36 - Fly tying made easy: The Quill Emerger
Fly tying made easy: The Quill Emerger
Looking for an easy to tie fly with wide appeal on both rivers and lakes this spring? With a slick, natural look, our Quill Emerger is not only one of the easiest of emerger flies to tie, but simple and effective to use.
This fly can mimic either hatching olives, or indeed lake buzzers, depending on the size you tie it. Brown trout love it, as do rainbows- but it will also fool rudd, carp and other fish species. However, as stylish as the segmented body looks, it’s also a very simple fishing fly to make yourself, and is also an ideal fly pattern for beginners.
Brown trout are especially fond of smaller emergers, although you could try this pattern for rainbow trout, rudd or even carp!
The real trick with this pattern is in making life easy for yourself with just three ingredients beyond thread and hook. Chief among these is Hemingway’s Synthetic Quill. We stock three types of this in all sorts of colours, including Tapered Buzzer Quill and Transparent Tapered Quill- which is what is shown in this step-by-step.
Why use synthetic rather than natural material? Well, for one thing, this stuff is so easy to use! You don’t need to faff about stripping real quill, which all too often proves too short or snaps at the critical point! Furthermore, the Hemingway’s stuff is not only beautifully even and reliable, but looks completely convincing. In fact, the natural colours are hard to tell from the real thing- although you also have a BIG range of colours to customise your own fly patterns!
So, let’s tie a simple emerger step by step… not that there’s anything stopping you using it for nymphs, buzzers or any other suitable style of fly.
|
![]() |
Thorax/head: Dubbing of your choice (Hemingway’s Hares Dubbing shown) |
![]() |
Thread: To suit body colour (fine light tan shown here) | |
Body: Hemingway’s Synthetic Quill (colour of your choice- “natural transparent” shown here). |
![]() |
Wing: Natural CDC |

Take your hook (this is a size 16, for river fishing. For a stillwater emerger you could go as large as a 10 or 12) and cover with the thread. An even application will help the quill sit snugly. With transparent quills, as shown, the thread colour will show through- in this case giving an attractive light tan colour.






And that’s it, we’re done! Very easy, but there are loads of variations you could create with different colours and materials.
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more great flies and fly tying ideas!
We are now live and active on both Instagram (@flies_online) and Facebook, where you can find our latest news, offers and some brilliant fly patterns both to buy and to tie yourself! Don’t forget to give us a like and follow for exclusive offers and content this month.