By Verne Lehmberg
F
Pheasant Tail Nymph Frank Sawyer Style
Dr. Barr Emerger Dr. John Barr Style
Bison Fur CDC Emerger Verne Lehmberg
lies to imitate pale morning duns run from very general patterns that mimic more than one insect species to those designed to look like an exact life stage of the PMD. They are tied in the size and color to match insects on a particular stream.. Generalist nymphs such as the Hare’s Ear and the Pheasant Tail have their origin in England. Hare mask fibers have made good buggy bodies for nymphs since the early days of fly tying, and are still used for many modern dry flies and nymphs. The Frank Sawyer Pheasant Tail Nymph tied originally as a Baetis nymph for the Avon River, is the most popular PMD nymph today. See Sawyer’s book, “Nymphs and the Trout,” for this English river keeper’s designs. The Pheasant Tail Nymph tied without copper wire makes a good floating nymph imitation, ready to emerge. The Doctor Barr Emerger, Rene Harrop’s CDC Emerger and Bison Fur Emerger all have the two-tone body that imitates the transition from nymph to dun at the water’s surface as the yellow PMD dun is halfway out of its brown nymphal exoskeleton, or shuck. The tails on these represent the trailing shucks. The Rene Harrop’s Last Chance Cripple represents a PMD floating on the surface that cannot emerge from its exoskeleton, so it is very vulnerable to predation. Of the hundreds of PMD dun patterns, the No Hackle and the Quigley Sparkle Stacker stand out as having a great body and wing silhouette. The Sparkle Stacker is made by parachuting the hackle around a monofilament stacking loop and then pulling the loop over the thorax, creating a hackle-fiber wing hackle on top of the thorax. This can be fished as either a dun or a cripple. PMD spinners vary from rusty red to darker yellow and should have a good wing silhouette on the water. Mayfly color varies from stream to stream, so a visit to a local fly shop, including those in Livingston before the 2014 fair, will help match color and catch the selective area trout. Verne Lehmberg from Dayton, Texas, is a longtime Federation member and Flyfisher contributor. See more of his excellent photography on the cover and in “Fly Box,” page 39.
CDC Paraspinner Rene Harrop
PMD CDC Emerger Rene Harrop Anderson’s Yellowstone Angler Livingston, Montana Sparkle Stacker Bob Quigley Style Sweetwater Fly Shop Livingston, Montana
No Hackle Rene Harrop
Porcupine Quill PMD Myles TenBroek Fairbanks, Alaska
Last Chance Cripple Rene Harrop Loop Wing Biot Spinner Verne Lehmberg
PMD Spinner Shane Stalcup Style
Flyfisher Autumn 2011 - Winter 2012
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C o n s e r v i n g , R e s t o r i n g , E d u c a t i n g T h r o u g h F l y F i s h i n g sm
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