John Barr's Comments:
The PMD emerger "emerged" in 1975 as a result of a frustrating day on Nelson's Spring Creek watching trout take little yellow specks off the surface during a PMD hatch. At the time, I didn't know what an emerger was. Out of frustration, I put a nymph on and caught a trout and found dozens of partially hatched nymphs still attached to the shuck stuck to the back of its tongue. That night the Barr Emerger evolved back at my motel room. The next day, the trout took every good presentation. The pattern hasn't changed except for adding a flashback or bead. It is still fooling them. Trout don't seem to get conditioned to it.

My main patterns are a BWO and a PMD Emerger. Both of these insects are available to the trout for extended periods of time throughout the season.

Step #1

After wrapping thread onto the hook, tie in 6-8 brown hackle fibers. Clip the tips of the fibers so they are flush with one another.

Step #2

Wrap the abdomen with a brown/olive synthetic dubbing. Use little dubbing at first, then add more as you wrap towards the thorax to give the body a tapered appearance.

Step #3

Tie in twice as many dun or pale-olive hackle fibers as you did for the tail to form the wingcase and legs. Then wrap fine synthetic dark-tan or pale-olive dubbing to form the thorax.

Step #4

Fold the wingcase over the thorax and tie down behind the hook eye. Don't clip the protruding hackle fibers. Split the group in two and fold them back along each side of the emerger. Make a few thread wraps to secure the fibers and they should stick out like legs. Cut the hackle tips like the tail so the leg fibers are even. Tie-off thread and glue.

A beadhead Barr Emerger.

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