AB's Polychenille:
Brun's Vulgata emerger
How to tie a realistic low riding E.vulgata emerger.
(It is fair to say here that when I talk about realistic flies, I mean important characteristics, or the right traits of the insect in a particular stage of the hatch, if you'd like. Not a photo of the fly.). Below you'll see a dark and a lighter tan colour variation for the Ephemera vulgata (or use tan og cream AB's Polychenille for the E.danica as an example).
This design can be tied to imitate any of the larger species. So go ahead and develope your own colour variation. See the simple step by step tying instructions below.
| Brun's Vulgata Emerger, LIGHT | |
| Hook | : Mustad C49S, # 12 |
| Thread | : UNI 8/0, tan |
| Tails | : Ostrich herl, tan |
| Body | : AB's Polychenille, tan |
| Thorax | : Dubbed CdC, tan |
| Legs | : Micro Round Rubber, dun, tan, dark gray etc. |
| Wing | : Fly Foam, tan |
| Brun's Vulgata Emerger, DARK | |
| Hook | : Mustad C49S, # 12 |
| Thread | : UNI 8/0, olive |
| Tails | : Ostrich herl, olive |
| Body | : AB's Polychenille, Olive Dun |
| Thorax | : Dubbed CdC, olive |
| Legs | : Micro Round Rubber, dun, tan, dark gray, olive etc. |
| Wing: | : Fly Foam, tan or olive |
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TYING INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Fasten a piece of AB's Polychenille in the vice.
In this example I am using an Olive Dun colour for my dark variation.
(Some places they are darker, over in the olive hues, and some places
they are more of a tan, sandy like colour.)
2. Make some snug wraps just behind the jaws of the vice, as a
fundament for the Ostrich herl tails. The thread will not slip off.
4. Tie in three or four olive, or olive dun, ostrich herl tips on top of the
AB's Polychenille with a couple of loose wraps. Split the tails by pulling
them apart with your fingers before putting pressure on the thread.
Then make some firm wraps.
Whip finish and cut off the thread. Drop a small amount of head cement
or super glue on to the thread base with your dubbing needle.
As tailing material you may use whatever you prefer for your own vulgata
imitations, or other species in your river or lake, whether it's ostrich,
pheasant tail fibres or other splendid materials.
5. Dubb some gray or olive gray CdC onto the thread.
To do this, just tear some fibres of the CdC hackle stem and dub.
TIP: Use the less than great CdC feathers you've got, or CdC leftovers
for your dubbing work. This way you don't have to waste anything. Just use
the different feathers for different purposes: Good feathes for hackle and
wings, bad feathers for dubbing.
6. Wrap a rough CdC body just a short bit up the hook shanks. This is
going to be the fundament for the extended body.
7. Tie in the extended body with some snug wraps as shown on the photo.
8. Continue forward with the tying thread in open turns and with firm
pressure to secure the AB's Polychenille as shown. Make some wraps
at the last ribbing in front.
9. Clip of the excess.
10. Now, just reposition the hook in the vise so that the hook shank
towards the eye is in level (just for easy tying).
11. Now you are going to tie in the rubber legs. And it can be easy, if you
do it like this: First you tie all six legs on top of the hook shank - all pointing
forward.
12. Then clip of the excess.
13. Then spin some CdC dubbing onto the thead.
Wrap the first round close to the AB's Polychenille body.
You are going to make a rough thorax of an emerging insect, so don't be
that nit-picking. A roughly dubbed thorax is good for this particular fly and
will make a perfect lifelike imitation.
14. And for each wrap or so of dubbing, you pull back one rubber leg at a
time and secure it with a firm wrap of the dubbed tying thread.
It's a very fine and fast technique I developed for managing those shivering
rubber legs, and you really get the feeling of perfect control when doing it
like this. Many tiers have embraced this technique over the years because
it makes rubber legs easy.
15. Tie in a slice of foam at the front of the thorax as shown.
Just a bit wider than the actual thorax of the fly.
16. Trim the foam with your scissors: The end pointing backwards should
be the length of the thorax, and the end pointing forward is just forming a
small head section. I am not tying down the front section of the foam as
this will only diminish the floatability.
A finished DARK vulgata emerger
A LIGHT coloured vulgata emerger
Ephemera vulgata emerger