TYING THE PARASOL EMERGER - Fly of the week - November 8, 2010

TYING THE PARASOL EMERGER

Several Years ago Jim Schollmeyer and Ted Leeson presented an article on the use of a new (to them) concept in fly tying and described the tying and use of flies called Parasol Emergers.*Many commented on the article that the concept was not new and credit was given to Fran Betters as the originator of the concept here in the United States.*

I fished these for the first time in the back eddies of the Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam at the beginning of October. The water was exceptionally clear, the sky was bluebird bright, and the fish were quite wary. Small BWO's were coming off in these eddies and the fish were feeding aggressively on them. But they were not keen on most offerings. When the guide I was fishing with tied on one of these, it was game on! We caught double-digit per rod numbers of nice trout each day for the next 2 days using parasol emergers in the slack water and foam terrestrials in the faster water.

I am still considered a youngster to a few in the fly fishing, that have been fishing all their lives, while I did not take up the long rod (forsaking all other forms of angling) in 1995. But 41 years of bait cast, spinning, & tolling; added to the 15 years of fly fishing does add up to many years of knowledge and learning about fishing in general. Best of all I am a quick learner, mostly from reading every article ever published on FAOL!

Kelly G. Glissmeyer (aka: K. G.) is a excellent writer, great photographer, and a very knowledgeable angler. He has now written three articles for "Fly Of The Week" and I hope that KG continues to share his knowledge, by writing more articles in the coming years, but I am happy that there are two other articles already to add this latest article to...

KG's Improved Shop-Vac
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/fotw/2009/fotw20091228.php

KG's South Fork Special
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/fotw/2010/fotw20100208.php

Here lays the dilemma The Parasol Emerger is not really a fly pattern, instead after long and careful thought I have concluded that is is a Emerger Fly Pattern with a strike indicator used to hold the emerger just below the surface of the water.

Saying all the above comments about the article, the Parasol attachment to the hook, can also be deployed on other fly pattern categories! Streamers (Zonker, Bugger, Wet Fly (all sorts), even Midge. Instead of attaching a Strike Indicator to the tippet on the end of the tapered leader, the the parasol can be attached to the lead fly on a two hook rig, where the second fly is attach to the rear of the lead fly pattern.

I believe this would be very useful when fishing in streams that have a stream bottom that has lots of debris littering the bottom (potential hazard of snaring the hook) or a stream bottom that has rapid variations of depth changes due constant change in water depth.

I am sure there are other way a angler can use the Parasol attachment to fish areas on the water that otherwise would be impossible to cast to or present their offering.

All it all, a very interesting article that is worth remembering or saving for future use! ~Parnelli:D

I have saved the "Tying the Parasol Emerger" article in PDF format (requires the free Adobe Reader Download for viewing). Send me a email at parnelli@comcast.net Subject: "Parasol Emerger" if you want this article for your computer document files.

Steve, thanks for your kind remarks. I agree with you concerning this not being a fly pattern. Never was intended to be and, as you explained about how one could use it, this is the exact method I have described in my recent article in Flyfishing & Tying Journal - Winter 2011 edition on sale currently. The parasol assists in presenting an offering just under or in the surface film and acts as a visual indicator for that offering. Not much different than a parachute post on many fly patterns. Therefore, many different actual fly 'patterns' could be tied and suspended by the parasol.

This has been a fun and productive method of both fly tying as well as fly presentation, not only at the surface, but also at depth as you described.

Thanks for your support, friend! Much appreciated.

Kelly.

Very interesting thread! Kelly - I like your set-up. I have been a Fran Betters fan for 30+ years. His Haystack, Usual, and Piggy-Back innovations were quite revolutionary for the times. He developed the Piggy- Back type (he said it was not a particular pattern) back when he was a teenager in high school. You have to remember that he did not have many of the synthetics to work with ,that we have today. He used deer hair spun and trimmed into a ball on a length of thread. He had thought about using mono to attach the ball to the fly, but wanted the fly to have more autonomy under the deer hair ball. He did suggest that one could use cork or styrofoam balls instead of deer hair but preferred the naturalness of the deer hair. He also said that this deer hair ball technique could be used on any pattern, not just on his favorite. (the Copper Wire Piggy-Back). The whole idea behind this design was to get a faster visual clue that a fish was nibbling on your fly. What ever happens to the fly, immediately happens to the little deer hair ball. If you use a conventional strike indicator, there is going to be some lag time. Yes? If you read Frans book ( Fran Betters' Fly Fishing - Fly Tying and Pattern Guide), you will better understand the thought process behind his innovations. He didn't leave too many stones unturned!!! They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Between his Piggy-Back, Haystack and Usual patterns, Fran Betters should be duly flattered! IMHO.

Best Regards, Dave S.

Kelly,

Thanks for putting this into bits and bytes; great pattern.

Regards,
Scott