Forgotten Emergers

I go through phases with my fly addiction.  I get on a kick for a certain fly or style, and make  room in a box until there's another box. The addiction procreates.  The selection becomes nearly endless.

Some flies though, while they work perfectly well and I enjoy using them, somehow fade away.   I get down to just a few, forget where I bought them (in the case of fly-shop patterns), or perhaps get on another kick that I like better.  The remnants, often all chewed up, end up in a stray compartment or stuck in a worn out fly patch from seasons long ago.  

Last month, I took it upon myself to dig through dozens of forgotten flies, raise them from the dead, and actually sort and evaluate them.  There were dozens and dozens that needed rebuilt, but were otherwise still fishable.  They needed new wings, a new abdomen, or perhaps a new tail or shuck.  I chucked a bunch, but the repairs on most were quick and easy in the vise.  The re-ties are faster than a whole new one, even with selecting the needed materials, and somehow it just feels good to resurrect an old friend that once proved itself. So now, I have a new box completely full of these bugs labeled "rescues."  They're kind of dear to my heart again, in a weird way.  I'm carrying that box next season!

The result of this refreshing look back is a re-discovery and renewed interest of some old patterns I once carried, and had simply forgot or neglected to give some space in my overcrowded boxes.  (Like I need another damn trout fly in my life!)  So with time on my hands, and feathers between my fingers, I'm bringing some back for 2024.

We all know what Gary LaFontaine's observations in Caddisflies did for caddis fishing.  A decade or so later, in 1990, came his great work The Dry Fly-New Angles.  That one, too, got my bobbin spinning. I kept going back to his observations about the Halo Emerger, how it greatly reduced the number of refusals on what's now my home river, the Green.  I tied a bunch.  For about 7 or 8 years, I fished them on the Fork, while guiding on the Encampment and North Platte, floating the Green, and wading all the spring creeks and tailwaters I still fish today.  Then it somehow got lost, probably because Harrop's Last Chance Cripple in so many sizes and colors took over my boxes.  This one is tied with an Ultra Dry wing.  I never quite understood the original orange deer hair wing, even with its explanation.

This one is tied with a CDC wing because, well, you know.

I landed in a wonderful place in Colorado for fly fishing in my mid-teens, though I didn't really know it going in.  The local fly shop in Boulder, The Western Angler, had John Gierach and AK Best as shop employees.  John Barr was a regular in there, among other notables to learn from.  I stopped in weekly, sometimes daily, for about a decade. During one of the Saturday morning tying demos, John tied a nymph he called the Barr Emerger. (somebody called it that).  He told a hero story of using it on a spring creek in Montana. (Turns out it was Nelson's, but at that time, I didn't even know what a spring creek was and had never been to Montana).  "Gink it, and its just deadly," he said.  (What's Gink?)  Anyway, I did as he said, and took some little size 18's and 20's that were way overdressed to Cheesman Canyon, a place said to be the toughest fly fishing in Colorado, but loaded with trout.  Both were right, and those trout ate that fly once in a while, which was saying something in those days since I was still mostly clueless.  For some reason, I never got around to trying them when I started spring creek fishing in the mid-80's.  I will in 2024.

In 1984, I made my first visit to the Livingston spring creeks.  I had read an article about them in one of the magazines, and at the end of the article it had the contact names and phone numbers for each creek. I jumped on it, made some reservations, and the rest is history as they say.   On the drive there, I had stopped at every fly shop in West Yellowstone because I had never seen such a plethora of fly fishing stuff in such a small area.  Hell, that was a huge part of the whole vacation.  At Blue Ribbon Flies, I bought some little emergers that had a round foam "wing."  They must have recommended it because I'd have never bought it.  To this day, I remember casting these flies in the pool in front of the picnic table at Armstrong's while a couple of guide friends looked on, joking about my casting stroke.  (Yes, THAT pool, the far bank of my favorite flat on any spring creek anywhere.)  It was about the only fly I could get an eat on, and every once in a while I'd actually hook up.  For years, I just called it "The Emerger," not knowing if it had a name or what it might be.  It was my number one go-to on Poindexters, Milesnicks, Silver Creek, the Fork . . . anywhere the water was flat, clear, and the fish were picky.  Over the last decade or so, it disappeared out of my boxes.  It's coming back strong in three sizes and a couple colors.

The last of my original shop flies, circa mid-80's.  Umpqua still lists them for sale.

In my earliest days visiting the Ranch, I was way out of my league.  A freshman at Dead Drift U. I could catch a fish or two on a beetle, sometimes an Elk Hair Caddis, and once in a while on some other horrible looking fly I tied to try and imitate one of the millions of bugs hatching in late June and early July.  But, I'd see guys out there hooked up repeatedly.  Bing.  Lawson.  Rene'.  A bunch of other "old timers" at the upper parking lot.  (I'm 19!)  Walking back up the trail one afternoon I meet this couple.  Every time I had seen them in the river the last few days, it seemed like they were hooked up.  So I just straight up ask what they are using, and without hesitation the man says, "Feather Duster!"  "What's that?" I pipe back.  They not only show me one, but give me two!  "That's a dry fly?" I ask.  He says to dry it out and put some floatant on it. "What kind of floatant do you use?"  "Mucilin and gasoline!" Whoa. (I hadn't yet read Bergman's Trout)

I guess I figured I'd better just say thanks and carry on, two flies up.  I remember these two people like it was yesterday.  I never got their names, even though I saw them again that trip and on a couple of subsequent years.  They'd always stop and say, "How ya doin' Beetle Jim?"  I wish I knew who they were and could thank them again, even 40 years later.  Perhaps give them a few flies.

Of course, I drove up to Lawson's to buy some ostrich that I didn't have, whipped out my vise on the steering wheel of the truck, and tied up a bunch in the parking lot.  That was standard procedure back then.  The flies were just like the AP nymphs I had been tying to fish in Colorado, only with an ostrich body.  So once I learned not to pull so hard as to break the ostrich, I was good.  I found some of those originals last month, tied on Mustad 94840's, and somewhat overdressed like all my flies back then.  I'll try and fish them, as I have sporadically for decades. I'll tie a few more, dressed more appropriately on a more modern hook, because they'll still work as good as they did 40 years ago.  Powder 'em up. 

Marabou for the tail instead of moose hair.  Motion!  Hen hackle for the wing case and legs instead of the moose hair.   A little more motion, and definitely easier to tie in and tie off.  Dubbed squirrel for the thorax for just a slightly buggier look. Will still float well, maybe with that little tail dangling just below the meniscus for the final trigger.  Decent visibility on a lighter glare. The Feather Duster Variant.

CDC edition with the wing case and legs from a CDC feather.  Big time floating nymph, with more motion, and that marabou tail still doing the pole dance.