Do we really need wings.

[Traditionalist]

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

That is correct but there are other reasons.  The vast majority of winged wet flies were dressed as adult winged flies and fished DEAD DRIFT. Dragging winged flies about can not be a good imitation of anything as winged flies can't swim, and most certainly not against a current. This is also a major reason why "Down and across" with winged wet flies is a poor method.

Also, due to confusion with nomenclature the "standard" winging of many wet flies is based on mistakes by the dressers concerned.  None of the older dressers winged their flies like this, and they also fished them differently in any case.

Some old flies showing the winging styles;



For some more info on that;

http://www.wildfisher.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=16752.0

[Inchlaggan]

Never without a box of winged wets in the boat on the loch.

[Traditionalist]

Never without a box of winged wets in the boat on the loch.

I have a few boxes myself, sometimes they work really well, much more so than on rivers. A great deal depends on how you fish them and what you are trying to imitate, if at all.

[Highlander]

but the wings on "traditional" wet flies, considering the way they are  usually dressed and fished are generally useless.

What a load of tosh, I am not even going to bother arguing the point as it would fall on deaf ears.
No we don't "need" wets
But tell you what people.

Next time you drift off Castle to Shallows with a south west behind & a size 16 wee double Kingfisher Butcher on bob, a Burleigh on dropper & a Silver Butcher on the tail.
A drift across Carron Valley in the old days with a team of size 16 Clyde Style Wets
A July night on the tidal stretch of the River Leven with a Teal Blue & Silver for Black Nebs
The glide above Wolf Clyde Bridge in  May, with a Sandfly, top dropper & Hen Blackie on point.

Then you come & tell me then winged wets are no good.
You fish your way
I'll fish away with my winged wets & I will bet I will still catch fish for many more years to come.
Rant over & I will say no more on the subject

Tight Lines

[Fishtales]

I fish a winged, wet, Iron Blue Dun on the middle dropper of my three fly cast all the time. Invariably it only catches when there are upwings about, either Sepias, Clarets or one of the olives, and it works both on still and running water. It is never off the cast. It is a size #12 so is at least three times the size of an actual Iron Blue but it has caught trout on the river even when they are about. I saw mating shrimp in the shallows of a loch in Moidart and the male clasped to the neck of the female and draped along her back reminded me of an Invicta. I'll keep the wings as the Iron Blue doesn't get many hits when the wing goes.

[deergravy]

Oh they certainly catch fish, no disputing that.
And in the case of fry-imitations there's an undeniable logic there. Even, at a push, starling wings might do a good job of imitating a drowned dun (how many duns sink?)  :think2
But as a standard template for trout-fly design - lovely as they are, they're heading for the same bin as horsehair and greenheart.

[Traditionalist]

What a load of tosh, I am not even going to bother arguing the point as it would fall on deaf ears.
No we don't "need" wets
But tell you what people.

Next time you drift off Castle to Shallows with a south west behind & a size 16 wee double Kingfisher Butcher on bob, a Burleigh on dropper & a Silver Butcher on the tail.
A drift across Carron Valley in the old days with a team of size 16 Clyde Style Wets
A July night on the tidal stretch of the River Leven with a Teal Blue & Silver for Black Nebs
The glide above Wolf Clyde Bridge in  May, with a Sandfly, top dropper & Hen Blackie on point.

Then you come & tell me then winged wets are no good.
You fish your way
I'll fish away with my winged wets & I will bet I will still catch fish for many more years to come.
Rant over & I will say no more on the subject

Tight Lines

Some will catch fish under various conditions, and using various techniques, there is no disputing that, but there are other flies and techniques which invariably catch better.

I always fish my way! Whatever it happens to be at the time. I don't mind at all how anybody else fishes, and I would not presume to tell them how. Just giving my opinions, there is no obligation to accept or implement them.

It is odd that so many people consider the mention of something which differs from their own methods as a personal attack.

I hope you have many years of enjoyable fishing, regardless of how you do it or what with.

[Fishtales]

More like laziness. It is easier to wind a second hackle or tie in a hair wing rather than tie in a slip wing. Double hackle flies to me are surface or sub-surface flies, winged wets sink deeper and enter the water cleaner. Nothing wrong with spiders or hackle dries which I also use but I prefer the traditional wets with feather wings to the modern bushy wets.

[Traditionalist]

More like laziness. It is easier to wind a second hackle or tie in a hair wing rather than tie in a slip wing. Double hackle flies to me are surface or sub-surface flies, winged wets sink deeper and enter the water cleaner. Nothing wrong with spiders or hackle dries which I also use but I prefer the traditional wets with feather wings to the modern bushy wets.

I can understand some people not using them because they have difficulty dressing them. But that's not my reason, I simply  find them generally less effective than some other patterns.  Dressing flies too heavily has always been a bad idea but a lot of people do it.

[Fishtales]

As you and I and others have said, it doesn't matter how or what or where you fish as long as you enjoy it