{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Tying classic winged wet flies

There must be some wet fly aficionados lurking on the forum.  I have a strong attraction to winged wets and always have, in addition to soft hackle flies.  The latter I'm quite comfortable doing at this point, but my winging technique on the former leaves a lot to be desired.  After many attempts and some (what I call) "barely acceptable" flies, I'm determined to improve this.  Davie McPhail makes it look a lot easier than it really is. 

1.  Selecting paired quills and determining where the best "slips" are to be found (I wouldn't know what to buy, nor what fibers are "good")

2.  Learning to secure the slips in the "splayed" orientation with the tips up (I think these look the best)

3.  Securing the wings without bulky heads

I feel like there has to be someone who is good at these, and some observation of the process (above) would probably save me a lot of hassle.  Most things with tying seem like you ruin and waste $ on the first several batches of feathers before you have any idea what you're doing ;). 

I don't even want to attempt one of those rainbow-colored quill wings.....I'd be happy to tie a good Greenwell or march brown!

Though I have and will fish these (caught a rainbow on a blue bottle on the Buffalo back in 2013 that I can clearly remember), I mostly just want to tie these because they're beautiful and fun to tie. 

I don't hunt, but am now in a family with a lot of hunters -- I need to convince my brother-in-law to shoot some ducks this year. 

(I feel the same about featherwing streamers, and am not terribly good at those either)

Gene

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