Jason Butcher

1-11-2005

I use the Al Troth Emerger to imitate the Gray Fox (Stenonema Fuscum) hatch. I like to tie them on a size 16 or 18(3xl shank) hook, and experiment on the color more and more every year. I always keep a brown antron “trailing shuck”, gold rib, deer (or elk) hair and hot orange thread, but the dubbing color (for me) varies. From what I’ve found, if you can keep the body a ginger-ish/light brown color you will be just fine, as this fly must be “seasoned” before it reaches full potential. When I say this, I mean that this fly gets better with every fish you catch on it. White drying powders used to dry off the fly (like Frogs Fanny) “seasons” the fly and will turn the fly the perfect color (that I just can not seem to “create” using dubbing).

The first time I used this fly was 3 years ago on the Elk River C&R. A buddy and I, who had just started to fly fish, stopped at the Trestle to start off the day. I was quietly fishing midges and he plumped down on the river, and stood in the riffles right above the Trestle and tied on (to quote him), “a fly his guide recommended to him, two weeks earlier on a guided trip”. This was my friend’s third or fourth fly fishing trip, and I was supposed to be “helping him out” due to his inexperience. His second cast, he had a fish on. I gave congratulations, watched him release the fish and turned back to casting. I no more than got my fly on the water and drifting right and I heard some commotion. I looked upstream to my buddy, and he had on another brown trout. He looks downstream and screams to me, “This fly really works”. I agreed, watched him land the fish, release it, and I went back to casting. Two seconds later, he has on another fish, so I walk up to check out this “fly” he was having so much success on.

When I first saw the pattern, I thought to myself… how simple… HOW BIG (since most of my Elk River success had come from fishing midges (and yellow worms, but that’s another story). He had six “of these flies”, so he gave me 2 and we spent the rest of the day catching fish after fish. It may be, to this day, the best day of dry fly fishing, in numbers of fish, I have ever had. By the end of the day, I had one fly left… that had been beat to death, and he had none. He walked up to his truck, and I decided to throw this fly a few more times… just to see if it was going to fall apart, and was still catching fish after fish. I looked up on the Trestle and saw this guy and his son watching me fish, and the first thing that he asked me was, “What are you using?” I told him what the fly looked like, but did not know the name. He stood on the trestle and watched me catch a few more fish and seemed amazed at how well this “fly” worked. I decided it was time to leave, so I walked out of the river and onto the Trestle to show this guy and his son the “fly” I was using. I took the fly off my line, gave it to this guy. He introduced himself, and this was the day that I met Shawn Fetter.

For the next two years, I did not know the name of that “fly” that had produced so well on the Elk River that memorable day. I called them “Elk River Emergers”, and was not informed until two years ago of their name. This fly is a “go-to fly” during the gray fox hatch. If you tie it a little larger, it can be used to imitate the Sulphur hatch that occurs a few weeks earlier in the year.