In the annals of American trout fishing, the flies of choice were once the Black Gnat, Parmachene Belle, Montreal, McGinty, and the Yellow Sally. The White Miller had its following. These flies caught a lot of fish for a lot of people for many, many years. As good as they were, creative anglers in the Catskill region of New York felt that they could do better. Going back to the European roots of fly fishing on the chalk streams of England, Theodore Gordon and Edward Ringwood Hewitt began a revolution in American fly tying. Their early efforts were followed by Art Flick, Roy Steenrod, and other early innovators whose observational skills set the stage for Doug Swisher, Carl Richards, and Gary Borger. Schwiebert's Matching the Hatch turned fly fishers into observers.

With a sparse amount of bucktail, saddle hackles, and Flashabou, flatwings create the illusion of bulk by matching the length and silhouette of bait. The prominent jungle cock eyes are a realistic match to many baitfish's yellow, black, and white eyes and are durable enough to last the life of the fly.

While this revolution in fly fishing and fly tying was taking place, a similar shift was evolving in saltwater fishing. Perhaps these trout innovators influenced early saltwater fly fishers to look at their environment and the animals who live there by mimicking life in a more creative, harmonious fashion. Flies such as Gibbs's Striper Fly (from the late 1940s) were tied to imitate the silversides in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. Theodore Gordon himself tied the BumblePuppy, one of the first documented striper flies. Many of the flies that were fished for stripers during the midcentury were adaptations of Maine landlocked salmon patterns such as the Supervisor and the Nine Three. New Jersey's Bob Popovics's efforts to create translucent baitfish flies with expoxy and Rhode Island's Johnny Glenn's early silicone flies set the stage for an alternative discipline, using man-made material in saltwater flies.

One of the innate difficulties of tying baitfish imitations that confronted each of these innovators was the mobility, translucence, and vibrancy that baitfish display in the water. Many tiers have attempted to address this problem with varying degrees of success. Popovics's attempts with epoxy mimicked the translucency of smaller baitfish, but lacked the flexibility to imitate the illusion of movement in larger baitfish patterns. The original Lefty's Deceiver imitates a larger baitfish in silhouette and profile, but lacks the translucency that is sometimes necessary to trigger a response from a larger, hesitant fish.

Flatwings often use many different colors of material because the bait, such as these menhaden, display many different colors underwater.

One design solution that incorporates these three qualities--movement, vibrancy, and translucence--is the flatwing. This design also allows for endless variations of color, translucency, and size. You can tie a flatwing to imitate anything from a tiny clam worm to an 18-inch mackerel. The flatwing is a versatile and elemental design that dates back to the origins of fly tying.

The mechanics of tying flatwings are simple. They are fun and easy to tie, and anyone from a first-time tier to a seasoned master can easily become enamored of the endless variations that spring from the vise. Fly tiers love tying flatwings and, best of all, flatwings work.

Kenny Abrames's website, www.stripermoon.com, is a forum for introducing more fly fishermen to his traditional saltwater techniques. The site features articles, bulletin boards, baitfish slides, and information on his free evening of fishing every Tuesday night from May until December. Contact Ken directly at ken@stripermoon.com.