school me on fishing emergers

[Nymph-wristed]

thanks for the replys. ill try a soft hackle fly next time i see them chasing emergers. or maybe a soft hackle as my top fly and a nympth for my bottom fly

Kyle, with those black caddis and grannoms, a dark CDC blowtorch with a red tag in 16 to 18 has been my go to dropper for several years if you were looking for fly recommendations in the original post.

I assumed it was caddis based on the experience you relayed, and time of year, but good points above about figuring out what the bugs were because that may change things for sure!

 

[jifigz]

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned about targeting fish is that for every trout I see doing some kind of confounding surface feeding that I can’t replicate with a dry dropper or a wet fly swing, there are 20 others in the riffle down the bend that will happily take the same presentation or a nymph.

Change your angle, size down, try the dropper, try the lift, and if that doesn’t work… keep steppin. Remember the sun sets soon, tying knots sucks and there’s lots of fish in the sea.

Sound advice. Sometimes, however, the reward is in cracking the code and catching those fish you want to catch in the manner that you want to catch them. Only you can decide which is the worthwhile choice in the moment.

Have fun out there.

 

[dudemanspecial]

Sound advice. Sometimes, however, the reward is in cracking the code and catching those fish you want to catch in the manner that you want to catch them. Only you can decide which is the worthwhile choice in the moment.

Have fun out there.

Agreed. Thats why I fly fish for trout. If I wanted numbers I would blugill fish with nightcrawlers.

 

[Kyle]

Agreed. Thats why I fly fish for trout. If I wanted numbers I would blugill fish with nightcrawlers.

i second that

 

[laurelrun]

Sound advice. Sometimes, however, the reward is in cracking the code and catching those fish you want to catch in the manner that you want to catch them. Only you can decide which is the worthwhile choice in the moment.

Have fun out there.

One of my most productive trout fishing outings ever was when I arrived early for a sulphur hatch and tied on a mop fly with a sulphur nymph trailing. Simply could not keep the fish off the mop, even at the height of the hatch with fish boiling all around me. I never switched over. The feed was on and they greedily attacked a chartreuse mop. Not a night for purists, but man it was fun.

 

[blitzinstripes]

i was fishing a local trout stream and had multiple trout exploding the surface chasing emergers to the top. so i knip of my nympths and tied on multiple emergers. i tried olive, grey, caddis pupa, even tried a PT emerger and had zero takes. it was humbling watching all those trout agressively taking emergers and i didnt have one take.

after a while of that i tied my nympths back on and after a few casts i caught a rainbow on a nympth that i was rising up to make my next cast! whats that all about?! should i just raise my nympths at the end of the drift to make my next cast. or am i fishing emergers all wrong? hope this isnt a stupid question but i just dont get it. any insight is much appreciated.

Rather than change patterns, I usually like to fish my nymphs higher in the water column. If you're euro nymphing, shorten your tippet and just don't fish as deep. If you're indicator fishing, take off your split shot and try fishing at least one nymph higher in the column, perhaps only a foot or so below the indicator. And yes, allowing them to rise at the end of your drift can also be effective. A pheasant tail does a great job imitating many mayfly species. Key is the size, and how you present it at different times.