Salmon-fly tiers often find the greatest room for creative expression during the construction of the wings. As a rule, tiers faithfully follow the recipe for a fly until it comes time to design the wing. Most tiers, for example, would never consider changing the order of materials called for in the body of a Butcher. But in designing the wings, the order of materials listed in the dressing may well be flung out the window--freedom of choice reigns.

Certain elements should be taken into account while designing the wing of a fly. These elements include the color selection for wing materials, the quantity of color versus the quantity of "browns," location of each type of feather, wing style and overall silhouette, and type of material to be employed in the wings.

In reaching these decisions, the first consideration should be the overall wing style. Are strips of material going to be employed? Is the wing going to be a true "mixed" wing in the Kelson style? Is the wing going to fall somewhere between these two styles, with some materials utilized as strips and others as individual strands? If a predetermination of the overall style cannot be reached, start the wing as strips and slowly remix the materials once the wing has been assembled. For example, the recipe for a wing may call for white, yellow, and light green swan, bustard and golden pheasant. After marrying the materials in the order listed, you notice that the separation of color between the white and yellow strips is not clearly noticeable. Placing one strand of bustard (a highly visible and distinctive feather) between the white and yellow strips may help offset the washing together of the two light materials. In order to develop a pattern to the wing, you might consider placing another strand of the bustard between the yellow and light green strips. The result is an arrangement that outlines the color strips with a strand of the dark bustard, allowing each color to stand on its own.

The amount of each color in a wing is partly determined by the wing materials called for in the pattern. Pryce-Tannatt tends to call for more color in the wing of flies than does Kelson. Make an estimate of the number of strands required to wing the fly in the style you are tying. For this and following examples, let's assume that twenty strands are required. The wing materials previously listed are going to be tied over a silver-tinsel body with a badger hackle up. How much color to use? In this fly, perhaps ten strands of wing should be color strips and ten strands of neutral colors. Should the colored strands each be given equal space? My suggestion would be not to do so. Yellow will be the most distinctive of the three colored materials and therefore probably requires the fewest strands. The white section is the only portion that closely resembles the body and hackle work. This should be taken into account by placing perhaps four of these strands in the wing. The green section will tend to provide a highlight to the wing, but will quickly wash out against the other materials. Again I would suggest four strands.

Bustard is expensive and most tiers like to use the fewest possible strands per fly. Let's try using only three, leaving the wing with seven strands of golden pheasant.

One of the better ways of putting a wing together is to mirror the body. Colors appearing at the rear of the body are placed lowest in the wing. As you go from the bottom to the top of the wing, you encounter colors in the same order as they appear from the rear to the front on the body. In our example, this is not an option since the body is simply tinsel. However, we can somewhat try to mirror the body with the white section and some bustard. Keeping the white section lowest in the wing and placing two strands of bustard over will to a degree mirror the badger hackle used in the body. The next section should be colored with either the yellow or the green. Let's go with the green. Place the remaining bustard strand above the green, marry in the yellow, and place the golden pheasant section above everything. The yellow strip should blend nicely with the brown/black of the golden pheasant.

Placing the golden pheasant at the top of the wing accomplishes three tasks. First, in my experience, golden pheasant deployed in locations other than the top of the wing can lead to winging difficulties, as it does not marry particularly well. Second, the brown-black golden pheasant provides a dark background as a foil to enhance the look of the lightly colored topping. Finally, if shoulders are called for on the fly, the golden pheasant serves as a good location for their placement. And here again, the dark background helps to highlight the materials. Further, because we have used a lot of golden pheasant in our wing, the shoulders will help reduce the dominance of the golden pheasant in the finished fly.

We can also lessen the predominance of golden pheasant by placing a broad strip of mallard on the fly as a roof. If we select an appropriate section of the feather, we should be able to heighten the "silvery" look of the fly. Let's pull the roof section from somewhere near the base of the mallard feather. This should bring into play a feather section with a considerable greyish base. The upper front section will thus be kept a consistent color with the remainder of the fly.

Experiment with each wing you place on a fly. Remember that there is often a side benefit from all the experimental mixing, marrying, and remarrying of feathers: You get a stronger wing than one that has been married only once.

Be bold in your design. Don't be disappointed in the look of a wing when it is first placed upon the hook. There are often many more materials to be tied in. Think about your placement of materials. For example, what would be the point of using bustard as the upper section of a wing that has a large roof, shoulders and two toppings? The bustard will be buried. Use a substitute, or place the bustard low in the wing where it will be seen. If you are pleased with the look of the wing, don't dicker with a winner; keep the remaining materials to a minimum.