“Wings, which cause most of the trouble in fly tying, are put on more for the fisherman than for the fish. Upright wings are a definite help to the fisherman in keeping an eye on his floating fly, and under very precise, flat-water conditions may help in producing strikes. Most often a trout will take a plain hackle fly as readily as a winged one.”
“The Trout Fisherman’s Bible” Dan Holland
Rick
I Knew It!!! I rarely ever put wings on dry flys #16 and smaller and they seem to work just fine. I think the fish seem to key in on the color, size and presentatation more often than not.
I believe the concept of wings not being of great importance is more than true. When fishing for trout in streams I usually fish with wets rather than dries or nymphs. I found that if I take a single white feather and lay it along the back of the fly I get just as many strikes as with split wing quill feathers and that white feather allows me to keep visual contact with the fly much longer.
Tim
Funny, in the locations that I fish, both warm water and for trout, a wing is much more important than any other factors save size and species (i.e. mayfly or caddis). I think it often is the s[SIZE=2]ilhouette that is the trigger that the fish are keying on. No wing, even if it is just a post, wrong silhouette. [/SIZE]
Just my (sometimes) humble opinion.
Ed 
Being a pastor and all, I guess we could say your success is based on a wing and a prayer? :rolleyes:
the trigger that the fish are keying on.
Exactly Ed,
It doesn’t work every time, but the wing is most often the first thing a trout sees when a fly (real or artificial) floats into it’s window of sight. It’s the trigger so to speak.
If there’s no wing… it’s not food,… the fish ignores it
Pertty much how I’ve lived my whole life! 
Ed