Hook Size: 12/14
The Perfect Fly Western March Brown Emerger with trailing shuck is an excellent imitation of the actual emerger as it sheds its skin near the surface of the water as it changes into a dun. It looks more like the dun than the nymph. The fly should be fished just under the surface or in the surface skim.
The early hatches usually occur during the warmest part of the day, from 1:00
PM to 4:00 PM. The summer hatches usually occur during mid-day. The late
summer, early fall hatches usually occur during the warmest part of the day like
the early hatches.
Like the nymphs, imitations of the emerging March Brown imitations should be
tried before the dun imitation Often the trout will take the emergers when they will
not take the duns. It depends on the time of the year, the particular stream and
the particular Rhithrogena species. In the colder water normal during the early
part of the season the trout may take wet imitations fished well below the surface.
Later in the season, you may try fishing the imitations near the surface, but don’t
waste a lot of time trying if you are not getting good results.
Presentation:
Since the nymphs migrate to the slower moving, calmer water near their fast
water habitat, those are the areas you should concentrate on. You should fish
the emerger with a dead drift using an on the swing type presentation. I use
short, up and across cast in the current seams of the fast/slow water conjunction.
Try to move along in an upstream direction. The hatches are usually more
scattered and not highly concentrated.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
