I met author and blogger Matt Grobert at The Fly-Fishing Show in Somerset, New Jersey, a couple years ago. He seems like a nice enough, regular guy, but you would peg him as a fly-tying genius. The more I watch him tie in these videos from from Tightline Productions, however, the more impressed I am by both his technique and his innovation. This mayfly-emerger pattern features the same “rabbit twist” of rabbit fur and peacock herl that he used on Matt’s Gnat a couple weeks ago to create an extremely buggy, suggestive fly. The “tent wingcase” created by pinching a single segment of goose feather is a great way to suggest that the emerger is ready to hatch.
In this great video Grobert offers several great tying tricks, such as tying in the goose segment on the side of the hook and allowing the thread torque to move it to the top, as well as using upwardthread pressure to lock the feather segment down without crushing it. The focus and clarity of these videos is remarkable, and I encourage you to watch them in HD at full screen to get the most our of them.
Hendrickson Cloud Emerger
Hook: 2X-short emerger hook (here, a Dai-Riki 125), sizes 12-14.
Thread: Olive, 6/0.
Tail: 4-6 hackle feathers.
Shuck: Mayfly-brown Zelon.
Abdomen: Rusty brown Australian possum.
Wingcase: Goose primary quill.
Thorax: Peacock herl and natural snowshoe rabbit’s foot, in a waxed
dubbing loop.
Head: Tying thread.
Note: You can imitate many other mayfly emergers by changing the
colors and hook size.
Correction to the above recipe: the wingcase is goose primary quill, and the thorax is as described under Wingcase. Also, in the past year I have done quite using this pattern in olive sizes #18 and 20 during BWO hatches.
Thanks for the kind words, Phil.
Tight Lines,
Matt