THREDBO EMERGER

Also known as "Thredbo Emerger", "Thredbo Klinkhammer", "Sharpie's "Thredbo special" or any combination of the above. This fly is a combination of the well known "Klinkhammer" and a little known fly, the Wangapeka Special from the north end of the south Island of New Zealand. I took the polypropylene wing from the Klinkhammer and the hook and spakleflash tail from the Wangapeka special which had a polystyrene ball as the hackle post. The sparkleflash tail represents the trailing shuck of the emerging mayfly. I have used this fly successfully on grayling in Wales, on browns and rainbows in New Zealand, on all the Snowy streams and rivers and also on the lakes during very difficult midge hatches.

Hook: TMC 2487 sizes 10 to 18
Thread: Uni 8/0 in black, olive or brown to match body. (I use black all the time).
Tail: Pearl, olive or brown crystal flash. (I use pearl most of the time).
Body: Grey, Brown or Olive fine dubbing.
Thorax: Peacock hearl.
Hackle: Brown cock hackle wound parachute style.

1. Wind a bed of thread from the eye to the bend of the hook
2. Tie in three or four pieces of crystal flash at the bend of the hook to represent the trailing shuck. Tie them in past the bend so that they point downwards as in the photo.
3. Wind the thread back towards the eye, stopping about one third the length of the shank away from the eye.
4. Tie in a small bunch of white poly yarn to form a wing post. This should be tied in with the wing pointing towards the eye of the hook and the excess poly yarn pointing towards the bend of the hook. Take the thread in front of the wing post and wrap several turns of thread in front of the post so that it stands uprightl.
5. Now cut the excess poly yarn so that it tapers in thickness back towards the bend of the hook. The yarn should just reach to in front of the tail.
6. Take the thread and wrap it back over the poly yarn towards the tail to form a tapered underbody.
7. Dubb a tapered body in the selected colour over the poly yarn to just before the wing post.
8 Tie in two or three lengths of peacock herl and wind to form a thorax evenly on both sides of the wing post, leaving space behind the eye of the hook to form the head. Tie off, cut off the excess herl, form the head, tie off and cut the thread. Varnish the head.
9. Now for the hard part! Tie in the thread again at the foot of the wing post. Select a hackle the same size as you would for a normal dry fly. Tie in the hackle by the stem and wrap just three turns around the wing post, each turn flush against the previous one, going down the post towards the foot of the post. Tie off the hackle, cut the thread very carefully to not cut off any hackle. Put a dab of varnish at the foot of the post.
10. Go fishing.

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