Soft hackle pheasant tail
The Quigley Cripple is high on my list of emerger patterns.
But a step or two up, at the very top of the list, is a soft hackled pheasant tail. The version I use is tied very much like a pheasant tail nymph for the tail, body, and ribbing. Then wrap the thorax with peacock herl and add a soft hackle of partridge, hen, or starling. ( I think hen has worked best for me. )
Fished as a trailing fly behind another nymph, as a dropper off dry, or swung down and across, this fly has consistently taken trouts on big rivers for browns and cutts, on smaller rivers for bows, and small streams for bows and brookies.
South Fork of the Snake
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...016_edited.jpg
John
What Emerger Do You Fish With?
Wow, that's like asking what dry fly do you use. Emerger patterns are most successful when they are used for a specific hatch. You would use a caddis emerger pattern when caddis are hatching, a mayfly emerger pattern when mayflies are hatching, etc.
To be more specific, you would use an emerger pattern that, from our perspective, looks like the emerger of the specific species of caddis that is emerging. Likewise, you would use a mayfly emerger pattern that best imitates, from our perspective, the mayfly that is currently hatching.
While there are some generic emerger patterns, when fishing emergers I try to use a specific pattern to imitate the insect that is hatching.
The Chronicler