The 'Godfather' Emerger Fly

Pictured above is the Godfather Emerger Fly

There is beauty in simplicity and the traditional soft-hackle wet fly is quite simply, beautiful. In its bareness, in the liveliness of its soft hackle fibers it suggests all that seems necessary to tempt fish. Because of its simplicity it's also one of the deadliest patterns for trout and bass. 

My good friend and consummate fly angler "JM" created this pattern.  He currently resides in South Central Pennsylvania and gets to fish fabled waters in his "back yard" such as the Little Juniata River and Spruce Creek.  He is the 'Capo di tutti capi' or quite literally the "boss of all bosses" and the defacto leader of the Dirtbag Flyfishing Posse.  I'll let him tell you all about this excellent fly:




















JM with a 20+ inch Madison River Brown Trout taken on a "Godfather Emerger"

"I love to fish wet flies!  Some of my best fishing in some of the streams in North Central Pennsylvania has been when I was swinging wets on the freestones like Pine Creek, Kettle Creek, or the Sinnamahoning.  There is something enticing about wet flies to trout...it could be the down and across presentation, the appearance of a bug getting away when the flies get to the end of the swing, or just the general attractor qualities wet flies provide.  My personal favorite styles of wet flies are soft hackles.  Simple in appearance and construction, they are deadly when the fish are chasing emergers, and when fished slowly in the film, they even take on the appearance of a crippled emerger stuck in the shuck, or even a spinner.  Either way, they are fun to fish, and in true "Old School" tradition, I like to fish at least two of them at a time. (Well, almost old school, I don't do too good fishing a gang of three, even though that is the way the old timers I used to fish did it!)

The Pheasant Tail soft hackle is my favorite soft hackle patterns.  I have fished it during caddis hatches, and used it to catch fish during Hendrickson, Red Quill, and Sulpher hatches.  (I also fish a sulpher soft hackle to meet this hatch that is even easier to tie than the Pheasant Tail).  I tend to fish them in a little larger sizes from #10-#16, but tend to fish alot of #12 and #14's  Given this flies slender body and small profile in the water, tying them a little larger than the emerging natural doesn't seem to bother the trout at all.  This is an easy pattern to tie, and as deadly as any subsurface fly I fish.  I like to tie with alot of natural materials, and concentrate on pheasant tail, peacock herl and hare's ear dubbing to fill most of my needs for wets and nymphs.  This fly uses two of those materials and covers a pretty good spectrum of emerger colors.  Pheasant tail soft hackles might not look exactly like a particular bug, but look enough like alot of bugs keep me fishing them.  Try tying one on a dropper about 36 inches above a nymph, and you will covered the lower water column in most of the freestoners in the Twin Tiers."

JM's Soft Hackle Fishing Story:

"Three years ago on opening day, I fished with my Mother in the upper end of the special reg. area of Kettle Creek.  We like the water there...not too big, but some good pockets.  We rigged up at the car and started down the bank to the water.  I had a brand new Sage VT-2 rod that I was going to cast for the first time on this day, and was pretty happy to be out.  On my leader I had two flies.....a soft hackle Hare's Ear, and a soft hackle Pheasant Tail.  I helped my mother down off the bank, and our plan was to cross the stream and fish back at road from the other side.  As we stepped off the bank, I told her I wanted to cast where we would wade.....just in case.  

I stripped off about 8-10 feet of fly line and made a half-assed roll cast at this shallow riffle we were walking towards.  BAM...fish on.  That fast.  I had to hand mom her rod and get some line reeled in.  This fish was really tugging, and seemed to be running in circles right in front of me.  It felt like a good fish.....almost too good of a fish.  As I got some line in, and got close to the bank, I realized I had a DOUBLE!  Yep, that's right...two trout, on the first cast of the season with a brand spanking new rod!  And the flies........you gotta believe it!!!  SOFT HACKLES!"

I hope you fish this fly and have the success I've enjoyed with them!  - JM

 

























I used a Godfather Emerger to catch this wonderful 14" wild brown on Spring Creek in Bellefonte, PA - Dave