Help with CDC Emerger...

jerseygeorge

jerseygeorge

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Mar 25, 2007
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Guys-

I hope the picture does justice to the Sulpher Emerger in the photo below. It is store bought and has a very dense CDC wing, packed with a ton of fibre. Below are three olive emrgers representing my three best attempts to replicate it. Yes, I am filling up my Olive box right now and I am trying to tie it in 16 and 18. When I get done I will make sulphers in 16 and 14.

I am not happy with my flies at all.

The sulpher emerger is an awesome fly, and well tied. I have tried like the dickens and I can not get the same amount of fibers on the fly as the commercial tier did. That emerger has twice the CDC fiber that I can get on a fly. If I simply lash more material on top, I don't see how I will get the top wing to stand upright.

I tried:

Fly on left, tying in 6 CDC puffs. That only resulted in about half the fibers in the Sulpher.

Lightly lashing three relatively large type 4 CDC feathers on top, pulling them to the correct length, and tying them in. That left center stems in the middle. As you know CDC stems are quite useless, and it only had about 30% of the fibers in the top fly.

Fly on right, using the Mariat CDC tool with two large type 4 feathers. Again only about half of the fiber.

All flies were tied comparadun style, with the feather forward, then I tied them upright with thread and dubbing dam.

Anyone have any suggestions, or know any of the techniques used in the sulpher?

JG
 

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  • emerger1.jpg
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They look good to me very fishable! Perhaps try a bubble wing cdc

http://www.youtube.com/user/DavieMcPhail#p/u/62/_u3zKXvbVUc
 
I can't tell exactly what is shadow and what is CDC but I would use about half that much CDC...they look good.
 
They look like oiler puffs to me. They are the best, and highest floating cdc feathers (they are right next to the oil gland/cloaka).
 
I'll take the bad one's off of you Jersey. No use in fishing those "horrible" looking flies lol.

Try different types of cdc, they all work and look different. Also test yours out, toss them in a cup of water and see what they look like. Might not need that much material after all.
 
thats plenty of cdc for a size 16-18 or even 14 or even 12 fly , they will float fine
 
Thanks for the kind comments about my CDC ties, but I figured it out. The Sulpher in the pic is one that a friend and I call the Iverson Emerger. We take no pride in designing it, and do not know of any other name than just "sulpher CDC emerger".

This picture hopefully explains the inspiration for the name we gave this fly.

alleniversonafro.png


To the best of my knowledge it is the first fly named after a sports star. Let me rephrase that. To the best of my knowledge this is the first fly named after a person that plays in sports.

That little sulpher has been a very good producer, yes with it's big head full of hair, way more than we typically dress a CDC fly with.

So I wanted to tie a bunch up (sulphers) but since I was filling the box of olives I wanted to tie some 16's and 18's in olives also.

My previous post explains the difficulties I encountered. But I kept experimenting and figured it out, it is an easy wing to make, and a quick tie. I dubbed a kind of thick thorax on this fly, but the way it is tied I can make the thorax very slender also. The CDC adds very little to the bulk of the fly. It just sits on top! This is a relatively easy tie (zlon shuck, biot body, CDC, and some dubbing). In addition to it's fish catching ability, this is a very visible fly, even in 18's!

Here is the end result, my CDC Baetis Iverson Emerger.

p3110001i.jpg
 
Nice fly!
 
George,

Have you considered using snowshoe? It might work pretty well for that pattern.
 
Nice flys! They all look pretty good to me. I would agree that you might not need the full CDC fro to get the float you want, but it looks like you worked it out.
In the great minds think alike category ;-) I have been tying a bunch of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXV2lwTpMZs
Not as easy as Davey makes it look, but a lot of fun to tie. I'm guessing the bubble will provide plenty of float, but still allow the emerger to sink and rise.
 
Jerseygeorge,

Very nice ties! Love the name. I have to say, though it's old school, I might have gone with the Doctor J fly (famous fro, j-shaped hook).

I have a question, but it's regarding the biot body: why are many dries with biot bodies tied with the ridge sticking out? I know on this one the body is the nymphal portion of the emerger and the ridges could be gills. But I see spinners tied the same way. I can't think of a mayfly with ridges like that. Now, tying the biot the other way (flat) gives a nice segmented look.

Any thoughts?
 
by jayL on 2010/3/11 21:31:10

George,

Have you considered using snowshoe? It might work pretty well for that pattern.
Click to expand...

I use snowshoe for my BWO emergers.. they are easier to tie than cdc imo and still look great.
 
FlySwatter wrote:
Jerseygeorge,

Very nice ties! Love the name. I have to say, though it's old school, I might have gone with the Doctor J fly (famous fro, j-shaped hook).

I have a question, but it's regarding the biot body: why are many dries with biot bodies tied with the ridge sticking out? I know on this one the body is the nymphal portion of the emerger and the ridges could be gills. But I see spinners tied the same way. I can't think of a mayfly with ridges like that. Now, tying the biot the other way (flat) gives a nice segmented look.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...


Nice fly JG. I would guess that a wing made of snowshoe or even poly yarn would work too. I love to use CDC, since it is very life-like but it's expensive and sinks when slimed up from a fish. I like poly best since you can gunk it up with floatant. Showshoe floats well on it's own, but when it gets slimed up I dry it off and use floatant on it too.


FlySwatter,

I feel exactly as you do about how biots are tied in (I doubt that the fish really care though). For nymphs I tie biots ridge out to simulate gills. For emergers, duns and spinners, I cover the ridge for a smooth segmented body.
 
Quic,k reply, running for a flight.... Yes Jay, the next batch are going to be snowshoe. Actually I saw a video or something online where a guy shows how to split a rabbits foot in half, and where the best fiber is on the underside. I went out and got a dun colored foot, but don't recall the video yet. When I get home I will tie some up.

He did something with the rabbit hair that allowed me to figure this out. He cut some, and put it on the bench. Then cut some more. He made a stack, but alternated tip, butt, tip. We are always used to aligning the tips. He then tied it in the middle. That is how I made this fly. Alternating the tips and butts in a messy little pile of stripped CDC. Then lashing the pile down, putting a few parachute wraps around the pile, then trimming the CDC. Very simple, just took a while to figure out.

The reason for the biot bodies like that is THAT I ALWAYS DID IT LIKE THAT!!! Thank you, now I will be standing streamside, not catching squat, and wondering if it is my stinking BIOTS inside out!! LOL

Thanks for the comments guys. Gotta run catch that flight.
 
Jerseygeorge,

Sorry, dude. I didn't mean to cause any cognitive dissonance.

If it helps, think of the biot on your emerger as the nymph portion and the thorax & CDC wing as the adult.

Safe flight.
 
George,

My guess is that the little ridges on the biot are way less conspicuous than the giant metal pointed rod coming out of the fly's ***. Sometimes we can delude ourselves into believing the trout are more observant than we think.

That's my stance on it. :)
 
JayL,

If trout like emergers b/c they are volnerable, then by extraploation they will like an impailed fly even more! ;-)
 
I've been using snowshoe for the past few years on comparaduns and emergers such as we are speaking of. I really like how the hair looks on the water as a foot print and the durability of the fly. Yeas the best hair is the under foot. The foot lasts for quite a few flies too. I also use a biot body tied with the smooth side out.
They are my go to flies for caddis and mayfly emergances.
Top water fishing is just around the corner.
 
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