Byrun -

I sometimes fish very killing nymph patterns (that are similar to a flashback pheasant tail, or GRHE) that use narrow slips of black closed cell foam tied in along each side to simulate wing cases - much better than having a single wing case tied on top of the fly, IMO.

So, I'm thinking that foam along the sides of your fly (similar to LaFontaine's Halo Emerger) would also represent wing cases, in addition to helpng the fly float. I think I'd prefer to have the foam in dark gray or black though for that purpose. You could easily use a magic marker to simply color the foam on your fly, or tie it with black or gray foam.

I'm sure I have some Halo Emerger's tucked away someplace, tied as the the original pattern suggested - with that orange deer hair wing slanting forward over the eye - but I'll be darned if I ever caught anything on one of them.

Personally, I think you might just be onto something that could be an improvment over the originals...

John