish for don't... think off bluegills and foam rubber spiders with rubber legs. Or on ultralight gear with beetle spin lures.

I gather from posts of those who fish for trout that the trout discriminate in terms, not of what it is made of, but whether the fly behaves the same as the natural bait. I'd like to think that we could get synthetics to behave just the same as, say, fox tail hair, but maybe not. Who am I to judge?

[wschmitt3 0]

I never really considered it until now. So I took a look at my fly box. I only had 2 patterns that are tied with 100% synthetic material, zebra midge and san juan worm. Almost all of my flies are tied with mostly non-synthetic materials. I don't think that this fact has anything to do with bias towards non-synthetics it think that it just happens to be the patterns I like happen to be tied with non-synthetic materials.

[FlaFly 0]

I think it's more likely a bias in favor of certain kinds of fishing, hence certain kinds of flies. It's kinda hard to make many streamers without feathers. Likewise most trout dry patterns.

For my tying, feathers are just about all the natural things I need, although I've put deer hair tails on some of my foam flies like the Confederate General.

[SilverCreek 0]

I've caught some trout on the San Juan using a bare Daiichi 1273 red hook as a chironomid pattern. Does that count?

 

[FlaFly 0]

That's pretty unnatural, Silver :-)

[JayWirth 0]

I prefer to use as much natural as possible. My thought being toward tradition vs modern approach to fly fishing & tying.

[heavynets 0]

Are hooks, thread and head cement considered "natural"?