One of the most controversial subjects in fly fishing today amongst fly anglers is what is an emerger fly and what is a dry fly. The debate stems from who caught what on what fly. One might say the trout was caught on a dry fly while his or her partner would argue the trout was caught on an emerger fly pattern. So the debate continues. Rather than argue about what fly is what it’s better to grasp the notion that the logic behind why trout prefer to eat an emerger over that of a dry fly is pretty much unquestioned today. An emerger is an aquatic insect that leaves the bottom of the river to become a winged adult. All emergers have one thing is common, they all get trapped in the surface film (meniscus). So an emerger is under the surface where a trout sees it clearly, it’s trapped and coming right in front of a trout. It’s easy, just open mouth and food comes in. If you are not fly fishing with a matching emerger during an emergence then you are limiting yourself.
The Loop Winged Emerger was created by Shane Stalcup to imitate an emerging mayfly floating just in the meniscus. It has proven itself year in year out as one of the deadliest mayfly emerger patterns you can have in your fly box. Shane developed this emerger to float in the surface film using the CDC (cull de canard feather that is found near the tail end of a duck) bent backwards to the body of the fly to imitate and emerging mayfly wing. The CDC wing also helps keep the Loop Wing Emerger floating in the meniscus rather that sinking below.
Most folks believe trout feeding during a hatch or an emergence can become picky because the trout are just not cooperating with the angler by crushing the fly presented to the trout. The truth is feeding trout are not picky at all. More often than not a feeding trout is feeding on the emerging or hatching aquatic insect floating to him in the meniscus. These feeding trout are seeing hundreds if not thousands of emerging insects, most in the meniscus and the fly these folks are using just does not look like what the trout have been feeding on. The results are these feeding trout are ignoring your offering because it’s not where, or does not look like what it’s been feeding on. That’s not being picky. that’s the angler not matching what and where the trout are feeding on and in. The Loop Wing Emerger can solve this problem. It matches what the emerging insect is feeding on very precisely. The Loop Winged Emerger is an emerger pattern. You can get them in any size or color to match whichever mayfly you wish to imitate. If you are building an emerger fly box, say for a Blue Winged Olive mayfly then the first pattern you should put in that box will be the Loop Winged Emerger
