Wing Height - how high can the wing be on a dry fly?

**wwelz** · 10-04-2015, 11:31 AM

I am 68 so spotting tiny dry flies in the bright background caused by western skies is a challenge. This year I began tying my tricos with very long wings primarily to help me see them( 2x to 3x longer than the hook shank). I used long CDC wings , long poly wings, and long bunny wings. Frequently I would fish two dries . One on a six inch dropper and another about two and one half feet behind the dropper. When I fished a long wing and a standard pattern together the fish seemed to prefer the longer wing fly.The conditions were unusual in that I was casting to large pods of fish tightly packed together. I wonder if the competition for food made the fish more aggressive striking at the longer winged fly that would stand out in the drift.The smoke jumper dry or emerger is another example of a tall wing. My dry fly friends love fishing this pattern during caddis hatches. The assumption they make is the fly's effectiveness is due to the way it suspends the body into or below the film. I wonder if the height if the wing ( much higher than any caddis fly) is a factor. I do not do much dry fly fishing but for some reason this year conditions where I fished favored dry flies . I am curious to hear from fishermen who tie and fish dries on this subject.

P.S I got the best visibility by fishing one white winged fly and one black winged fly together. I could always see one of the two flies.

**SherpaB** · 10-04-2015, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by wwelz

I am 68 so spotting tiny dry flies in the bright background caused by western skies is a challenge. This year I began tying my tricos with very long wings primarily to help me see them( 2x to 3x longer than the hook shank). I used long CDC wings , long poly wings, and long bunny wings. Frequently I would fish two dries . One on a six inch dropper and another about two and one half feet behind the dropper. When I fished a long wing and a standard pattern together the fish seemed to prefer the longer wing fly.The conditions were unusual in that I was casting to large pods of fish tightly packed together. I wonder if the competition for food made the fish more aggressive striking at the longer winged fly that would stand out in the drift.The smoke jumper dry or emerger is another example of a tall wing. My dry fly friends love fishing this pattern during caddis hatches. The assumption they make is the fly's effectiveness is due to the way it suspends the body into or below the film. I wonder if the height if the wing ( much higher than any caddis fly) is a factor. I do not do much dry fly fishing but for some reason this year conditions where I fished favored dry flies . I am curious to hear from fishermen who tie and fish dries on this subject.

P.S I got the best visibility by fishing one white winged fly and one black winged fly together. I could always see one of the two flies.

I think the only thing that really affects how tall your wing can be is cast-ability-if the fly spins on the cast its too tall! It is especially problematic on fine tippet. If that has ever happened you know what a pain that is...and a leader wrecker. I don't think the fish notice or mind a tall wing...they are more about whats on the water. For seeing flies: the dual tone solution you reference is about the best I've found. About 10 years ago I stopped in at Blue Ribbon in West-was having a hell of a time seeing evening caddis in low light glare. They put me onto a fly they developed that had black and white wings. That was a trip saver! I've tried bright and fluorescent colors and unless the wings are super tall they tend to get lost, the black and white have been as good as any over the time that I've been using it. FYI I use that on yarn and hard indicators too...I sharpie the hard indicator and use black and white on on the yarn most times.

**Wmassman** · 10-05-2015, 07:23 AM

If I recall correctly, Art Lee, was a proponent of extra high wings on some dry flys and emerges. Felt that they were more natural to the trout based on their vision window. I have never tried fishing or tying extra high wings do to potential leader twisting. I do plan to try some black wings on certain patterns to help visibility, and can see how black and white wings would also work well.

**wwelz** · 10-05-2015, 08:43 AM

Thanks for the replies. I agree about the twisting problem. I encountered twisting on the San Juan river. I was experimenting with a midge pattern called the dead chicken ( The dead chicken is a griffiths knat on steroids)The tippet was 7x and the size 12 dead chicken spun the heck out of my leader. I did not have a twisting problem fishing tall wing flies during the Trico hatch. I think the combination of size 20 flies and 5x leader eliminated the problem. We used 5x to expedite the landing of fish . During the morning hatch we would land a couple fish in the 20 inch range.

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