Originally Posted by
John Rhoades
I would not call these hugh wings, and I disagree if you are implying that Marinaro's intention was to create flies with unrealistic wings. They are certainly prominent though.
I believe he took great effort to create flies with realistic wings, particularly with his thorax style flies with cut wings - such as those pictured in the 2nd Edition of his "Code".
He emphasized the improtance of wings, stating that as the fly floats downstream it is the wing of the insect that's the first thing the trout sees.
Marino's "In the Ring of the Rise" published in 1976 continued to place emphasis on wings, and commented on wing cutters that had come to the market, not available in earlier years when he relied on cutting these wings by hand.
John