Ed, Any time you use plane surfaces on your flies, you're relying on the weight of the hook at the barb to keel the fly (unless it''s a hook-up pattern). If the moving force (H2O or air) across any imbalance in the wings is more that the ability of the hook to keel the fly, then the pattern is likely to spin, either in casting or in retreiving under the water. This twists the leader, with the obvious consequences. (Un-prepped hackles can do this too.)
Watch your dry fly as it falls to the water. If it spins in the descent, that means it's twisting in flight. If a nymph spins when you lift it from the water after a retreive, then it's spinning on the retreive. I tank-tested my flies for many years, and many good-looking flies on the vise did not fare so well under water. Dry flies can be tested a little in front of a fan, but casting them is the real test. I found that fiberous wings (including feathers) resisted spinning the best, and that any sheet material tended to spin the flies. I found that stone-fly wings have a tendency to flip the fly over on its back because of the difference in drag co-oefficient. Sculpins can also have a tendency to do this, especially hook-up designs. Wings cut or burned with wing-burners are from a stronger part of the feather and will act as plane surfaces. Wingers and hen feather tips are great for dry-fly wings as they collapse in flight and tend to spin very little. As John said, something very sellable and good-looking on the vise does not always fare so well when the actual design is field tested. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed Roden To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 12:19 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] Non-Feather Wing Material - Dry Fly And if that is the common consensus of people on this list that have used them, I'm not going to pursue it. How about the ones you were tying last December with the VCR foam? Same problem? On 8/23/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Nope, it twisted the leader in flight and never landed upright. Some things look pretty in the vise but do not fish worth a damn. john
