Fly Tying: Midge Emerger

Fly Fishing aficionado and blog visitor, JasonB (Fly to Fly) shared a suggestion of wrapping a single strand of Krystal Flash with a body material such as a yarn that is then twisted/tightened. Then when the material is wrapped, a periodic hint of flash is displayed. I tried it above with peacock herl, but most of it got lost in the wraps. Still, it helped bind down the fragile Krystal flash.  A good idea. I have wrapped copper wire around herl to reinforce the herl and add ribbing. The hackle is dry fly quality grizzly hackle. Small strips of closed cell foam were cut (maybe 1/8″ wide). Small wings are cut from the strips and tied in just back of the eye with figure 8 wraps.  One fiber of peacock herl is tied in behind the foam wing, then the herl is wrapped in a figure 8 pattern around the foam wing to form a thorax that encompasses the foam wing. Tie off  the fly with a neat thread head. I have seen this emerger pattern with silver or red ribbing. The hook is a size 16 dry fly hook.

Fly Tying: Thread Body & Wire Rib (Segmentation)

Yesterday, I presented a fly pattern with an abdomen created from a piece of twisted, synthetic fibers (Zelon or Antron). The twisting of the fibers and careful wrapping up the shank creates an impression of segmentation. In the below photo, I am showing what I often use, which is a tying thread body with an overlay of wrapped wire ribbing, which also shows segmentation.

What is missing are the fibers that suggest life from dubbing, yarns, ostrich, peacock, pheasant tail etc. Considering that many of these pupa/emerger patterns are tumbling through riffles, it is debatable if it is required. Tie the stiffer patterns like this one and add animation in the thorax. In other patterns add life in the abdomen with materials to suggest gills (like the Fuzzle pattern yesterday). This pattern simply shows the ease of a thread body. The thorax is a little beefy and the thread abdomen could have been tapered larger as it neared the thorax. Still, looks ok. Beard is starling feather barbs and collar is black ostrich.  Hook: Size 14. Dubbing: Ice Dub (Peacock)

Thread body and wire ribbing (SB)