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During
an ephemeral hatch, we can easily ascertain the condition of extreme
vulnerability of the tiny creatures that are facing their metamorphosis. For
almost all their youthful life, the small mayflies try to stay away from
predators, hiding themselves in crevices of the bottom where they find food and
protection. Reached the last stage of their development, the mature nymphs are
forced to migrate to the surface and quite often they try to swim towards those
river stretches where the water is faster and rippled, in practice where the
surface tension is lower and easy to cross: during this journey they expose
themselves to the assaults of many fish.
Usually the migrant nymphs are avidly preyed for their entire journey, but the majority of assaults happen when the invertebrates have reached the emerging border and are forced to undress their youthful vest just below the surface. This stage can last a few seconds and is really dangerous by the fact that insects, carried by the current, pass over large portions of the river and are more likely to be tasted from a fish. Because of this fact, the mayflies that are becoming adult individuals appear very alluring preys and trout and grayling like to feed on them. This is confirmed by the analysis of stomachs of those fish that we decide to keep, which are often full of insects at the stage of mature nymph or of emerging adult.
The trout predilection for the hatching mayflies is sometimes is proved even from their way to feed on the surface. Quite often the fish takes an insect causing a slight bubbling on the water and without making to emerge its lips, but generating a gentle suction. This indicates that the prey is not located on the surface, but below it. Moreover the fish love to grab emerging mayflies with a sort of "dolphin bucking" and the fisherman often sees the rump and tail of a trout that is making its attack with calm.
Trout and grayling with a selective behavior, when are feeding on emerging mayflies, prefer to be tempted with flies that want to imitate the invertebrate not only in appearance, but also in the way it stays in the water, that is with the body partially immersed and with wings just outside the surface. Any other fly that swims at a different level can be refused. From here, when the hatching is at the peak and the concentration of emerging mayflies is higher, the cleverer trout with a more specialized feeding behavior, can be fooled only by those imitations that stay trapped in the surface film of the river.
Great exponent of this kind of flies that works in the border area between air and water is the E. I. Emerger, a pattern that I conceived to imitate small mayflies with an olive green color, like the Baetis rhodani and Ephmerella ignita: by the latter I chose the name of my fly. These invertebrates are quite common on many rivers and often induce the fish to eat them selectively. The peculiarity of this pattern is its long body, partially built with a peacock quill: this material has a color very similar to the abdomen of many nymphs. The thorax, instead, is made with polypropylene colored of olive green, in practice it has the same hue of the adult insect. The E. I. Emerger stays on the water with the abdomen partially submerged, the thorax trapped in the surface film and the wings well erected off of the water, and it looks like a real ephemeral that is completing the emerging process while it gets rid of the youth dress.
Usually the migrant nymphs are avidly preyed for their entire journey, but the majority of assaults happen when the invertebrates have reached the emerging border and are forced to undress their youthful vest just below the surface. This stage can last a few seconds and is really dangerous by the fact that insects, carried by the current, pass over large portions of the river and are more likely to be tasted from a fish. Because of this fact, the mayflies that are becoming adult individuals appear very alluring preys and trout and grayling like to feed on them. This is confirmed by the analysis of stomachs of those fish that we decide to keep, which are often full of insects at the stage of mature nymph or of emerging adult.
The trout predilection for the hatching mayflies is sometimes is proved even from their way to feed on the surface. Quite often the fish takes an insect causing a slight bubbling on the water and without making to emerge its lips, but generating a gentle suction. This indicates that the prey is not located on the surface, but below it. Moreover the fish love to grab emerging mayflies with a sort of "dolphin bucking" and the fisherman often sees the rump and tail of a trout that is making its attack with calm.
Trout and grayling with a selective behavior, when are feeding on emerging mayflies, prefer to be tempted with flies that want to imitate the invertebrate not only in appearance, but also in the way it stays in the water, that is with the body partially immersed and with wings just outside the surface. Any other fly that swims at a different level can be refused. From here, when the hatching is at the peak and the concentration of emerging mayflies is higher, the cleverer trout with a more specialized feeding behavior, can be fooled only by those imitations that stay trapped in the surface film of the river.
Great exponent of this kind of flies that works in the border area between air and water is the E. I. Emerger, a pattern that I conceived to imitate small mayflies with an olive green color, like the Baetis rhodani and Ephmerella ignita: by the latter I chose the name of my fly. These invertebrates are quite common on many rivers and often induce the fish to eat them selectively. The peculiarity of this pattern is its long body, partially built with a peacock quill: this material has a color very similar to the abdomen of many nymphs. The thorax, instead, is made with polypropylene colored of olive green, in practice it has the same hue of the adult insect. The E. I. Emerger stays on the water with the abdomen partially submerged, the thorax trapped in the surface film and the wings well erected off of the water, and it looks like a real ephemeral that is completing the emerging process while it gets rid of the youth dress.
INSTRUCTIONS
I
start the E. I. Emerger building by inserting the hook into the vice jaw and
winding the beige thread onto the shank. I use the thread for tying in a sparse
tuft of fibers taken from a partridge feather: these tails must have a length
nearly equivalent to one a third of the shank
I select a peacock quill from the eye area of the feather and I strip off all
fuzz on its lower stretch: I do that with an eraser or by passing the quill
between the thumb and the scissors blade. I bind in the quill end over the hook
bend, then I prepare with the thread a tiny underbody along the rear two fifth
of the shank, giving it a conical shape
I wrap the peacock quill around the underbody: in this way I build the abdomen
I wax a stretch of the thread and distribute on it a pinch of polypropylene
colored olive green. With my fingers I form a compact dubbing rope and I wrap it
along the next two fifth of the hook shank, so to build the thorax
In front of the body, I tie in a blue dun hackle with the fibers a little
shorter than the hook shank and two grey natural cul de canard feathers
I turn in circle the cul de canard tips and I secure them over the fixing point
of their bases
I grip the blue dun hackle in the specific pliers and I wind it around the basal
section of the wings to form a sparse collar
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I secure the hackle against the hook and eliminate its surplus. I create the fly
head with some turns of thread and I finish it with a whip-finish
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I distribute a small drop of glue on the head: it will prevent the thread to
untie itself. The E. I. Emerger is ready to tempt a nice fish that is feeding on
emerging greenish mayflies
MATERIALS LIST
HOOK:
for caddis imitation size 14 to 12
THREAD: beige
TAILS: fibers of a partridge feather
ABDOMEN: peacock quill
THORAX: green olive polypropylene
WINGS: natural grey cul de canard
HACKLE: blue dun
THREAD: beige
TAILS: fibers of a partridge feather
ABDOMEN: peacock quill
THORAX: green olive polypropylene
WINGS: natural grey cul de canard
HACKLE: blue dun
