Sulphur Emerger

[ezpickins]

Spring Creek and Sulphur patterns have come up several times recently on various parts of the PAFF forums -so I just though I'd share my favorite sulphur pattern - I call it Rich's Sulphur Emerger. It's simple but it has been effective for me.Get the recipe at HERE . I'd love to see what Sulphur Patterns you other folks have had luck with. I generally fish this as a dropper - about 18-24" behind a parachute or comparadun.

 

[jayL]

I use a curved hook and tie a parachute emerger. The back half is a pheasant tail, the front half is a parachute sulphur. Fish it a few sizes larger than the actual bugs. Works well.

 

[MKern]

I tie mine the same as Jay.

 

[ezpickins]

Cool - I think it's really interesting how patterns that appear so different can both be effective. In the case of these two patterns, I think I can see why.The "emerger" that I tie is probably more of a "freshly emerged" fly; the body is out of the shuck, the shuck is still dangling though, and the wing is not unfurled yet. It may even be taken as a cripple or a drowned adult. Too bad we can't ask the fish, what they think they're eating.The fly you describe is a bug in the act of emerging still. We're using the same name - but I guess we're actually tying a fairly different stage of the emergence. I'll have to tie some both ways - fish them in tandem and see how they compare at different stages of the hatch. Thanks for sharing - do you have any pictures?

 

[jayL]

Here's a CDC version I found:

 

[Dizzy]

I fish a “wet” emerger pattern about 6-8” off of a dry when the conditions are right for the duns to blast off the stream. This occurs quite a bit later in the “sulphur hatch” (late May/early June) and about 80-90% of the fish I hook take the emerger.

Hook: scud/shrimp hook size 14-16
Thread: 6/0 pale yellow
Tail (shuck): light brown Z-lon (or equal) same length as body
Body: pale yellow dubbing
Wing: looped CDC feather, light dun

I’ll try and throw a picture up later, but it really is a simple pattern.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

I usually fish a nymph under a dry for the same situation Dizzy described. It was designed by Rick Myers to copy the Sulphur nymph just before emergence. Technically it is a pre-emerger, but it is like money in the bank. (or under your mattress, these days)
Basically just a Sulphur nymph tied one size larger than the dun. The wing pad is a little yellow Antron or similar with a couple strands of dark Ostrich on either side. I like to weight it slightly, as well. It will usually out catch your favorite dun pattern by a huge margin. When my daughter gives me some assistance I'll figure out how to post pics.

 

[tomgamber]

my regular sulphur is a parachute so that's really all I use.

 

[djmyers]

Here is my sulphur pattern I have been playing around with and have had several requests for them from my clients.

 

[flipnfly]

how would a pale yellow foam post work on that?

 

[MKern]

flipnfly,

I would do a light dun colored post to match the natural more.

 

[Spyder20oz]

Fish cant see the foam post, so it doesn't matter what color it is

 

[tomgamber]

Not sure I even disagree, but...Just a thought...if fish can't see the post, why do we put wings on our mayflies?

 

[Spyder20oz]

Either because people like tying wings on mayflies or to use as something extra to see on the water

 

[Maurice]

A short post on a parachute a trout cannot see. A taller post they can. I believe there was some photography in the book "a Modern Dry Fly Code" by V Marinaro indicating the importance of wings on mayflies from the trouts window.

On Catskill ties they also help to steer the fly from spinning while in the air during a cast. too much hackle will cause a fly to spin and twist your tippet. (so will undersized tippet) A break in that corkscrew of hackle (wings) will impede that process.

Wings also give the fly a steadying factor during the fall to the water. The hook bend (being the heaviest area of the profile) will fall first and the wings on a vell dressed and balanced dry fly will act as rudders to steady the fly to the water surface.

I do know that when I tie my parachute ants (low profile) with a yellow post or white post they produce less than a fly without the post so I think the trout can see them if they take the time. In slow flat pools when they can take the time, they will look a fly over pretty hard...but in these conditions, you really don't need a post for visibility.

 

[MKern]

At Somerset, a speaker was asked this question and he answered:
Wings are the first thing that comes into view for the fish, and could be what they key on.

I put wings on my flies for two reasons:
1. The real bugs have wings.
2. I'm not only a fly fisher, I'm a fly tyer, and I like the way the wings look.

 

[ezpickins]

MKern wrote:
At Somerset, a speaker was asked this question and he answered:
Wings are the first thing that comes into view for the fish, and could be what they key on.

I put wings on my flies for two reasons:
1. The real bugs have wings.
2. I'm not only a fly fisher, I'm a fly tyer, and I like the way the wings look.

In addition to the good information already stated in the previous posts, I'll put in my two cents.

I have to agree. I've seen plenty of underwater photographs that clearly show the wing of the fly (natural or otherwise) as the first (above water) thing that the trout sees.

We all know that trout have serious denial abilty - they can ignore that giant metal hook and that monofilament "cable" tied to the front of the fly.

But you have to be careful - because although the fish is "ignoring" a lot sometimes they are looking for something very specific. It is this "trigger" that the trout is keyed in on to the exclusion of many other things.

So - if the wing is the "trigger" feature that the trout are keyed in on, you better have the wing. Obviously - you will catch trout on flies without wings, but maybe at certain times you'll miss out.

So the moral to the story is...if it was too easy and the same thing worked all the time it wouldn't be much fun.

 

[flyguyfishing]

I use a wet fly....just pale yellow dubbing with medium dun soft hackle.

As far as wings on dries. Anything I tye bigger than #14 has wings. #16 flies I tie some with wings some without. Anything #18 or smaller, I do not tye wings.

Not just because I am lazy and do not feel like messing with little wings, but because at the end of the drift, I let the non-winged fly swing (sometimes it sinks). I catch fish with this technique - esp. while fishing over #18- #20 BWOs.

 

[ezpickins]

flyguyfishing wrote:
I use a wet fly....just pale yellow dubbing with medium dun soft hackle.

Do you use any tail on this wetfly?

 

[GreenWeenie]

According to Gary LaFontaine’s writings, upright wings on a mayfly may be the dominant feature a trout notices when an adult dun mayfly drifts into their window of vision.

LaFontaine even goes further to say that trout may use the silhouette created by the wings as their initial search image when feeding on adult duns. If a trout is using the silhouette as initial search criteria and your fly doesn’t have wings, your fly will fail to pass the initial search criteria and the fly will be ignored not rejected/refused.

Rejected/refused would be the fly passes the initial search criteria and the trout expresses interest and upon closer inspection, the fly does not posses the secondary confirmation characteristics so it does not take the fly.