Hook Size: 14
The Gray Winged Yellow Quill mayfly emerger is a trout fly that imitates the nymph changing to a dun. It looks a little more like the nymph than the dun. It imitates the nymph accenting from the bottom to the surface of the water. The CDC wing should float flush with the surface skim.
Like the Quill Gordon, the Gray-winged Yellow Quill nymph changes to a dun on or near
the bottom of the stream and rises to the surface of the water with open wings that are
sloped back near the abdomen of the dun. They don’t stand upright until they have dried
but this only takes a very short time. During the hatch, a wet fly (our emerging adult)
imitation of the dun rising to the surface of the water to dry its wings, works great.
Presentation:
Remember that the duns are not hatching in the fast water. They are hatching in the
slower water which is usually pockets behind larger rocks and boulders – not the slower
water such as found in pools. You want to cast it in the pocket inside of one of the current
seams formed where the slower water of the pocket meets the fast water coming around
the boulder. Allow the current to take the fly downstream. One way to do this, is to
approach the boulders or other obstruction in the water moving upstream, making short
cast placing the fly into the inside edges of the pockets in the current seams.
Another way, and the best way, is to make a short up and across presentation in the
pocket and allow the fly to drift downstream in the current seam. This usually requires
that you mend you line to get the fly down and to keep a drag free drift. Stay as close to
the pocket as possible and try to keep as much of your line off of the water as you can.
This helps to keep a drag free drift.
Remember, a fly should drift drag free where ever you present it – on the surface or
under the water. Don’t be guilty of thinking that just because you are fishing a wet fly, that
it can be brought through the water differently than the dun would drift downstream and
rise to the surface. When the fly gets downstream from your position, stop the rod and
allow the fly to rise to the surface in the current seam. When it reaches the surface,
recast it a little upstream of your previous cast and repeat the same thing.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
