I started this project with FoamSkin Flies back in the seventies when there was much debate over the question of what was really a fly and what was merely a lure used on a flyrod, negating the user’s claim to be actually flyfishing. You cannot effectively make a mullet out of material that was originally meant to imitate a Mayfly wing. Folks like Tom Nixon looked for practical solutions. Dave Whitlock was an innovative ambassador of compromise. My approach was to experiment with fly construction materials that had an advantage for the flyfisherman. Fortunately, the excitement of catching many of the world’s greatest species of fish on a flyrod was too much of an oppurtunity to contain. A liberal interpretation of a legitimate fly by the I.G.F.A. was most beneficial. The borders continued to stretch. I was encouraged by the changed attitudes and continued my research that I defined as a further compromise between Whitlock and Nixon. Manufacturers began to produce amazing rods and lines capable of casting new flies with heavier materials and wind resistant designs. Real change came about when the rank and file trout flyfishers migrated south for the Saltwater Switch: lured by outdoor writers with exciting tales of flyrodding for exotic fish in warm places at a season when cabin fever was most influential. New flies were required to fully experience what the new horizons of flyrodding had to offer its practitioners. Innovative tyers such as Popovics and Clouser stepped to the forefront using new materials and construction techniques with realistic solutions for imitative patterns: patterns that looked tempting to eat yourself even if the fish didn’t want them. But the fish did want them, and so did the new generation of flyrodders. So, when on the Battenkill, do as the Battenkillians do, but when down on the bayou-? However, it was not until I became aware of the Rainy’s Snail pattern as a solution for trout with a snobbish appetite for escargot that I realized it was time to make this video.