Fly tying, for the beginner, for all of us, can become ever more complicated in search of the perfect morsel. This pattern by Gary Borger is quite simple and I bet productive. It is open to color/size variations. A nice pattern to tie and fish for the beginner…for anyone actually.
Wet Fly~Emerger Pattern by Gary Borger
Hare's Ear dubbing with a little Peacock Ice Dub blended in and used to dub an abdomen/thorax. I continue to enjoy the deer hair placed into a dubbing loop and wound once for a collar. The shank is wrapped with tungsten wire.
I like this pattern. I struggle with the parachute wing. I work at reducing bulk in the thorax area and paying more attention to the hackle wraps. The quill abdomen is wrapped and overlaid with a thread ribbing, then a thin coating of head cement is applied. Last year, my quill bodies easily fractured so I am reinforcing them this time around. I am not certain a thread body with contrasting thread ribbing isn't easier, more durable and provides the contrast for segmentation.
Haven’t been able to tie in last week or two. I find I don’t have the attention span to tie complicated flies of late. Throwing together fuzzy, dubbed pupa patterns is preferable to the more tedious parachutes, but those flashy reared parachutes are a magnet.
This is a nice Mayfly Emerger pattern. Notice a couple things that are not offered up during the video, that lend to the success of the fly: The Krystal flash tail (notice the one thread wrap behind the tail segments that helps lift the tail upward and away from the bend; the biot abdomen, which provides a nice segmented abdomen (how the biot is tied in determines how the body will wrap…segmented or smooth); the CDC wing/legs were at first maintained in a paper clamp before being inserted into the dubbing loop and spun (that is not evident in the video to the untrained eye). I think those few clarifications will make the clip more understandable for the beginning fly tier.
Image from Moscofilia
A few unique concepts for the beginning tier: A wing canted forward out over the front of the eye of the fly; a wound hackle inverted so the tips also face forward; a sparkle/shimmering material for tail to suggest nymphal case. The forward tilting wing is something the late Gary LaFontaine offered up. The inverted wound hackle is used in Tenkara fly patterns; the tail material is more frequently used for mayfly emergers and stillborns.
Another tweaked, variation of what I have been tying this weekend. In this instance, I used a single herl of dyed peacock for the abdomen. The thorax was dubbed and teased out a bit to trail back over the abdomen. The CDC wing and Starling hackle were tied in with less material on the size 16 hook. The thread was 14/0 Sheer. I really like the Nature’s Spirit bleached/dyed peacock sticks; very nice for gills in the abdomen area of a mayfly nymph. Or, for the thorax area where natural peacock herl is often used.
A little randomness in tying. A size 16, Emerger pattern tied to sit low in the film, and sink a bit at the end of the presentation. The Z-lon tail/shuck could be left off and the pattern could be used as a low riding Caddis pattern. Each one looks different, (not unusual for me) as I experimented with hackle color, thread color, body material (thread or dubbing) and thorax color/material. Same techniques to tie but different outcomes.
The Grand River Fly pattern by Ian Martin and presented by Rob O’Reilly has great possibilities for mayflies presented in the surface film or just below on a river or a stillwater. As O’Reilly suggests, vary the size and color for different mayflies. I like the possibilities of this pattern. Notice the straight shank hook and in this instance the straight eye.
Grand River Fly by Ian Martin (Rob O'Reilly) SB
Bob remarked: ‘I would probably burn up the whole fly while burning that tail.” Do the burning of the shuck fibers first. Then if you mess it up you have not wasted the tying effort.
Still experimenting with a variety of CDC wings and Zelon/Antron shucks. I wonder if the ‘tail’ could be doubled over to form a loop and better suggest a nymphal shuck? There are several materials that can suggest the trailing shuck for a Mayfly emergers/stillborns (synthetics like Antron fibers, feather fibers, ostrich herl). I am anxious to get out and test the options in a BWO emergence.
SwittersB
The feather overlay or backstrap and tail of mallard, teal or gadwall can be tied in two ways: at the bend first or at the eye. At the bend requires a little finesse to keep the feather out of the way as you wrap up the body of whatever material you choose (here I used rainbow Krystal flash) and then grizzly hackle….then you pull the feather barbs up over it all and tie off at the eye. If you tied in at the eye first, you would wrap the hackle, then form the body finishing at the rear. You have to take extra measure here to measure the length of feather barbs so the tail is the length of the shank. The feather would be pulled back over the body to the rear and tied off. A whip finisher would be ideal here to secure the thread. This pattern is nice in the film as an emerger (mayfly or chironomid) depending upon size/color choices. The hook is a nymph hook here…a bit stout. For an emerger, a lighter wire hook would be better.
