Bodkin / Patterns

Quigley's Cripple Emerger

Emerger · Dry Fly · Trout · Grayling · Advanced · 2 versions

Sport Fishing on the Fly dressing

  • Hook Gamakatsu C15-BV, 14
  • Thread Tan 8/0

Materials

  • Tail and Body Grey Ostrich Herl
  • Rib X-Fine Wire
  • Wing Fine Deer Hair
  • Hackle Grizzly hackle

How to tie it

  1. Mount the size 14 Gamakatsu C15-BV emerger hook and run 8/0 tan thread down the shank and around the corner of the bend.
  2. Take three grey ostrich herls with the tips lined up, working off the shorter, less fluffy side of the feather for small flies, and tie them in around the bend, then pull them to the tail length you want.
  3. Catch in the extra-fine silver wire at the rear and take the thread forward.
  4. Wrap the ostrich herl forward in nice tight turns and tie it off; it is fluffy at this stage and will be thinned down next.
  5. Counter-wrap the extra-fine wire forward in fairly close turns. It knocks a lot of the bulk down, leaves the herl imitating mayfly gills, and adds strength to a fragile body.
  6. Tip the shank up so the fly rides flatter and is easier to work on, then tie in three or four strands of UV Krystal Flash and fold them back over themselves so they show from underneath. Keep them short, since the flash stretches as you pull it.
  7. Clean the under fur out of a small clump of fine deer hair, stack it, and bind it in with loose turns for the wing. Leave the butts fairly long, that flared stub is part of the pattern, and stand the wing up so it sets forward a little.
  8. Tie in a grizzly dry-fly saddle hackle and take about three turns; the barb count on a super saddle means that is all you need. Tie it off, then take the thread in front of the eye, keeping the deer hair out of the wraps.
  9. Whip finish, then run a hackle stem through the eye to clear any head cement out of it.

Other versions

1 more in the app: Tyer Recipe.

Tying videos

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