Originality In Fly Design

[Wildfisher]

There is an "interesting"  discussion going on  another forum which I suppose is very loosely about this  subject and one of the participants has also posted about it   on the  Fish Wild feedback forum, albeit in a rather bizarre way. I get the impression  that the  bee that is buzzing most loudly in the bonnet seems to be about fly design and who should get credit. Now I realise this is not a subject that many of us will  be tossing and turning restlessly in our beds about tonight or  waking up screaming with a cold sweat on our foreheads,  but opinions on this are  - interesting -  and surely worth a  post or to.

What do you have to do to make a  fly original and for it  not to be just a tweak on what has come before? Is it the intellectual processes in arriving at the end product that validate it as new or original  or is there something else?

Any thoughts? Any examples?  Anyone like to put up a fly for consideration?

[Wildfisher]

Actually the booby is a great example of originality both in  design and the way it is fished.  We might not like that kind of fishing that much, but clearly there was a thought process involved in coming up with that concept.

[Wildfisher]

Here is a prototype fly I designed  this evening after a lot of thought. I call it the BHE (Bastardised Hog  Emerger).  The pattern is similar to   a Peter  Ross  tied on a curved hook with the tail cut off and a black fur thorax instead of a black hackle. You fish it as an emerger by ginkng  the  wing  and the upper part of the thorax only  My thinking is this :  the silver butt will look like a trailing shuck and / or an air bubble, the red upper abdomen a trigger point and the black thorax, as it is not ginked,  will sit in the  water as will part of the  lower wing – this should  look like a  struggling  buzzer  that is about to take to the air. I reckon the  fish will probably find it irresistible. OK, it is superficially similar to Stan Headley's ? hogs but it certainly is not  a ? hog. It is also not a Peter Ross as it is tied on a curved hook, has black fur and no hackle,  and is fished altogether differently. Its main failing weakness  is  the  wing which I intend  to replace  with a mix of white and black elk hair as  the next phase of the design process. So, that brings me back to my  question of originality. Is this at all original or is it nothing more than an adaptation of a Peter Ross?

[Wildfisher]

Some might say that Bobs' superb DHE is just a floating Hares Ear Nymph or a Comparadun on a curved hook with no tail.  Not me I hasten to add……….I think what makes it special  is  the thought and  the years  that went  into it.

What are the parameters though?


Just trying to think of some flies that were very  original when they came on the scene. All I can come up with are :

Polystickle  type of lure
Pheasant Tail Nymph
GRHE Nymph
Copper Wire Nymph
Muddler
Booby

any more?

[The General]

Would it be revolution if you turned the fly upside down

(Like your variation Fred)

Davie

[Wildfisher]

Feel free to shoot both offers down in flames coz I ain't sure if I'm right anyway

That's surely the point. Perhaps no one is right.

[Wildfisher]

Would it be revolution if you turned the fly upside down

Stan Headley reckons his ? hogs represent a fishing revolution. What do you reckon? Reasonable claim or not ?

[Wildfisher]

I don't think you can compare the hedge hog too closely with Stan Headley's flies if you accept the notion that the thought processes  that spawn the concept  is  important – perhaps the most important  factor  in the design of something "new".  Because if you can't accept that then really nothing at all can be new in fly tying.

Except the booby of course 

[Wildfisher]

Nothing original in the flees themselves but the actual tying process can be very original.

Indeed. But is the tying process meaningful without some conception of what you are attempting to achieve, rather than just messing with an existing design? Perhaps that's a bit abstract unless it's built around experience of using the flies you are "messing"  with.

I think the  "shaggies"  were quite original or at least a novel concept.  Pre ripped-up flies. I suppose it's a bit like the old stone washed Levis from the 1970s – saved you wearing and fading them out yourself – or in the case of the flies – not having to catch a fish or two on them to get them into the state in which they are most effective. That was an idea that, in retrospect,  was just so obvious most folk missed it.

[Wildfisher]

Your forum is a revolution Fred not Stans 1/2 hogs :lol:

Dod I don't think this forum is much different from any other. It's only claim to originality might be in it's membership. They are all unique individuals.