The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

The Best Anglers Never Stop Learning

Emerger

Hatching Pupa

Insect Species Icon Quill Gordon, Callibaetis, Blue Wing Olive and 9 others
Difficulty Icon Medium - 3-5 Min
Water Category Icon Coldwater

Tying Video

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Tying Recipe
  • Hook: Sproat down-eye 3x strong
  • Thread: Veevus 16/0 black
  • Tail: Wood duck flank
  • Wire: Small round red
  • Body: Stripped peacock quill with a layer of UV resin to protect
  • Thorax: Peacock herl
  • Wing: Hungarian partridge feather
  • Hook: Any down-eye straight shank heavy wire hook will work. If you’re having trouble with proportions, try sizing the gage down with either standard, or 2x strong wire.
  • Thread: Any small diameter black thread will work, try not to go over 8/0 or 70 denier.
  • Tail: Wood duck flank is best and fairly inexpensive, but if you want a stronger tail, try Coq de Leon.
  • Wire: Any small or extra small round wire will work.
  • Body: If you can’t find stripped peacock quills or quills to strip yourself, try a simple thread body, or some small midge tubing.
  • Thorax: Peacock herl is the best for collars here, but small amounts of dubbing will do the trick as well.
  • Wing: If you don’t have Hungarian partridge, a small hen saddle can work, or even CDC.

This is a great fly to play around with and really nail down soft hackle imitations with. The number of materials that can be substituted in, or replaced with others is only growing with new materials being discovered. For a stronger tail that wont get shredded, try subbing the wood duck with Coq-de-Leon. If quill bodies aren’t your style, or you don’t have any, d-rib or midge tubing can be a great substitute that still has an excellent ribbing effect for the body. For a bushier soft hackle, consider adding a CDC tuft behind the partridge feather. For smaller flies in this manner, if you are struggling to find correctly sized partridge feathers, look into a starling hide.

This emerger pattern is a generic mayfly emerger that will resemble many different species. It can be fished either floated up with some dry fly floatant, or sunk to any depth either by tying it with a bead, or adding split shot to the unweighted nymph. This fly can also be fished in any manner, as dead drift is not required for this fly. It can be swung across shallow riffles, where trout are picking off hatching mayflies that come up off the bottom, or drifted below your favorite dry fly.

Fish this fly any way you need to to get the fishes attention to the fly. If the water is cooler during the morning hours, try dead drifting it below your favorite dry fly to get those slower trout to eat. Once the water warms up, you can start to swing the fly at the end of the drifts to pick up anything that might want to give chase to something more alive. If the fish are actively chasing flies and moving hard to eat, try a traditional swing cast by casting 45 degrees downstream and across the river, and let the fly line pull the fly back to your side of the river.

Blue Wing Olive

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West
Blue Wing Olive
Sizes: #16 - #24
Region: Northwest
Blue Wing Olive
Sizes: #16 - #24
Region: East
Blue Wing Olive
Sizes: #16 - #24
Region: Southeast
Blue Wing Olive
Sizes: #16 - #24
Region: Midwest
Blue Wing Olive
Sizes: #16 - #24

Brown Drake

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West
Brown Drake
Sizes: #10 - #14
Region: Northwest
Brown Drake
Sizes: #10 - #14
Region: East
Brown Drake
Sizes: #10 - #14
Region: Midwest
Brown Drake
Sizes: #10 - #14

Callibaetis

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West
Callibaetis
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: Northwest
Callibaetis
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: East
Callibaetis
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: Midwest
Callibaetis
Sizes: #12 - #18

Green Drake

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest, Midwest
Green Drake
Sizes: #8 - #14
Region: East
Green Drake
Sizes: #8 - #14

Hendrickson

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: East, Midwest
Hendrickson
Sizes: #10 - #16

Hexegenia

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest, East, Southeast, Midwest
Hexegenia
Sizes: #6 - #12

Isonychia

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: East
Isonychia
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: Southeast
Isonychia
Sizes: #12 - #18
Region: Midwest
Isonychia
Sizes: #12 - #18

Light Cahill

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: East
Light Cahill
Sizes: #12 - #20
Region: Midwest
Light Cahill
Sizes: #12 - #20
Region: Northwest
Light Cahill
Sizes: #12 - #20

Mahogany Dun

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest
Mahogany Dun
Sizes: #14 - #20
Region: East, Midwest
Mahogany Dun
Sizes: #14 - #20

March Brown

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, East
March Brown
Sizes: #10 - #14
Region: Northwest
March Brown
Sizes: #10 - #14
Region: Midwest
March Brown
Sizes: #10 - #14

PMD

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: West, Northwest, East, Southeast, Midwest
PMD
Sizes: #14 - #20

Quill Gordon

Regional Hatch Chart Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Region: East, Southeast
Quill Gordon
Sizes: #12 - #16

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