The Halo Midge Emerger (Original)

Gary La Fontaine was a great fly fisherman. I have read most of his books over and over again. Some of his theories may come across as a bit weird and sometimes to detailed. With the exception of the emergent sparkle pupa and a couple of others I have never really fished his flies a lot. On the other hand, his theories and ideas are with me when tying or fishing. His fly designs are not beautiful flies, they often look strange and awkward. They are effective fishing flies. They are based on what fish see from under the water and what makes it go for the fly. Some of the chapters in his brilliant book “The Dry Fly” certainly give food for thought on a lot of subjects concerning the way we think of imitations.

One of the imitations that interested me from the start were The Halo Midge Emerger. It doesn’t quite look like a midge pupa, but Fontaine states that it is enough for the pattern to simply rest partly in and partly under the water.  Further he says: “The shape of an emerging midge pupa is critical to proper imitation, but it is not the triggering characteristic. The most important aspect of the natural is the quicksilver brightness of the air within the transparent outer sheath. If an air bubble is visible in the emerging insect, it overwhelms every other feature”