Tying Guide: How to tie Michael Olesen's

Danica Emerger

  • Hook: Maruto d21 size 8
  • Thread: Waxed 12/0 tan, Semperfli
  • Weight: Lead free wire 0,5 mm
  • Tails: 3 ostrich quills from body feather, grey
  • Ribbing: Dirty bug yarn, brownish color, Semperfli or a few pheasant tail fibers twisted as a small rope.
  • Abdomen/body: Nymph dubbing, light tan. I prefer this to be a little shiny/sparkling.
  • Wings/wing buds: 2-3 grey cdc feathers.
  • Thorax: Yellow foam tube 3 mm, hare dubbing, dirty yellow or olive.
  • Legs/front hackle: French Partridge feather.

01

The idea behind Danica Emerger

To make a boyant emerger with some extra fun features

02

Learn how to make Danica Emerger

Pay attention to the little details and take your time

03

Step by Step Guide

High resolution pictures and easy to understand guide

The idea behind Danica Emerger

Information About Danica Emerger

My Danica Emerger is a new design based on some of my earlier emergers. My material choices have evolved slightly over the years, but the most significant change is undoubtedly the foam tube on the thorax, added in 2021. When I modify a fly, it’s not always a very thorough planned idea; often, it just inspiration from the leftovers or scrap lying on my fly-tying table. The idea for the foam tube, in particular, emerged from such inspiring trash. Hence, a good piece of advice would be, “Don’t tidy up too much.” Leave some small piles of feather remainings and other waste on your table; it creates an environment acording to my taste and serves as a visual help for inspiration.

When attaching the yellow foam tube to the hook shank, one end naturally leans backward over the abdomen. I leave this end untouched and cut off the end pointing forward (see step-by-step instructions). After cutting the remaining foam tube to the correct length, it becomes a small sculpture/template perfect for shaping and folding the wings around. I find that experimenting as the first step and evaluating the ideas afterwards works well for me. Initially, I thought the foam tube would enhance the Danica Emerger’s buoyancy, but the air gap under the folded CDC wings does this adequately without the foam. However, I still gave the foam a chance because, overall, it creates a more stabilized fly and at the same time it’s very practical for measuring and shaping the wings. Additionally, the bright yellow colour is a great contrast to the somewhat darker wings, creating an illusion of transparency. A gray or olive-colored foam tube could tone down the fly if needed. It’s all about purpose, taste, and daring to challenge traditions by trying something new.

Luna Mayfly featured in Gordon Van Der Spuy's new book

The Feather Mechanic II

Briefly about “The Feather Mechanic II: Beyond the Pattern”

A look into the feature of the Luna Mayfly in Gordon van der Spuy’s new book. What Michael’s thoughts were going into this, and places on the web where the book can be bought will also be mentioned here.

See more from Gordon van der Spuy on his socials and website.

You can find a copy of “The Feather Mechanic II: Beyond the Pattern” on  www.themissionflymag.com

Fly tying by Michael Olesen

Explore a variety of flies and recipes

Explore flytying from my vise at different levels of difficulty and learn ways to make them with easy step by step guides and simple illustrations. Explore a variety of flies and a passion for fly tying.

In my own words

List of materials for The Danica Emerger

Before you have a go at it, make sure you have the following materials:

  • Hook: Maruto d21 size 8
  • Thread: Waxed 12/0 tan, Semperfli
  • Weight: Lead free wire 0,5 mm
  • Tails: 3 ostrich quills from body feather, grey
  • Ribbing: Dirty bug yarn, brownish color, Semperfli or a few pheasant tail fibers twisted as a small rope.
  • Abdomen/body: Nymph dubbing, light tan. I prefer this to be a little shiny/sparkling.
  • Wings/wing buds: 2-3 grey cdc feathers.
  • Thorax: Yellow foam tube 3 mm and hare dubbing, dirty yellow or olive.
  • Legs/front hackle: French Partridge feather.
Step by step guide to Michael Olesen's

A Little More About The Danica Emerger

Regarding the hook, there are two obvious options: a long-shank nymph hook or a long-shank dry fly hook with weight added on the rear half of the hook. I use both but prefer the dry fly hook, as the hook wire is dark and thin, resembling an inconspicuous extra tail. With dry fly hooks, you can adjust the weight as you prefer and combine it with more or less buoyant kinds of dubbing.

The material I’ve chosen for the tails actually came from my son René, who visited an ostrich farm 20 years ago when ostrich steaks became trendy in Denmark. Recently, I found some fine ostrich body feathers at a local garden center, as it seems to be a trend to adorn plants with these feathers. I tie the tails in as a small bundle, and it’s not necessary to do much more. However, when I’m in the mood, I separate the tails slightly with figure-eight turns between the tail threads. This is only possible if the thread is appropriately thin; otherwise, it’s also option to secure the tails with a very small drop of UV glue.

The rib and abdomen materials absorb water and are non-buoyant. However, the thorax is meant to stay above water and is made of buoyant materials. In this context, I’d like to highlight two crucial factors that enhance buoyancy. First, the hare dubbing should be structured to be airy and slightly bushy. I often use a dubbing blendfrom hares living in Austria at altitudes of up to 1200 meters they have particularly robust fur quality, distinct from hares in lower-altitude regions. The other essential factor is the folded CDC wings, which should contain plenty of natural oils and be shaped to hold air.

Are you ready to tie the Danica Emerger? Then continue reading below in the step by step guide.

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 1

Put your hook in the vice. Run on the tying thread on the rear half of the hook shank and wrap about 5 or 6 rounds of leadfree lead wire on top of the tying thread, close to the middle of the hook shank.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 2

Choose 3 nicely pointed ostrich feather strands from a body feather. Even them up and tie them in for tails as a bundle right at the bend of the hook. I always make a final turn of tying thread below the tails to lift them up and splay the tails a bit.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 3

Cover the hook shank with your tying thread and leave the thread right at the rear end of the lead free wire.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 4

Cut off 10 cm of “Dirty Bug Yarn” This material is made of two twisted threads, untwist it to only use one of these threads for ribbing. Tie in the “Dirty Bug Yarn” on the underside of the hook shank, in the space between the Lead free wire and the tails tying in point. You can also just use a few pheasant tail fibers for this job.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 5

Add some nymph dubbing to your tying thread.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 6

Build up the rear half of the abdomen by wrapping the nymph dubbing on to the hook shank, next you wrap the ribbing material 3 or 4 rounds the opposite way you wrapped the nymph dubbing, to avoid the ribbing material to disappear into the dubbing.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 7

Add some nymph dubbing to the tying thread and finish the abdomen. Make sure the dubbing reach a bit into the thorax area and leave your thread 5-6 mm from the hook eye.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 8

Select 2 or 3 medium sized grey cdc feathers and put them on top of each other and even them up. Tie them down at the tips, right on top of the last bit of dubbing reaching into the thorax area.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 9

Tie down the yellow foam cylinder on top of the hook shank 2 mm in front of the cdc tying in point and cut it to a length of about 5 mm.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 10

Make a loop of your tying thread and twist the alpen hare dubbing in this loop, to make a small spiky dubbing rope.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 11

Wind the dubbing rope on to the thorax area, a few wraps behind the foam tube and the rest in front of it. For every turn I make, I pull back the dubbing fibers from the previous wraps, to make sure the thorax is rather airy and spiky.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 12

Prepare a French Partridge feather like shown in the picture (drawing) by pulling off all the feather strands at the bottom of the feather, till you reach the point where you are happy with the length of the strands for legs/hackle, about 1,5 cm.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 13

Make one or two wraps with the partridge feather, to produce the legs. I usually double the feather by holding the feather stem with my right hand while I pull back the feather strands with my moistened thumb and index finger of my left hand. This way I keep the legs out of the way and nicely curved backwards when winding the hackle.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 14

Cut the deer hair to the desired length. There is no accurate formula for this, but what I do is, I cut the over- and underside rather short. I leave some deer hair to blend into the wings and some on the sides for legs. To make the legs extra buggy, I grab the tips of the deer hair and push them against the fly. This way I force them to bend and the fly get a little messy.

- Michael Olesen

Danica Emerger Guide - Step 15

15. Fold the cdc feathers forward to make the broken wing buds and folded wings. I tie down the cdc 2 mm from the hook eye and cut off the waist. The cdc should now look like a small bubble around the foam tube. Next I add a little brown color to the tying thread, with a waterproof marker pen, before I make the finishing wraps and of course a whip finish.

- Michael Olesen
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