"JR" wrote


Cool looking fly, but aren't they very (one-fish) fragile?



No, they aren't that fragile .... duck feathers are actually pretty tough.
But remember they are ( by yours truly anyway) used to imitate the big
drakes (green, brown, gray and hex ) in the dun stage which means you are
fishing to rising fish and maybe the biggest ones you'll see rise that year
.... you don't cast these things over and over to search the water, in
general, and the fish you do cast to are worth tying something special to
please.

Now for 'float' One big problem with the drakes is that most style ties,
if dressed big enough, become heavy and sit low in the film creating a very
poor 'foot print' for a dun. That is why this very light weight feather
body is so nice, these flies, well tied, ride on the tips of the hackle (
tied thorax dun like ) yet are still huge .... they give a good 'foot print'
and a good through the window view of a huge wing ( a key point with western
Green Drakes and why I use big hen feathers for the wings and dubbing to
help keep them upright ) and body.

This is one case, imnvho, where 'shape and look in the vise' is nowhere near
as important as 'float' .... i.e. how high and how much of the fly floats.

In Frank Reid's case, wanting a spinner fake, it would be even MORE
important, since a dun floating too low because it's too heavy might be
taken as emerging, but a spinner is a very light weight empty shell ( see
through white in the coffin fly it's so empty? ) that very likely barely
shows a 'foot print' on the water but is still very big ...overall weight
becomes a key design feature