Caddis Emerger

This is a nice Caddis emerger pattern tied on a Klinkhamer hook that allows the abdomen to ride below the surface while the elk hair wing provides the buoyancy to keep the thorax and emerging wing above the surface. Starting the thread about half way behind the hook eye of the flat surface of the hook, take wraps deep into the hook bend and return to the starting point. For ribbing, use a strand of LifeFlex - copper colored in this case - tied in at the starting point. Once secured well, tie over the top of the material while stretching it tight to keep it thin all the way into the hook bend where the abdomen is starting. Dub the thread with a tan UV Caddis Nymph dubbing, and build a nice buggy abdomen from deep in the hook bend back up to the starting point. Pulling tightly on the LifeFlex, take open wraps up the hook shank from the back of the abdomen to the starting point. This creates a visible rib on the fly. Remove the waste. Clean and stack a small bunch of elk hair to create the wing that will extend back over the top of the hook - tied in at the front of the abdomen. The length of the wing should be approximately back to where the hook bends. Once the elk hair is secured to the top of the hook and the individual, butt end fibers flared, angle the butt ends towards the hook eye and cut them off close. This will create a base that tapers toward the hook eye. Take several thread wraps over these but ends to create a ramp sloping towards the eye. Back at the base of the wing, tie in your hackle feather. Here I'm using a dark barred ginger feather. Size the feather one size smaller than needed for the hook size as it will be wrapped over dubbing down the slope. Use the same tan dubbing to dub the thorax ending about an eye length and a half behind the hook eye to give you space to finish the fly. Next, take open wraps of the hackle into the dubbed thorax until you are an eye length behind the eye. Secure the hackle and remove the waste. From here you can whip finish, and the fly is ready to go.