chase creek wrote:
Wm - If you need someone to accompany you to Jeff's for further research, I'd be honored to carry the concrete blocks (to keep you on the bottom).

With friends like you...Thanks, Rodger.
Ray, the rib is unwaxed, the silk in the body is waxed.
Thanks so much for all the input. I would expect there are a lot more comments out there that could be a great help. You gotta start somewhere. I don't know if these artificial conditions and lighting really reveal anything, but it is getting at some of the questions that I have. Could be that my questions lack a certain streamside relevance.
Lance mentioned he was surprised at how little difference the flies appeared submerged as to when they were dry. I noted that myself. The flies shown wet, were decidedly darker, but flies in the water with the same lighting, while some of the more translucent fibers became even less visible and brighter, there is an overall lightness about them, and they shift darker when simply wet. The darker silks darken considerably, some do, but the dubbings and hackles retained the dry values. I wouldn't put any weight to that without many more shots and materials, but I thought the same thing.
w