Dealing with dry flies…say size 16-20.
If Im typing what would normally thought to be an Adams…and I tie the fly according to “instructions” BUT…I dont install the WINGS… Do I have a useless fly…OR…can trout even SEE those tiny little wings on the Adams ( as an example)
The fish is looking at the fly from the bottom UP…and with the profuse hanckle…“I” can barely see them looking from the top DOWN.??
So do I end up with a usable fly, or a piece of trash?
Well, definitionally, you don’t have an Adams. Adams have wings, yours doesn’t.
The late Datus Proper argued that there was very little to be gained from having a hackle-tip wing on the traditional catskill style fly. Hackle tips, when wet, don’t hold their shape anyway.
The advantage of a wingless, collared fly is that they always land right side up. Everyside is right side up.
You certainly don’t have a piece of trash. Above the surface, the fly is going to have the same profile as a comparadun.
FWIW (1), I don’t bother with wings on size 20 or smaller. 18 and larger, going wingless doesn’t look right to me.
FWIW (2), I’m a fan of the Wonderwing style. The wing is fragile but otherwise holds its shape.
If Im typing what would normally thought to be an Adams…and I tie the fly according to “instructions” BUT…I dont install the WINGS… Do I have a useless fly…OR…can trout even SEE those tiny little wings on the Adams ( as an example)
If I’m…ah…‘typing’ a small adams, I wouldnt mess with the hackle tip wings either.* Really, I think the wings are more for the fisherman than the fish anyway. And in that, I mean two things: 1) the aesthetics of a “proper” dry require wings of some sort, and 2) wings make a fly more visible on the water. If you dont need the wing to see it, neither do the fish. That said, it’s probably not gonna be in the realm of possibility to see the thing within 45 minutes of dusk at 30 feet.
Ultimately, its preference. Tie a few, see how you like em. I do, and thus my flies 18 and smaller are wingless.
*(For that matter, I dont wind 2 hackles on my tiny adamses. I just use grizzly and dab the fine end of a brown prismacolor on it a few times. 
)
heres a discussion on wings
One of my tying books says most people leave the wings off Adams size 18 and smaller, so that’s what I’m planning to do. Given it’s supposed to be an “impressionistic” fly used in faster waters where the trout (in theory) can’t spot every little detail, it sounds reasonable to me that the fish aren’t going to notice the wings at that size.
EDIT: Extremely late edit here, sorry about that. I wrote “…where the trout (in theory) spot every little detail…” where it should have been “…can’t spot every little detail…”.
OK guys…thanks much for the info…
Normand: Thanks for the pointer. Hatch magazine…geeze. Whats it going to be next.? How to stand on your head…or what…lol. I guess if there’s a market…someone will make a magazine for it!
Sully,
I fish dry flies on fast pocket water streams in the areas around Durango.
Haven’t put wings on my hackled dries for several years. Even the size 12s. The fish I’m after certainly don’t care.
I do intentionally change all the recipes, though. I use hair tails to enhance floatation, and I overhackle for the same reason.
Buddy
The following article discusses a dry fly BWO that does not have wings. The article makes a few points that seem reasonable.
WOW!!! That first BWO looks like it had been hit with a Mack truck…lol
Sully, sometimes I think the wings are more for the fisherman than for the fish. They seem to help my tired eyes pick out my imitation as I present it to the fish - especially with the smaller flies. It’s hard to break with tradition, though. But, I think the ‘footprint’ on the water, color of the imitation and presentation tend to fool more fish than whether or not the wing is present, but I’m a nymph kind of guy, so what do I know?:rolleyes: I’ve tied and used both with preference to the wings so I can see the fly on the water.
Kelly.
I figure that if I cant see them…Id add a small fluorescent post to them. I see contrast very easily…
Exactly. I’ve always considered a post a type of wing, so I think it counts:wink:
Kelly.
What fly do you have if you are tieing, for example, an Adams and you DONT put the wings on it…its called a VARIANT!! Only took me all this time to find the answer…but I found it!:lol:
That means everything I tie must have ‘variant’ behind it’s name:p:rolleyes::lol:
Kelly.
Of course not, and don’t take the “purists” too seriously…and Adams without wings is still an “Adams”…otherwise, what else would we call it?
The question really is how important is the visual cue of a wing on Adams, or any other dry for that matter. Unfortunately, I think the answer is “it depends” because I think at times if will matter and at times it won’t. I personally think the wing is more important than most, so I rarely omit them even in the smaller sizes, but I can also catch fish with wingless variants as well. Fishing a fly with confidence may have more to do with it than the pattern itself, so you really have to find your own answer to this sort of question.
You would call it an Adams VARIANT
Considering that the modern Adams is a variant of the original, would more properly be called an Adams Variant Variant…which is just plain silly.
If pressed I might call it a wingless Adams, but note “wingless” is an adjective, not part of the name. To each their own…
Sully, I gave up on wings on hackled dries many, many years ago, after realizing that the FISH don’t really care. However, the “traditional police” would have sternly lectured me had they known.
Then I just gave up on hackled dries altogether. The fish like CDC just fine.
DG,
I tie wings on down to 22’s… just cuz. They still catch fish.
I like tieing too much to go to just CDC bugs. I tie plenty, but “simple” gets boring!
Z
I don’t know why the fly pic shown is thought to look like it had been “hit by a truck”. You might just call it heavily hackled “Wingless Adams”.
We fly tyers frequently get carried away with the details of the elements of a fly recipe. If we carry this to an extreme you couldn’t tie a Light Cahill unless you shot a red fox vixen.
It also seems unnecessary to detail so many specs. such as the model and maker of a hook. It should suffice to call out something like a “2XL light weight hook”.