Over Dressed

[FLY4IT]

Would like to know if anyone else finds it easier to overdress a fly while tying (ie legs and tails) and then trim on the water as to how the fish are biting.

[DShock]

I have never heard of over dressing flies and trimming them at the water.
Your fly is naturally going to lose dressing as it's fished and even then fish will still bite it.
Doug

[TwoWeight]

I've never over dressed a fly with the intention of trimming it while onstream, but have many times trimmed a fly to suit the needs of the day. Trimming rubber legs from flies, making an Elk Hair Caddis into a caddis emerger by cutting the wing down and trimming the bottom of a hackle to make a fly float lower in the water. Yes,many flies come home far less dressed than when they left the desk.

Two Weight, aka Caddisfly

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

I tie a lot of Swhapf's which lend themselves to being altered to suit conditions. I don't over tie on purpose tho.

[ridgeliner]

I tie my bluegill foam flies with long legs. If need be I can always trim them, but I haven't figured out a way to make them longer while I am using them. I have found that the legs attract the fish and the smaller ones nibble on the legs while the bigger ones take the whole fly.

[RCream]

I agree with ridgeliner, whenever i tie flies with rubber legs, i tie them long.

[flyandtie]

you mean a convertable style?

[Rick Z]

I am tying rubber legs shorter on my bluegill flies now and find that they work better for me.

Rick