Quote Originally Posted by Arnie View Post
Interesting discussion. To add another dimension, is it possible that the wings were intended to be functional rather than aesthetic? i.e. to keep the fly from rolling when retrieved or fished in moving water?
They could be functional somehow, but I don't think it's to keep the fly from rolling. A wingless wet is "in the round" and it really doesn't matter much if it were to roll. I also think that 1x gut leaders back in the day did a pretty good of that as well.

OTOH, they could be to push water -- winged wets are especially useful after dark. Even during the day, when fishing quill winged wets switching from a fly wings concave side out to one with wings convex side out, or vice versa, can sometimes make a considerable difference in catch rate.