The Denny Rickards emerger discussion

At this year's Sportsman Show, I found Denny Rickard to be a very
fascinating person, willing to give information and not hold back. I were
there listening intently at his booth taking about the emergers and fly
patterns, but I'll just touch on the important parts of our discussion.



The emerger is to imitate an adult caddis coming to the surface. It's to be
fished right below the surface 1 to 3" and fished very slowly with four to
six inch slow pulls on the line. Denny likes to fish the emergers close to
shore, and with a slow sinking line. He also likes the clear 5" or 7" tip
line. The reason with the slow sinking line is because it gives the emerger
pattern to act more natural instead of adding weight to the emerger on a
floating line, or worst yet a beaded nymph or beaded emerger. I did at that
point question Denny about beaded nymphs, and he replied; "Oh, that's for
you guys, I don't use them!" My next question is why don't you use beaded
nymphs? He held up one of the three beaded nymphs that I had in my cup and
asked where do you think this is going to go when in the water? I looked
puzzled, then he replied; "Right to the bottom!" It's not a natural
movement of any fly!" So I dumped back the three beaded nymphs in his
display box.



Denny has a lake just outside his front door to his home, so he takes the
time to understand hatches, and how the trout feed. He also asked me what
trout sees when a fly is on the surface during sunlight? I wasn't sure how
to answer and again looked puzzled.

He then grabbed the lamp behind him and held up a dry fly sort of off to the
side but before the lamp, then it became apparent that the trout sees a
silhouette. I think everyone should try this. In a semi dark room, hold up
a dry fly with a pair of tweezers off to the side of a lamp and observe how
it illuminates. This also explains Dave Whitlocks statement of most tied
flies he's seen are over patterned, and the theories of trout identify fly
patterns by size, action, pattern, and color. When there is no sunlight out,
Denny says trout will then consider color.



When I got home that evening of the show, I went through all my dry flies
with the silhouette effect of the lamp. I was pretty amazed on repeated
patterns. The one fly that stood out the most was the Light Cahill, nice
designed dry fly with a beautiful silhouette.



The emergers come up to the surface at a slight angle, but before while just
underneath the surface they travel in more of a parallel fashion, another
reason for the slow sinking line. The emerger patterns have to be tied
right, with just a very slight weight to them to allow them to sink just
below the surface, but not too heavy to sink any further. No more than 3".
Denny has done a lot of experimenting with his emerger patterns and found
the right combination. Most try to fish the emerger like a nymph, too deep
and also pull too fast, or dead drift the emerger which is also a mistake by
most anglers.



As I was taking to Denny, I noticed many anglers sort of butting in, which I
didn't mind at all, but found it humorous to see anglers try to impress
Denny on their angling skills.

And Denny sort of shrugged it off, not really caring. If I got anything out
of this year's Sportsman show, it would be how to fish the emerger, thanks
to Denny Rickard.

Fwiw,

-tom