Always wonder about beauty verses function. Like, what might be purty....might not dance well when it hit the water...you know?!
thoughts?
HoundGirl
There are definitely purty flies that are better at catching fisherman than fish. When you are in the middle of a feeding frenzy, you don't want to have to change flies because they fall apart after one or two fish. That's why I'm with Steelie on preferring hair wings for durability. My favorite dry fly is an old pattern called a Haystack, and uses deer hair for both wing and tail. A buddy introduced it to me on a day when my purty, "match the hatch perfectly" flies were getting snubbed and his Haystack was getting slurped up every cast. We fish lakes with the combo of big trout and weeds, and have had days when my whole supply got busted off in fishes mouths and I had to run in and frantically tie up more before the hatch fizzled. A simple, fast tie like the Haystack is great for that scenario.
Sometimes a fly that gives an impression of something good to eat works better than an exact anatomically correct imitation of the insect.
