Nothing
Published Sep 20th 2006
But a small emerger
Have you also experienced the perfect evening by a lovely stream? The trout are rising, it is cooling down and the sun is painting the clouds and sky using a palette in gold, red and purple?
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+  Nothing |
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You are more than prepared. And yet, the trout refuse your flies time after time and they are clearly feeding on something hard to see.
Are they taking emergers? You tie one on, and they look at it but still refuse to take.
You need something small and maybe emerger-like. Something, which is almost not there. You need to attach Nothing to the tippet.
I have been in that situation in the Czech Republic, Colorado, Italy and last time on the banks of a Danish stream. Finally I concluded that I had to bring Noting with me, where ever I went - and I wish I done that a long time ago. When Les Austin gave me a bunch of hooks, I started tying.
It is just a tiny emerger made with CDC to make it float well. You can make your own variant by varying the color, adding a short tail of antron, a parachute hackle, a rear body made of a quill or whatever you fancy... The small size and the loop wing is the key to the efficiency of this fly.
The point is that it is a good idea to bring a very small fly, just in case. Here is the step-by-step instruction:
Nothing
Materials
| Hook | Dry or emerger, size 22-28 |
| Thread | Spiderweb |
| Thorax | cdc-dubbing, grey/olive/black |
| Wing | cdc-feather tied as a loop wing, grey/white/olive |
Tying instructions
- Attach the thread
- Dub the Thorax. Be careful not to use too much material.
- Tie in a CDC-feather. Pull it towards the hook bend. Stop when 3-5 mm of the feather is still in front of the hook eye.
- Make a few locking turns.
- Cut off the point of the feather.
- Wind the thread a little bit towards the hook bend.
- Dub sparsly with CDC.
- Make the CDC-feather come forward forming a loop.
- Lock it loosely with the tying thread.
- Pull it over the hook eye, forming a nice little loop.
- Lock it with the tying thread.
- Cut off the excess.
- Whip finish.
