Wing or no wing

[Fontinalis]

Mark thanks for the compliments and I truly love the web site.

Carl, I am glad that I got you turned onto wet flies. They are the most affective flies to fish with and are a tone of fun to tye. I love tying them for fishing and love them even more tying them for show. A classic wing wet or a classic soft hackle wet fly as you know is a thing of beauty and a pure fish catching fly. I am still fishing and tying my classic winged wets like before but want to expand my horizons to be a proficient all around wet fly fisherman and tyer. I am just starting to read the classic soft hackle wet fly books and want to learn all about their rich history and origion as well. I see Marks beautiful wet flies and love hearing the stories he has fishing them. This is very interesting to me and I know I have a lot to learn. Lastly I will be writing about them and my fishing experiences in the future for my column in the Catskill Gazette. Thanks foir welcoming me a board. It's nice to be at a site where I fit in and people have the same interest in these wonderful flies for tying and fishing.

Sincerely
Andy Brasko

[tie2fish]

Good to see you here, Andy, and to learn that you're feeling well again. As for using larger soft hackle wet flies, I've had success with them in Sizes 6 and 8 for landlocks in Maine.
Specifically, the PYP pattern (and other color variations) posted on this forum by "Letumgo" a while back.

[Fontinalis]

Hi tie2fish, thanks, I am starting to feel like my old self again. During a CT scan that was taken to investigate the first issue I had and recovered from a 3mm kidney stone was found.I will be be getting rid of a Kidney stone this coming fall. The doctor has taken x-rays recently and seen a 3 mm size stone is sitting at the bottom of my left kidney and told me this stone is going no where and will not pass any time soon. So he wants to see if the stone is going to grow a little so this coming October I will have another x-ray and then off to clinic where they plan to explode the stone with sound waves. I was really scared for the worse at first and was releived that all issues we created due to being overdosed on type II diabetic medicine. It was first thought maybe chrones, diverticuliatus and possibly cancer. The catscan was taken and came back negative for all three. This was the longest week in my life. It took some back and fourth with the doctor to figure this one out. Blood test came back negative, ultasound negative. So I have been on weight loss, exercising and have lost 13 pounds so far. The excercise has truly helped my fishing life out tremendously. So dealing with and getting rid of this stone in October is just small and care free issue.
Thanks for the input on the larger size flies. I will look for letumgo's PYP on the board. By the way, any good streams near by Gaithersburg, MD? I will be staying there on bussiness training at the Broad Soft Corporation, bringing my vise and materails down with and plan to tye at nights in the hotel room. I will be staying there from June 6 - 16, 2010.

Thanks
Andy

[redietz]

By the way, any good streams near by Gaithersburg, MD? I will be staying there on bussiness training at the Broad Soft Corporation, bringing my vise and materails down with and plan to tye at nights in the hotel room. I will be staying there from June 6 - 16, 2010.

Less than an hour to Big Hunting Creek or Beaver Creek, probably a just a bit over to Gunpowder Falls.

Seneca Creek is closer and has special regs, but I don't really know anything about it. There's a fly-only section of the Patuxent relatively close as well, but in spite of being past president of the Potomac-Patuxent chapter of TU, I haven't fished it, either.

[letumgo]

Andy - It is great to see you on this forum. I am a fan of your winged wets on classic fly forum. Sorry to hear about your health issue, but it sounds like things are improving. You are going to love fishing soft hackle flies. They are elegant little flies, and very deadly on the stream. They are easy to tye, especially for someone skilled in classic winged wets. Once you get started with them, I am sure you will be hooked. Well, welcome aboard.

[letumgo]

Andy - Here are a couple links to my POP flies. The first link includes detailed tying instructions. The second link shows a number of color variations. These have proven to be very effective on trout.

http://www.flymphforum.com/phpBB3/viewt ... hilit=+POP
http://www.flymphforum.com/phpBB3/viewt ... hilit=+POP

[Fontinalis]

Ray:

Thanks for the links, the Flies are really good looking. Going to have to try and tie them up. Look pretty simple. I will try and tye up some Hunny Bunny flymphs tonight and post them here. All depends on time I get home, exercise dinner with Mrs and Dog who wants to play.

[Roadkill]

Andy,
I have to add that larger Soft Hackles have been part of my fishing for decades with great success. One only has to look at soft hackle streamers as part of the SH story. One of my go to flies for 50+ years has been a variation of the Knudson spider. A newer version of that style is Gartside's soft hackle streamer. When the bug variations aren't working I often go down and dirty with the big SHs to provoke agression, big bite offerings, or curiosity ( don't care what the fish is thinking).

[UC Steve]

I'm probably way late for this (very good discussion) but can't resist 2 cents. In my own view a hackle collar serves as both wings & appendages for wee bugs like spring & summer caddis & mayflies. But I think it should be said (as some have pointed out) that many aquatic insects emerge with wings unfurling or already unfurled. Also, a wing simulates a cripple as well as a drowned adult, & I think the cripple is well worthwhile to simulate, perhaps even more so than the drowned adult. I've found the wing most beneficial when fishing over larger mayflies & sedges, particularly October caddis & also drakes. There's always a daily preference, so it's a good idea to carry more than one version for hatches you meet often.

[ronr]

winged or not... who am I to say... the fish will usually decide...but as the fly shop owner says why he carries all those flies in his bin... they all will catch a fish sometime.... right roadkill?