Which is more important, the fly or the presentation of the fly? This is a question asked by a visitor at TroutProStore.com on Facebook.
I have been wrestling with that question for more than a week now and when I discussed it with my friend James Marsh; he came up with a good analogy. Take an airplane for instance, is the engine more important than the wings, or are the wings more important than the engine? The answer is that they are equally important, you can not fly without the engine and you can not fly without the wings. I suspect that the same is true about the flies and the presentation.
Occasionally, a trout bent on committing suicide will hit a bad presentation. For example, I had a fly get caught on an overhanging rhododendron branch and dangle just above the water. Believe it or not, a trout jumped out of the water and took that fly. I was able to retrieve my fly by simply reeling in the trout.
As a result, I have become partial to the argument for the perfect fly because it increases my odds despite my sometimes poor presentations. I believe that a great imitation of a real bug will allow me the latitude to make errors in presentation.
In conclusion, we might say this is similar to the age old discussion about the "chicken or the egg".