Suspended Blue Winged Olive
The Suspended Emerger is one of the most effective emerger patterns for catching feeding trout during an active hatch. The Suspended Emerger gives the fly angler the ability to present a nymphal emerger just under the meniscus (surface film) while being able to locate the emerger by the wing floating on the surface. Fly fishing a nymphal emerger leaves the fly angler with the problem of not quite knowing where the fly is because it’s a non-visual fly moving just under the surface. This can often cause the fly angler some difficulty in identifying when a trout will strike and often leads to premature setting of the fly or missing the strike altogether.
That’s not to say a nymphal emerger should not be used when casting to rising trout because often trout will hone in on just that, a nymphal emerger. It’s just being able to locate your emerger makes seeing the strike easier. For this reason, often during a midge hatch, the most effective pattern is a Suspended Midge Pupa in the correct size. For those anglers who tie their own flies, the Suspended Emerger is probably one of the easiest flies to tie as long as you have proper instruction and Youtube is great for that.
For all the great mayfly and caddis hatches in your area you should have a good selection of Suspended Emerger flies in various sizes to represent all those species of bugs. When we talk about “working the progression” over a hatch it’s all about having a good selection of precise imitations that you can go to that will enable you to present the best match of what trout may be seeing on, in or on the surface film (meniscus).
