Emerging Sparkle Pupa   

Hook:   Daiichi 1150 # 14 - 16

Thread:   Dark Brown 6/0 - 8/0

Bubble: Daggy Dub Ryachopila Green

Body (first section): Antron Golden Olive

Body (second section): Scintilla Colour 15 Pale Yellowy Olive

Overwing: Dark Brown Deer Hair

Head: BuggyDub Dark Brown

1/ First off wrap a nice even base of thread starting from near the front of the hook and extending to your first tie in point. Unlike many other patterns we have tied in the past this one is simple it being broken up into thirds. One third one colour, one third another and one third head. Wrap thread right back until it is in the horizontal plane around the hook as shown.
2/ Take a small amount of your bubble ( or halo as it is sometimes called) fibres and tie in so that they protrude to the rear of the fly. Make these fibres pretty long to allow them to be easily pulled forward encasing the almost finished fly. Trim any excess and add a couple of thread wraps for strength and neatness.
3/ Now pinch off a small amount of your first dubbing, the Anton in the Golden Olive colour. Dub this quite tightly to the thread to get a nice even rope of dubbing as opposed to a tapered one. This fly is really a rough looking thing that endeavours to be highly suggestive of the caddis pupa so don't worry if your dubbing is a bit messy.
4/ Now have a look at the hook before winding it on. Mentally divide it into thirds and wrap a nice even section of dubbing to approximately the first one third of the hook. When you have done this remove any excess dubbing and return it to your packet (waste not want not) and move to the next step which is the second body section.
5/ Just as in the previous steps take a similar amount of the Scintilla Pale Yellowy Olive dubbing. Don't worry too much if the colours aren't exactly right as the bubble (halo) is the most important colour to get right. Dub a nice, neat non tapered rope ready to build the second section of body. When you can see something similar in your vice to the photo to the right move on to the next step.
6/ Now as in Step 4 wind a tight, neat body remembering the particular proportions of this pattern. To get a pretty even third of the hook simply divide the space left between where you are currently at and the hook eye. Wind the dubbing forward to this point and then remove any excess dubbing. Add an extra turn for strength.
7/ Now pull your bubble (halo) material forward and over the body you have just dubbed trying to get roughly an equal amount of fibres spread around the hook. Tie this in with 2-3 reasonably tight turns but not yet locking it in place for good. Hopefully you have left enough excess bubble material to play with as seen in the following photos.
8/ Find a dubbing needle, or any needle/pin/nail for that matter and tease the fibres out as shown. This is why we stressed leaving some extra length earlier in the bubble material and also why we wanted you to add 2-3 reasonably tight turns in Step 7. You need to be able to tease the material away from the hook to get a nice bubble over the body as shown.
9/ Now when satisfied that the fly looks right, see the photo for how it should be looking, tie in with 2-3 strong turns biting down hard and trapping the fibres in place. Trim any excess that you will no undoubtedly have and lay a flat base of thread ready to tie the deer hair in on.
10/ Select some deer hair fibres and stack them by holding loosely between your thumb and forefingers, and letting them gently fall until the tips evenly settle on your tying bench. Tie this in so that the deer hair extends out over and level with the rear of the fly as shown. Pinch hard when you tie it in so as to not let it spin. The nearest wrap to the body of the fly should be loosest getting tighter as you move forward.
11/ Now for the final part of the fly, the head. Select a small amount of Dark Brown BuggyDub and apply this to the thread. This should be loosely done as we want to roughly imitate the emerging pupa and as anyone who has seen them knows they are all appendages and antennas and we seek to suggest this with the bubble and teased out head.
12/ Wind a nice bulky head. This dubbing is quite shaggy and it is very easy to get that slightly rough look as shown. The head should be slightly bigger towards the body end and tapering a bit as you move forward. When you have done this remove any excess dubbing and add a couple of half hitches to finish it off.
13/ Another angle of the finished fly can be seen here. This should give you some further detail as far as the required bulk for the pattern. These pupa are quite small and you can see it is quite sparingly tied from the accompanying photo.

The Pattern

A lot has to be said about this pattern but unfortunately the space available here is rather limited! So lets break it down into a few little sections.

The Materials

This fly is the culmination of many seasons fishing as well as exposure to Gary La Fontaine's patterns from North America where caddis fishing is considered a very important aspect of flyfishing. While his pattern is brilliant we have perhaps not helped in it's evolution as much as adapted it to local conditions. Firstly we changed the hook shape from a traditional dry fly hook to this heavier nymph-caddis grub hook. This had two effects. Firstly because of the shape it sits in the correct position i.e. when most species of caddis emerge they don't come flying through the surface like most think. They actually swim to the surface using their middle and forelegs out to the side and row to the surface. This can take sometime and they expend a lot energy in getting to the there so when the pupa finally reach the top they usually cannot get through the meniscus and have to sit their motionless trying to regain enough strength to penetrate the surface tension. They rest in the tuck position with their thorax just below the meniscus and body hanging in the exact shape of the hook we use. Changing from a standard dry fly hook to this one has made a world of difference to it's effectiveness. The second benefit was this heavier hook would tend to aid in the sinking of the body of the fly beneath the surface where using a lighter hook would often see the fly on it's side in the film.

Also the choice of materials for the bubble (halo) was a tough one. Everyone suggests the artificial materials that flash a bit but we managed, thanks to a friend who makes his own dubbing, to acquire a unique wool mix that was died to the exact colour wanted. Also as a bonus by using wool the bubble absorbed water which helped the fly in penetrating the surface tension. 

This material when tied in this fashion is very soft when compressed. By that we mean when a fish takes it it feels pretty similar to the natural. In fact the way it does compress would be almost identical to the natural and we are sure that this is a contributing factor to it's great success. Anyone who doubts whether this can make a difference should come in and watch some of our videos of fish working in the Goulburn. We have several hours footage of fish on station picking up items from the drift and the bottom and chewing them before either swallowing them or spitting them out. 

Fishing it!

Simply put, when caddis are hatching in the Goulburn this fly takes some very large bags of fish (of course all are released and we recommend removing the barb too!). Some the of the better afternoons saw up to 25 fish caught with some being very large. However the real highlights were in the evenings when some other local fishers were managing 1-2 fish a night and we were getting upwards on 10. While it isn't about numbers it is about matching the hatch and this fly really does that well.

It can be fished on it's own or with perhaps an elk hair caddis above it. The most important thing is that it is fished dead drift to working fish. Rises can be rather subtle with a small push the only evidence that the thing has been taken. Extensive fishing over the previous seasons with this fly and it's prototypes really have proven that this is one of the deadly dozen that all fly fishers should carry in a couple of sizes at all times.

So take a moment to tie a few and be ready for those times when the fish just won't touch your emerging mayfly patterns. While we all look forward to fishing those much heralded dun hatches as much as anyone it is more often the case that fish in the cold water of the Goulburn are gorging on these helpless 'bugs' trapped just below the surface. Let us know how you go!

Regards

Antony, David and Geoff