FishingEnthusiast.com's July Fly of the Month: Emergent Sparkle Pupa

July 2011

FishingEnthusiast.com’s

Fly of the Month

Emergent Sparkle Pupa

Excerpted from the book: Trout Flies, Proven Patterns. By Gary LaFontaine

What is my most original creation? On four points, the Emergent Sparkle Pupa. Some sharp historian might find precedents for three of the points, the the fourth one, the most important, can safely be called an innovation (for obvious reasons). The technique of dubbing the underbody, the Touch Method, creates a sparser, fuzzier covering than any other method of dubbing. The trick of a 'loose' overbody is unusual even now. The Emergent, half in and half out of the water, is the first caddis pupa designed to mimic the hesitation of the escaping natural at the surface film.

The underbody has to be "touch" dubbed. The dubbing mix of half sparkle yarn and half fur is hand-cut in 1/8-inch lengths, and then blended together in a mixer. The tier holds a puff of this specially prepared dubbing and pats the waxed thread lightly. He wraps the thread on the hook shank. No other method of dubbing, - not noodle dubbing and not loop dubbing - creates such a sparse, fuzzy body.

The overbody, plies of sparkle yarn pulled forward to envelope the underbody, has to be loose and sparse. A size 10 hook uses a full ply of yarn on top and a full ply of yarn on the bottom on the shank. On smaller sizes the tier pulls more and more fibers off of the plies. Each ply is combed completely out and spread over the top or bottom half of the hook shank. The tier loosens the overbody with a scissors point or a dubbing needle (the puffed out "ball" fills half of the hook gap). For the final test the tier holds the finished fly up to the light. He should be able to see the underbody through the overbody; he shouldn't be able to see any light or solid bands of yarn.

^{Materials: Emergent Sparkle Pupa}

^{Hook:  6-20 (standard dry fly, TMC 100).}

^{Thread:  To match underbody.}

^{Overbody:  Sparkle yarn.}

^{Underbody:   Half sparkle yarn and half fur (a finely chopped dubbing blend).}

^{Wing:  Deer hair.}

^{Head:  Dubbed fur or wrapped marabou fibers.}

Happy Fishing!

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