Do we really need wings.

[garryh]

winged wet flies have declined in popularity somewhat recently.some people reckon its due to many being unable to tie wings to a good standard.i am able to tie winged wets but have now stopped altogether as i find them a time consuming pain and am not convinced they are necessary.almost all my wets nowadays are dabblers bumbles or palmers i have given some previously essential wets the treatment,eg an invicta bumble or a dunkeld dabbler.how do others feel about this ,are there any flies where you think the wing is essential to the fish catching abilities of the fly.

Garry

[Traditionalist]

In most cases the wings on wet flies are not only superfluous but detrimental.  This depends very considerably on how they are dressed and fished, but the wings on "traditional" wet flies, considering the way they are  usually dressed and fished are generally useless.

[garryh]

i agree about bronze mallard and teal ,i used to use them a lot but mainly on double hooks which ensured they swam the right way up.the usual wet fly wing must surely act like a rudder and unless it is pulled absolutely straight then it must be swimming on its side or even upside down.not that it puts the fish off.as i fish barbless these days i dont use doubles anymore as i find them poor hookers when de-barbed.not sure why though.

Garry

[deergravy]

I'm sure if you were determined enough you could catch a fish on say, a Woocock and Mixed, or a Teal and Green or whatever.
But, really, I think it would be more of an affectation than a serious fishing tactic.
And fair enough. Some people like to keep these flames alive.
Lets face it, the age of the traditional winged wet fly, as the standard model, is well and truly over.

[Wildfisher]

Although I seldom use them I would not  be without a few traditional  winged wets in my box. I have seen many dour days when The Butcher and Silver Invicta has saved a blank.

[Wildfisher]

On flies like the butcher, silver invicta it probably helps create a baitfish illusion. Like a mini streamer.

[Tweed]

I've moved away from winged wets over the years too, but still have pearly and silver invictas in the box.  I find the Priest (black hackle, silver body and rib, red floss tail) works just as well as a Butcher and takes a fraction of the time to tie.

On the invictas, I always thought they were seen by some loosely as sedge imitations - hence the wing.  with the silver or pearly versions, the fish/fry imitation makes sense for me too though.

[haresear]

I mostly fish rivers with dries or nymphs. When I do fish wet flies, I use hackled flies as opposed to winged. Like Alan, I've never really seen the point in the wing.

I can't really see any reason to change that way of thinking for lochs, so as a first choice I use the same  imitative/impressionistic approach to lochs as I do for rivers. It seems to work OK

Now, my loch flybox (wherever it is) has the usual selection of bibios, butchers etc as everybody else's. I see these as mini lures that suggest food of some unspecified sort.

I can't see how red tagged or green globrited flies for example could be viewed as anything other than fancy lures. In my opinion wings are just another part of the lure.

Alex 

[Malcolm]

On rivers many of the wet flies that now reside in my fly box have a wing but almost no hackle. I've used these on the lochs and they are very successful there too, fished as a bob fly with a dry on the tail, which is my preferred tactic on stillwater.

These are the very traditional Scottich river wet flies which I have started to take a lot of interest in.

I don't use many traditional Scottish wets for the very good reason that I am by some margin the worst and least successful loch wet fly fisherman in Scotland. Except on Loch Leven. There a few of my successful flies have wings - Dunkeld, Hardy's Gold Butcher, Wickhams, Silver invicta, Butchers and of course the Peter Ross.  I don't have the confidence to fish wingless versions of these.

[garryh]

maybe the style of wet fly fishing now generally does not suit winged wets.back in the day when many of these flies were invented the style of casting was short linking and more or less stroking the surface with the flies probably a lot slower than most people today.that maybe helped keep the flies fishing the right way up.i cant help but feel with the faster retrieve i use with wet flies that they end up spinning or upside down.

Garry