Cheating?

[diawl bach]

Something I haven't seen before! Is this cheating or is it an innovation which will prove to be as successful thatand as widely used as gold heads?

They make me feel a bit shifty as they're someone elses solution to a quick and lifelike heptagenid/bwo nymph pattern... wonder if they work.....

From link

[paramedicpete]

look good to eat many imitations offered nowadays are all artificial materials anyway maybe comp boys wont use but if for fun and fishery rules ok why not.

Pete

[A. Fluker]

Go with Pete if it meets the rules of where you fish give it a chuck!

[flyfishwithme]

I cannot see how they can be 'banned', after all there is a lot of material around now whereby you can produce something equally effective at imitation.
It is interesting that these are from Italy. I have quite a few Italian fly tying books and they are extremely innovative at imitating the various food chain. I think this comes from not being influenced by writings from the english speaking fly tying countries. Many of the really good anglers over there cannot read or speak English so there approach has evolved in a slightly different ways.
I think I will get some.

[Alanc]

Best looking imitation iv'e seen give it a go. If it catches don't tell Blobby Blobby.

Alan

[g bigtrout]

Imitation would have been a better heading...looks like a good imitation to me.

[Steve Walker]

Fishing at Farmoor last year, I found one of these on the bank:



I use them for tench fishing in the summer, and very good and realistic they are too. First thought was "someone's been cheating" - but then they are just imitation insect larvae. Mind you, I doubt they would be much use unless you threw in some real ones too, and then you would definitely be cheating.

[seanie]

They would certainly take the skill out of fly tying.

[BlueOne]

Realistic looking flies made of artificial materials are nothing new, they have been around for decades. My father used to have a few that looked just like the real deal.....to us. Fish did not agree. I do not like such flies, it is a bit like spin fishing, but still. Just this year i bought a few very realistic looking bugs and flies, made by one bosnian flytyer, just to see what shall happen. Trouts were not thrilled as they never were when i used too realistic imitations. To be honest i did not use them too much either. It just doesn`t feel right.

However, some of those artificial things are also scented. That is cheating for sure.

Actually it does not take a realistic copy of something to be scented. Years ago, there was a story of some folks over here, who used to keep deer hair imitations of sculpins in plastic bags together with dead sculpins so they would pick up the smell. I would call that a cheating too.

I just remembered, years ago we had a change of rules in our club as soft plastic baits became popular. Ok that's a long time ago, perheaps 2 decades. Anyway people used to take small twisters and put them on hook, calling them "flies". It is always a thin line and sometimes impossible to set. Putting a twister on hook was cheating, but if one used a tail of it as part of the fly i guess it would not be...

[g bigtrout]

Originally Posted by seanie

They would certainly take the skill out of fly tying.

Dont worry Sean i wont be throwing out my feathers and fur...now go answer my question on birds and feathers