|
Double trigger
JOHN GODDARD's new style of
emerger has already achieved a success rate beyond
the author's wildest dreams
At the beginning of last season I was fishing on the
upper Test on a day when the trout were being a little
difficult, so I decided to try a pattern called a
Klinkhamer - an excellent pattern which has earned
a reputation for catching trout worldwide.
On this particular day, whilst it provided me with
a few nice fish, I found in practice that several
trout rose and looked at it, but refused to take it.
This set me thinking, and the following weekend found
me at the fly-tying bench, looking at possible alternatives.
Over the next few weeks, I evolved a pattern that
looked promising and, although it was based on the
aforementioned pattern - which, in effect is meant
to represent the various species of upwinged flies
emerging at the surface, it was, in fact, very different.
I am a great believer in incorporating trigger-points
when designing artificials, so concentrated on this
aspect. As my pattern was meant to imitate olive duns
emerging at the surface, I felt that an important
trigger could be the addition of material at the tail
to represent part of the empty shuck from which the
insect was emerging. The other trigger I fancied was
the way the natural's spread their wings when trying
to emerge from the shuck. One of the most popular
and effective patterns in recent years has been that
great fly, the Grey Wulff, designed by the late Lee
Wulff. This incorporated split or vee-shaped hair-wings,
tied facing forwards over the eye, a feature or trigger
which must account for its great success. It is a
feature that I included in one of my earlier flies,
the Poly May Dun, which has also proved to be a killing
pattern.
I therefore decided that vee-shaped hair-wings must
be included in my new pattern. This, however, created
a major problem, because I found that as soon as I
tied the parachute hackle around these it closed them
into a single posted wing. To the best of my knowledge
no one has tried to tie a parachute hackle around
a split wing so I had nothing to guide me. Eventually,
with the help of my friend John Smith, one of the
top fly dressers in the UK, we overcame the problem
by forming a short post at the base of these wings
to take the hackle and then splitting the wings into
a vee shape with a figure-of-eight tying at the top
of the post. In addition to this, I decided upon a
much slimmer ribbed body in olive green, which was
closer to the appearance of the naturals. The shuck
at the tail I formed from 'Blond Fly Fur' which is
wonderfully translucent and is now freely available,
as it is the same material used to form the wing in
the famous saltwater bonefish fly called the "Gotcha".
This, tied in sparsely, makes a very lifelike looking
shuck. I decided to use light grey calf tail for the
wings, which is closer to the colour of the wings
of the naturals, and to finish the pattern with a
grizzle hackle tied in parachute style around the
wing root.
During the latter half of last season I fished this
new pattern extensively and it proved to be highly
killing indeed - but I found that it was still rejected
by the odd trout that inspected it carefully. Early
this season I noticed that the grizzle hackle and
light grey wings made the fly look a little conspicuous
on the surface, so I dressed some with a dark grey
hackle and dark grey wings and the fly has now exceeded
my wildest dreams.
The first time I used this pattern in its new dressing
style was on the little river Dever, on an outing
with Bernard Cribbins - he was fishing while I was
taking photographs. This was towards the end of the
Mayfly (Greendrake) fortnight when the trout, as often
happens, were sated on this big Ephemerid. The river
was completely dead, with not a rise in sight. I gave
him one of the new patterns to try and suggested we
look for trout hopefully on the fin, rather than look
for any rises. Before lunch Bernard hooked and released
seven lovely brown trout that we had spotted, all
over three pounds apiece. The interesting aspect of
this was that none of these trout were really 'on
the fin'; all of them were lying close to the bottom
and did not appear to be feeding. Yet, in nearly every
case, the fish rose to take the new fly with confidence.
Although I developed this pattern ostensibly for trout,
we have now discovered it is also very effective indeed
for big grayling. After lunch on that same day, we
found a few fish rising and - although we were fishing
for trout - we accidently hooked and released several
very big grayling, one of which was close to two pounds.
Since then on many occasions I have found that this
new pattern seems to have an astonishing ability to
bring fish up when the river appears to be absolutely
dead . In June this season I was fishing the river
Anton and after lunch there was neither a rise nor
even a trout to be seen. Finally, in desperation,
late in the afternoon I decided to blind-cast along
a short stretch of the river that I knew held a few
good trout; within the next hour I had risen, landed
and released five super trout. In each case the fly
had been taken readily, and with such positive risese
that the trout had almost hooked themselves. In fact,
I must admit the final fish I caught was by accident:
the fly had just drifted past me and I was looking
down to wind the line onto the reel when I heard a
fish rise almost opposite me. I thought this was strange,
as I had not seen a single rise all afternoon. I started
to retrieve the line and fly in order to cover the
rise, when I realised the rise must have been to my
fly as the trout had hooked himself on the slack line
and was charging off down the river.
Another facet of this new pattern which I also find
astonishing is the complete confidence the trout show
when taking it. Over the last 40 years or so I have
on many, many occasions watched a trout rise to a
fly and then drift downstream with it balanced on
the end of its nose obviously examining it closely
before deciding whether or not to accept. When this
happens it has been my experience that at least 70
per cent of these trout refuse to take. So far this
season I have had upwards of a couple of a dozen trout
do this yet, in nearly every case, they have accepted
my fly and been hooked.
In late June this season I was fishing on the Upper
Test with my fishing friend Max King both using the
new Dun when between us we caught and released several
big browns and also over 60 grayling, most of which
were large - between a pound and a quarter and a pound
and a half. Again, in my experience big grayling are
not normally tempted by dry flies until late in the
season so I was really impressed bythe fly's latest
performance.
Finally, I feel I should also point out that - again
much to my surprise - the fly has proved to be incredibly
effective during the evening rise. These days I seldom
stop to fish an evening rise except on one stretch
of river which I am priviledged to be invited to fish
two or three times each season. This stretch holds
some big trout, but has a reputation for difficult
fish, particularly during the evening rise. Over many
years I have failed to catch more than one or two
trout during an evening here, and I have also had
many blanks. The first evening I fished there this
season I tried all the normal patterns - small Duns,
Spinners and Sedges - all to no avail. Halfway through
the rise, in desperation, I decided to try the new
pattern dressed on the smaller hook. Bingo! Before
the rise was over I had taken five magnificent brown
trout, all between three and seven pounds. Even more
astonishing was the fact that two of these fish took
on the second or third cast. My guest who accompanied
me - an excellent dry fly fisher - unfortunately had
a blank. At the time I did wonder if it may have been
luck, but on my second visit to the water, which occurred
recently, I experienced almost a repeat performance,
taking four lovely browns while, again, my guest blanked.
| JG
Emerger |
|
Hook:
|
Curved Kamasan
B100, size 14 or 16 |
| Silk: |
Brown |
| Shuck: |
Blond Fly
Fur, half length of body |
| Rib: |
Veniard
fine gold tinsel No. 14 |
|
Body:
|
Dressed
slim, with olive Antron body wool |
| Wing: |
Dark grey
dyed calf tail, split into vee shape facing forward
(available through Veniards) |
|
Hackle:
|
Dark grey
good quality cock tied in parachute style, at
least six turns to float the fly. |
Note: I have now discovered that dressed
with an orange body it is equally effective to represent
blue-winged olive duns when they are hatching.
This fly is featured in John Goddard's new book on
fly patterns, The Trout-Fly Patterns of John Goddard,
which is to be launched on October 30 by Creel Press.
A pictorial tying sequence, tying instructions, and
the essentials of presentation of the JG Emerger appear
in the full article featured in the November 2003
issue of FF&FT.
|

A shuck and a split-wing
are the essential triggers of the JG Emerger.

A nice brownie which fell for
the new pattern.
|