emergers

[JohnScott]

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


John