McClane's Fishing Encyclopedia circa 1965
Were they anatomically correct? An attempt to "match the hatch"?? NO WAY (at least not a good attempt) Many were gaudy looking and resembling nothing in nature. And the parts of the man made fly, wings and tails, were represented by a poor choice of materials. The flies that I mentioned above and many of the flies that I pictured were tied with quill slips to represent wings. Natural wings are gossamer-like and fairly transparent and not a sturdy, rigid and solid appendage. Tails were a joke. Mayfly tails are the least noticed part of a trouts body because they are so thin but our forefathers tied them with bundles of bird fibers. Another mistake was even tying a wing in the first place. The old timers were trying to replicate an emerging insect they said BUT only the Quill Gordon emerges with its wings fully exposed (there is one other species of mayfly that does it but the name escapes me). Then the excuse was floated around that winged wet flies represented the Spinner stage of a mayfly. No way do any of the above flies represent spinners. That rational has sunk without a trace.
Why are these flies still around (just barely)? First, it's part of the record of this art form that we practice, showing the evolution of fly tying. Many feel that Picasso was the greatest painter that ever existed. That doesn't mean that we intend to sandblast the prehistoric cave art found all over the world. It's too valuable as a record. Second, tying these arcane patterns requires SKILL that many longer possess or have never been introduced to. Try tying in two matched duck quill slips to see how good you are! Third, there are folks who tie flies but don't fly fish . I'm not talking about employees in Asian fly mills either but those who replicate time honored patterns of museum quality.
I hope the old wet flies stick around for awhile. I just won't fish them.
Book Me
It's almost February and March is the beginning of SPRING and I am booking trips. Don't get left out or have your prime date grabbed by someone else.
Ken
6 comments:
I love tying the old quill winged flies. I have a couple boxes full of them. They require more patience and skill than what most flies do nowaday but I am a tying geek so I love doing them. I do use them too, not often but every third or fourth outing I give them a shot. They do work, sometimes exceedingly well. I will tell you I always use them out west particularly on some hard fished reaches of the Madison or in YNP and definitely make a point to throw one on when fishing out of a guides drift boat. They are magic as the dropper on a dry dropper rig that gets enough time to sink without added weight. I have even sent a guide a dozen for their own use after a particularly good outing. Mine are decent...not museum quality and I think sometimes fish just need to see something they probably haven't so long as size and bugginess are appropriate.
Ken,
I have a few pages of an Orvis fly catalog from my 1970's youth that I have hung on to, those old style wet flies prominently featured. I just looked at them after reading your post and the average price for a fly then was around 75 cents, around $4 or more per fly in today's money! On my paper route income then, I doubt I bought any, but remember liking how good the flies looked which prompted me to try and tie my own.
They were none too good, but panfish liked them and that was good enough for me. When I caught my first trout on one, boy was I thrilled. To this day I remember exactly where I caught the trout on that little streamer.
Connected with one nice rainbow today on a Gartside Sparrow with split shot 6" above it. I am still plenty thrilled. Never gets old.
Sam
BobT,
I tie a few up now and then and the first two or so are real garbage. Then the muscle memory kicks in and they turn out to be not too bad.
Sam,
Jack Gartside is smiling now!!!
Ken
I tend to agree with you about the Quilled wings, but some of those old patterns are still effective at times. I often substitute a rolled hen hackle wing as once a trout hits the Quills do get shredded anyway. I usually fish a cast of two or three (in CT) wets and one will have a wing and the others are soft hackles.
Catskill style Drys are another fly style which are difficult to tie correctly and I don't think more effective than simpler ties, but i appreciate skillfully tied examples of Classic Wets and Drys.
Anonymous 8:46,
I will tie up a few winged wets with rolled wood duck or mallard fibers but I but I keep the wing short, about 1/3rd of the body length, to mimic emergers. That's as close as I get to winged wets.
Ken
I like the short wood duck wing idea...I will get on it this afternoon
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