Parasol emergers

[Pat M]

I have never tried tying this pattern before and I'm wondering for some of you that have. How productive are these patterns?

Here is the link on how to tie them.

http://flies.hipwader.com/2005/tying-the-parasol-emerger

[Don Johnson]

The tying sequence in that link you posted is really good.

These flies are great, especially for fishing emergent chironomids. I think once you get a chance to experiment, you'll see what I mean.

If you goto this link you'll see (near the bottom of the page) a pattern called the Regulator. It's similar to the one depicted in the link except the poly is locked into place by furling the post material (clear mono).

http://www.geocities.com/salmn8r/guidesfliesphotos.html

For furling "how-to", goto:
http://www.geocities.com/salmn8r/furledstinger.html

I have tried these with a few different parasol materials including foam, CDC, poly yarn and a few others. After experimenting, the easiest I have come to find is the smallest Corky available locked into place in the mono by furling. Everything else falls short, in my opinion.

Corkies are inexpensive, readily available, come in a lot of highly-visible colors and different sizes should you want to dangle something heavy under one.

This thread is going to be interesting and I look forward to reading the responses.

Don Johnson

[Pat M]

Thanks for the links Don. I'm just trying to understand how effect these patterns really are. ;-) Anyone else want to jump on this?

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I've tied and fished a few of the parasol emergers with limited success. Mostly, I think, due to my lack of confidence in the pattern. I will continue to try them out this year.

REE

[Pat M]

My question is in using Mono from the emerger to the Poly Yarn would the fish be leader shy, and be to timid to try to strike. I cant find anything that represents this in a natural, in any way. It appears to be a indicator for a subsurface emerger.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

When I tie those patterns I use much smaller tippet material to tie in the poly yarn (6or7X). Even for leader shy fish, your talking about 2 inches or less of material, I don't see that as a problem.

In a way, I guess it could be a strike indicator for an emerger, or a means to keep the fly where you want it, about an inch or so below the surface.

REE

[Tim Cottage]

These are cool patterns
I have used parasol emergers over on the dry side lakes when the fish were feeding on a mystery hatch. That is, a hatch that I could not identify because I could not see it. The rise forms indicated something just under the surface and the fact that I could not see it indicated something very small.
I tied them using the Schollmeyer/Leeson method in about a size 20-22 in black and various shades of light green.
They did catch fish and I consider them one very good possible solution when encountering a tiny mystery hatch. Now, I always like to have a few in my lake box. The tippet post does not seem to bother the fish but I take the shine off of the monofilament with a rubber leader stretcher before tying with it.
The fly as a whole does not represent any particular naturally occuring insect. Rather, it is a method of suspending an emerger an inch or two under the surface. The parasol itself does double duty as an indicator but I prefer not to think of that aspect of it because I have deep and highly personal issues with bobbers and flys. I have spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars with a fly therapist on this issue to no avail. And no, I don't want to talk about it on a public forum. As I said, it's personal.

TC

[Pat M]

Tim or Ron since you guys have tied this pattern, typically how long per fly does the process take? On average. Just curious.

[mike doughty]

I would think that since most fish are approaching the fly from underneath that fish would , for the most part, not see the mono so it wouldn't be an issue, but that is just my thinking.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Depending on what I'm suspending under the parasol, two to five minutes per fly if you make the parasols ahead of time. I usually treat the parasols with Rain-X too, then let them dry overnight before tying with them.

REE

[Pat M]

When tying the parasols would it be more benefical using florocarben or mono?

[Don Johnson]

Like REE mentioned, if the parasol is made ahead of time, the time necessary to tie a fly becomes dependent on the complexity of the rest of the fly. I can furl about a dozen Corky parasols in a minute or less and keep the furl locked in place by tying an overhand knot in the tag ends as depicted in one of the links I mentioned earlier. After that, if I'm tying simple midge patterns, total construction time is very short (2 minutes or less).

Fluorocarbon vs. mono? Don't know. The fish are probably going to be more shy of your leader or the bulbous thing floating above the fly than they are the parasol post material so it doesn't matter as long it's not opaque. I never have understood the logic behind the drymerger with that thread-covered post that is far from invisible.