Chris Sandford ties his Vee-Wing Emerger.

When you are next preparing a trout’s menu for windy conditions, I would highly recommend my Vee-Wing Emerger. It’s a mishmash of several ideas but designed for a specific purpose. When I fished the River Itchen in 2010, the ‘go to’ fly was a size 16 yellow Klinkhamer. It was a terrific fish catcher in calm weather but, if the water became rough, the fly would often ‘drown’.

So I came up with this pattern that I hoped would have the same appeal as a Klinkhamer but with a better survival rate. I gave it a smooth thread body finished with Bug Bond that would quickly pierce the surface film, and added Deer hair wings to give it better flotation. I’m told these wings are not unlike those seen in Davy Wotton’s Hatching Caddis. I’m delighted to be in such illustrious company!

This film first appeared on the Fly Fishing and Fly Tying website