FLYMPH FORUM

Just curious: Do any of you folks swing emergers? If so, do you use the same techniques as when you swing
soft-hackle flies?

Thanks,
Randy

By emergers I mean traditional, non-soft-hackle, emergers, e.g. CDC emergers.

By swinging I mean casting upstream or three-quarters downstream, as Old Hat described.

Randy

Interesting ... I've never thought of CDC anything as being "traditional", but since "emergers" as a pattern genre are relatively recent, I suppose the use of CDC on them could be considered traditional. In any case, since emergers are supposed to represent either newly hatched insects and/or those in the process of hatching, they ought to behave as such and move at the mercy of the currents. A well-mended swing can certainly mimic that condition.

tie2fish wrote:Interesting ... I've never thought of CDC anything as being "traditional", but since "emergers" as a pattern genre are relatively recent, I suppose the use of CDC on them could be considered traditional. In any case, since emergers are supposed to represent either newly hatched insects and/or those in the process of hatching, they ought to behave as such and move at the mercy of the currents. A well-mended swing can certainly mimic that condition.

Leon Links has written a book on CDC and he writes about Marc Petitjean who has done research about the origin of the use of CDC for Fly tying:
the first use as such must be around 1920 by Charles Bickel and Maximilien Joset, who lived in the Swiss Jura. So they are not as traditional as spiders but pretty traditinal I think.

Here in the Netherlands we had not heard of CDC untill 1980.

Greeting


Ruard

In that case, I haven't. Not that it wouldn't catch a few fish, I just think there are probably better patterns suited for emerging insects in the swing. I would think the emergers you are describing would not be as lively as I would like.

Randy, try it- if it works- use it.
There is no "correct' answer and sometimes it take a bit of out of the square thinking to trigger new responses. OK, maybe if you were fishing with Marjan Fratnik you might want to try for a different presentation, but in my small way of thinking- there is no reason you could not drift your emerger cast upstream , until the line draws near right angle to you, give the line a sharp small strip to jerk the fly under the surface and swing it downstream as a cripple Dun or drowned emerger.
If tied as a true emerger on a light wire hook, odds are it is not going to sink very deep and may not give you a nice "Leisenring lift" at the end of the swing that a more true flymph might- but the flymph might not do as well presented upstream either.
There are patterns and styles of fly that (in my opinion) might do what you are asking better- but there is nothing to say an across & down presented cdc emerger will not take fish.

Personally I often drift and swing (as described above) two dry fly patterns here with some success. The Cochybondhu and the Greenwell's Glory.

Hey Randy. I'm assuming the type of emergers you're referring to are best suited to sight casting to rising fish or to some rise form indicative of emergers in the area. A downstream swing seems like an inappropriate presentation for that type of fly. Flies that become mobile/active during a longer drift may actually emerge if presented well, swung if you like that method. I'm biased to soft hackles for that purpose. Most emergers I've seen on all the other sites and mags and shops etc seem to be designed to be drifted under a dry or indicator. It seems more disruptive than productive to swing this combo in my mind.

That being said, the right fish at the right time may surprise you. A gorgeous brown I took earlier this summer hit a cdc and elk that turned soggy. I did intentionally swing that fly into the prime holding position and it got hammered. All the entomology speculation would carry on about ovipositing caddis or rising caddis. Could be, but I think the food source arrived in the right place at the right time in the right way.

Please, please swing some emergers and report back. Any information can only help. Presentation can get muddy, so I like to see pat answers overturned. =)

Nice question.