According to the historic record, wings were first tied on trout flies way back in the late 17th century. At that time, Robert Venables, an experienced English angler, tied wings on his dry flies. 

Years later, in 1890, Theodore Gordon, the father of American fly fishing, used wood duck flank feathers as wings for his dry-fly mayfly patterns. Gordon winged flies were the basis of the Catskill school of fly tying. 

Why the fascination with wings on dry flies? Most fly tiers are fly fishermen and keen observers of the natural world, so they try to match their patterns as closely as possible to the actual insects. And of course, wings are a prominent feature on most aquatic insects, especially mayflies. Their large, upright wings distinguish the order, Ephemeroptera, from others. Historically, that’s the reason for wings. If the bugs have them, our flies have them. 

Keeping the physiology of mayflies in mind, what I find most interesting is that the upright wings on mayflies are held closely together, while wings on traditional Catskill flies are V-shaped. I’ve always wondered why fly tyers have tied their wings that way. It’s especially odd when the wings on live insects are compared with artificial flies.

Like most neophyte fly tiers, I was profoundly influenced by the men who tutored me and by the literature of the era. Art Flick’s “Streamside Guide” and Ernie Schwiebert’s “Matching the Hatch” were the books that I referred to during the early years. 

I don’t know how long I tied my dry flies with V-shaped wings. It was a while—many years, for sure. All that time, I never questioned the fact that live mayflies held their wings together; our flies had V-shaped wings, and I never asked whether wings on flies were necessary.

Like most fly tiers of the era, I believed in the traditions that were established by the founders of the Catskill school. That included Theodore Gordon, the Darbees, Dettes, Flick and Rube Cross. They set the standard. My mentors were Bob Zigsby, Herb Howard and Ted Boeglin, who provided guidance and instruction while I was learning the finer points of fly tying. 

As I evolved as a fly tier and fly fisherman, I began to question some of the traditional fly tying methods and fly fishing techniques. First of all, I looked for ways to streamline the fly tying process, to make it easier and eliminate steps without compromising the effectiveness of the flies themselves. My first thoughts: With several turns of radial hackle at the front of Catskill flies, why were wings necessary? So at some point, probably about 20 years ago, I stopped tying wings on my dry flies. The question: Would they be as effective as the winged versions? So I put them to the test and found that they worked just as well. Not only were the wingless flies as effective as the winged flies, but not adding wings saved a great deal of time during the fly-tying process. 

For example, in order to tie wings on a traditional Catskill dry fly, these are the steps that I follow: fly tying thread is wound about a 16th of an inch behind the eye of the hook; a small bunch of wood-duck fiber is placed with the butt facing the rear of the hook; then the flying thread is wound tightly around the wood-duck fibers. 

Next, the fibers are pulled backward so they are standing straight up; thread is then wound in front of the fibers; finally, the fibers are separated and thread wrapped in a figure eight around the fibers, to keep them in the V position and in place. That process is very detail-oriented and takes a fair amount of time. And, unless you’re a duck hunter, wood-duck flank feathers are very expensive.

As my fly tying and fly fishing evolved, I started to fish the rusty spinner at dusk, when there were dead and dying mayfly spinners on the water. That pattern is tied in the traditional Catskill style without wings, then the bottom hackle is cut off, allowing the fly to float in the surface film. That pattern is so effective that I use it during fly hatches, not just spinner falls. That style works so well that I’ve started to cut the bottom off all my standard Catskill wingless flies too. 

After many years of trying different styles of dry flies, I’ve learned that it is not necessary to tie wings on traditional Catskill dry flies. That being said, I’m confident that a lot of fly tiers and fly fishermen will strongly disagree with me. I’ve also learned over the last 10 years or so that traditional Catskill patterns, winged or otherwise, no longer work as well as they once did. Mayfly hatches appear to be on the decline, with trout taking emergers rather than duns off the surface. I don’t know why that is other than to say our trout appear to be evolving in their feeding behavior.

As we mature as fly fishermen, it’s important to grow as fly tiers, too. That means it’s necessary to pay attention to the way trout feed. With the increase in fishing pressure, America’s trout, especially those in heavily fished streams, appear to be changing the way they feed and in some cases when they feed. It is therefore important to adopt our fly patterns accordingly, with wings or without.