Trico Girl Emerger

Submitted by Jay Hall

Hook: TMC 2487 #22 or equiv. scud/emerger  eg.DaiRiki 125 etc.

Thread: Olive 12/0 under abdomen, Black 12/0 at head

Tail: a few fibers of clear of light dun High Vis or Para post

Abdomen: Quill from light olive hackle

Post: Chartreuse Para post

Thorax: mix of dun and black fine dubbing

Tying Instructions: Wind olive thread from mid shank to a third of the way down the bend.  Tie in a few High Vis fibers as a tail, and clip to about ½ “.  Tie in a moistened quill stripped from a light olive hackle feather.  Advance the thread to about a 1/16” behind the eye and tie in a small bunch of chartreuse Parachute post fibers.  Cinch them down with 2-3 turns of thread, and then pull the ends up together and form a parachute post.  Coat the abdomen thread with a little head cement or thin Zap a Gap and wind the quill forward to the post.  Take care not to hit the hook point with the quill.  They’re pretty fragile.  Tie off the quill at the base of the post.  At this point I do a 3 turn whip finish and switch to black thread.  Tie in a darkish blue dun hackle and finger blend a little grey and black very fine dry fly dubbing to get a charcoal color.  Twist dub it onto the thread and build a small bump of a thorax around the base of the post.  Wind the parachute hackle and tie off into thorax.  Clip the post short and put a small dab of head cement down into the fibers.  This will help to anchor the hackle to the post.

Comments: This pattern has evolved through several changes this summer, while trying to match the female trico’s that I observed emerging very early in the a.m. on hot summer mornings.