BWO Emerger

This Blue Wing Olive emerger pattern comes from Fly Fish Food, a great spot to learn new patterns and get great fly-tying supplies! It is relatively quick and easy to tie.

Begin with a dry fly hook with a glass bead behind the hook eye. Using olive thread, start behind the bead and take the covering wraps back to the hook bend. Take a piece of the same kind of thread and wrap it around your bobbin thread, and secure it to the hook back to the hook bend. This will be used to help separate the tails. I like using three moose hairs for the tails as they are slightly stiff. Measure them to about half the hook shank length and tie them in on the center-top of the hook shank back to the hook bend. Next, tie in a piece of black, brassie-size wire for the ribbing.

With your thread at the hook bend, tightly dub some olive, Superfine dubbing for the abdomen. Beginning at the hook bend, take wraps towards the hook eye, ending about two-thirds up the hook shank. Depending on the thickness of your dubbing rope, some wraps might need to overlap to create a tapered abdomen. Next, take open wraps of the black wire up the abdomen to make a nice ribbing. Secure the wire and break it off.

For the wing case, use a wider piece of pearl Flashabou. Secure it to the center-top of the hook with the length projecting back towards the hook bend. I turn to Awesome Possum olive dubbing for the thorax to get a buggier look. Dub the thorax, making sure it is pronounced and thicker in diameter than the abdomen. Finish the thorax with a bit of space remaining behind the bead.

For the legs, use a light dun CDC feather. Strip off the feather's bottom fibers, then grasp it by the tip and stroke the longer fibers backward. Cut off the exposed tip and stroke the remaining fibers back forward. Straddle the feather over the top center of the hook with legs on each side and take a couple of wraps to secure the feather. With the stem, pull back to shorten the fibers, if needed, until they extend just beyond the thorax and remove the excess.

Now, dub on just a little more of the Awesome Possum and take wraps to push back the CDC legs, and cover the fly up to the glass bead. Whip finish the fly and remove the thread. Add just a tiny bit of UV resin over the exposed pearl Flashabou to make the fly pop. Once cured, the fly is finished and ready to hit the water.

[daverichards]

Hi lovely little pattern
May I ask what size hook and glass bead do you use please?
Thank you