Bodkin / Patterns

Burkus Baetis Emerger

Emerger · Trout · Advanced · 1 version

Tyer Recipe

  • Hook Standard dry fly / emerger hook, #16-20
  • Thread Gray 8/0

Materials

  • Nylon yarn / kinky synthetic (Darice) Brown zelon (A few fibers for the trailing shuck)
  • Great blue heron feather fiber (biot substitute) Blue-gray great heron feather fiber (One fiber for the body)
  • Permanent marker Dark permanent marker (To darken the body and colour the head red)
  • Nature's Spirit wool dubbing Slate (A small pinch for the thorax)
  • Poly yarn Gray antron (One length for the wing)
  • Super glue Clear head cement (One small drop)

How to tie it

  1. Mount a small dry fly hook and start gray thread behind the eye.
  2. Tie in a few fibres of kinky brown nylon at the front and bind them down the shank to the bend as a trailing shuck; trim the excess.
  3. Clip a fibre from a great blue heron feather, tie it in at the bend, grip it with hackle pliers and wind it forward in even, slightly overlapping turns like a biot to form a segmented body; tie it off at the 65% point.
  4. Colour the tying thread with a dark permanent marker and wind it back through the body to reinforce the quill and darken the hue, then trim the trailing shuck to length.
  5. Dub a small thorax of slate wool dubbing over the front of the body.
  6. Pick out a little of the wool with a bodkin on each side to suggest legs.
  7. Tie in a length of gray poly yarn over the thorax as the wing and build a neat head.
  8. Colour the head thread red with a marker, whip finish, then trim the rear of the poly yarn just past the thorax and the front section to about twice that length.
  9. Add a small drop of super glue to the head to keep everything intact.

Tying videos

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