Nomenclature -or- Opinions are like...

[MikeZRed]

So I was at the local Bass Pro for the free tying class last night, and I showed another guy there for the class my horribly-tied attempt at a Schroeder's Parachute Hopper [url=http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/print.cfm?parentID=24:2ab63]http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/print.cfm?parentID=24[/url:2ab63] . Joe, the gentleman teaching the tying class, saw it and called it an emerger.

Now, I know that opinions are like...well, we all know what opinions are like. But it seems to me that an emerger pattern is one that intends to mimic/represent an aquatic insect leaving the nymphal shuck to become an adult insect.

This pattern, though, does not try to represent "an quatic insect leaving the nymphal shuck to become an adult insect."

To the best of my knowledge, it's representing an insect (grass hopper) that by accident or intention wound up in the water and has started to break through the surface film.

Am I being too literal, here, or would ya'll agree that calling it an emerger pattern is wrong ?

[This message has been edited by MikeZRed (edited 20 April 2006).]

[MikeZRed]

Uhm, I'm not sure I follow that, completely, Mr. Castwell.

I mean, I understand what you're saying about Joe, but are you saying that the pattern isn't really an emerger? or that I am mistaken and it really is an emerger ?

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I should add, though, that I liked the pattern he had for the evening. It was an extremely simple hopper pattern that 'spits' as you retreive it. . . can't wait to try it tonight.

[Jed]

I believe he is wrongly calling it an emerger because it will sit in the film the water surface rather than on top of it. He might be mistaking it for a Caddis emerger (which it is not). As they say, close, but no cigar. Well actually not that close.

jed

[Diane]

Hey Mike... um, erm, just how bad is your tying??? I suppose on my worst days I could make a hopper look like an emerger. But I doubt you're that bad!

Nope, the guy's wrong.

[MikeZRed]

I guess my tying isn't really THAT bad, I don't think.

In this instance, though, I made a couple bad material substitutions (ribbing blended into body), rushed the dubbing (my god that's a long process), and made an extremely poor choice of feather for the hackle.

And the legs looked awful 'cause I have fat fingers and couldn't get a knot tied in the pheasant tail fibers.

BUT

It looked sufficiently like the finished fly at the link above that you could tell that it's a parachute terrestrial, not an emerger.

[This message has been edited by MikeZRed (edited 20 April 2006).]

[Newfoundlander]

If that hooded wing wasn't there and the legs weren't tied on, he might have a case, but tied like that, it's a Hopper.

Mike

[Micropteris]

Mike I have that same fat finger problem. I found a crochet hook works wonders for tying feathers into knots for legs and the like, (Walmart for a buck)

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Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick

[SilverMallard]

Maybe he was making a subtle joke...saying without saying it that there was no way YOUR fly was going to float on the film.

Maybe he was just mistaken. I'd sure hate to think I could never talk to a fly fisherman/tier/website owner again just because they made one mistake. I would have missed a LOT of good stuff I've learned over the years with that attitude!

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My New Year's resolution is to have more fun...even if YOU don't.

[Bill Blake]

A hopper is not an emerger, however, I have on occasion mistakenly thought I fly was supposed to be imitating something other than what the tyer intended, particularly if it wasn't well tied. I wouldn't over-think the issue, we all make mistakes occasionally.

[MikeZRed]

I think I'd have to agree with you, SilverMallard.

It seems I wasn't very clear in the original post. I'm more interested in what qualifies something as an 'emerger', and whether or not anything that floats 'in' the surface film instead of 'on' it qualifies as an emerger.

Is a hopper not an emerger because it represents an adult insect? Or is a hopper not an emerger because of the way it sits in/on the water? Or can some hoppers, representing adult insects, be emergers, if they sit in/on the water a certain way?

Or is there a better way to define what an 'emerger' is than I did in the original post ?

[This message has been edited by MikeZRed (edited 20 April 2006).]