I think I have touched on this before and its an area that I find a little fascinating as it goes to the very core of how each angler fishes and selects their flies.
Most of us are conditioned to accept particular forms/styles based on our experiences ( are we any different than a trout
) and also to fish in a particular way. So when Mark asks , does an experienced angler have a better eye for a good pattern , the answer is generally Yes. The choice is not by some magic or superior intellect or superior skill but by conditioning which is a direct result of our own individual experiences aided by the influence of other anglers. Whether we recognise this fact or not most of us suffer from tunnel vision and on sites such as this it is very evident when members display their patterns and receive claps on the back, " nice pattern, sure fire killer etc.....". Apart from people just being generous and voicing encouragement to other tiers, the response is largely because the patterns have conformed and have the right vibes.A very modern buzz word is "triggers" or "positive triggers" , I firmly believe that whatever you are trying to imitate, there are certain key attributes that a pattern should have. On face value, and because so many anglers say so, over emphasis of these key attributes seems to generate a response from the trout. I am not convinced that this is totally true and have long since come around to thinking that less is more and that the concept of triggers has more effect on keying into the conditioning of the angler than the conditioning of the trout. Just as the trout, we are very much creatures of habit and I wonder how many of us , would if we had sufficent time to do so, empty our boxes and our minds of preconceptions and start with the basics and develop our skills and approach in a less conformist manner.
I'm sure there is a lot more here to be mined, so I hope this thread takes on a long life. There are a couple of comments that have stuck with me, out of thousands of very useful bits of insight that I've heard here and read elsewhere. I don't recall whether it was Stendalen or daringduffer (either of these guy's opinion rank very high) who once kindly offered that a fly "ticked all the boxes" for him. I remember thinking...it does, doesn't it. Somehow that forced me to loosely tally the positive triggers offered when I'm making judgements while tying. I'd be curious to hear the "attributes" named, as they are likely similar and as likely different for each of us. 