The LDO Compara Plume Tip Emerger

It's a hybrid, the love child of a few patterns: the answer to all ills, for this spring at least...

The LDO Comparadun Plume Tip Emerger (I know, it's a mouthful)

This pattern is the love child of a few olive imitations that have worked very well for me for some time. I was looking at my fly tying to do list for the spring recently and saw "LDO and BWO adult". Rather than leaping into tying the patterns that worked well last season I said to myself, "Slow down, relax, think about the objective here, maybe there is an opportunity to evolve and create something better.":  So I did and there was. 

I like adults that ride low in the water, almost like emergers in posture. In fact, I probably prefer emergers over true "dries" when imitating uprights (or mayflies as they're known outside the UK).

I have combined what I believe are the "best of" triggers from a few patterns which when combined could make for an amazing olive or BWO (or any upright) emerger. We will know in a few weeks time when the season opens on the chalkstream down the road.

And the triggers are:

• The tails shout "Baetis"
• The abdominal gills say "yes, I'm the real thing!"
• The comparadun hackle gives the right impression of legs (not pin pricks but fibres lying horizontal).
• The plume tip announces itself to fish as it floats downstream "emerging upright coming through!"

The pattern:

Hook: Grip 14711 #10 (for the LDO imitation you need a big enough hook to include the nymph's abdomen and the sub imago's thorax and head)

Tail: 3 fibres of Golden pheasant tippet dyed olive 

Abdomen: Olive turkey biot with an underbody of thread

Thorax: Olive flash/natural dubbing blend. I like Hemingways Beaver Dub

Hackle: Dirty brown cock cape (I have used a "Photo dyed" cape from Chevron Hackle in this one)

Wing: 2 small wild mallard CDC plumes paired 

The patterns that led to this?

The Olive Biot emerger:

The Olive biot emerger (based on Mike Mercer's Trigger Nymph)

 The Compara LDO emerger:

The Compara LDO Emerger (a pattern I fused together out of previous ideas some years ago)

The Plume Tip Variant:

The Plume Tip Variant (not sure who "invented" this pattern but my friend Jeremy Lucas showed it to me in Poland a few years ago. I tie it with a CDC tail rather than the original Coq De Leon)