In my research for wing materials (another thread), I ran across the "wing cutters" and synthetic wing foams......I must say that I'm intrigued by this tool.
The caddis imitation displayed on the web-page was remarkably lifelike. It appears that this method is faster and produces a more realistic fly.
Are they worth the expense or just a useless tool designed to hook the fisherman???
Comments appreciated.
The most important fact is whether flies tied with more realistic wings catch more fish or bigger fish in significant quantities to make the extra steps worth it to you.
In theory, I believe they will not. For a more realistic wing to make a difference, the fish must be able to SEE the difference. Secondly, it it can even see the difference, it has to NOTICE the difference. Thirdly, if it notices the difference, the fishes search image must be able to REJECT the fly with the deer or elk hair wing. Finally, and this is key, the fish MUST have time to do all these things BEFORE the real caddis flies off.
Caddis simply do not stay on the water very long and this is where the argument for a realistic wing breaks down as being significant for adult caddis patterns.
The key here is that a more realistic wing makes NO PRACTICAL DIFFERENCE unless there are fish that will REJECT a fly with a hair wing BUT TAKE a fly with the wing cutter wing and HAS ENOUGH TIME TO MAKE THAT DECISION!
First is whether the fish can even tell the difference between a fly tied with more realistic wings vs a wing shape formed from elk or deer hair or some other traditional material. This is where the advantage of a wing cutter wind has little advantage over a hair wing. Trout have abysmally bad vision compared to humans (our vision is
14 times better than a trout). So we can clearly see the difference between a wing cutter wing and a hair wing BUT I do not believe that trout rarely can since their vision is so bad and they have to see the wing in most fisheries through an imperfect and distorted window.
See my discussion of trout vision here:
Trout Vision
Unless they are feeding in the slowest and clearest of spring creeks where they have the advantage of the clearest window, it probably will not make a difference and even then I think the fish will not have the time notice and reject a fly with hair vs cut wings.
That is my 2 cents based on theory.
Are there fly fishers out there who have found these flies are actually more effective in reality?
