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Emerging Caddis pupae.       

When conditions are right Sedge pupae will emerge from the case and metamorphose into a wing adult. Depending on species this usually involves swimming up to the surface where they will quickly hatch and it is at this stage they are highly vulnerable to the trout.  Ascending sedge pupae are predominantly shades of green, amber and off whites and its possible that colour can be important trigger to the trout when hunting emerging sedge pupae.

In the absence of other clues sound advice is to start with something black, orange and green then ring the changes from there.  Do the colours of sedge pupae partly explain the success of these colours in loch flies?  

Straggly suggestive emerger’s with lots of well picked out seals fur fished in the film dead drifted can be very successful.  Fiery brown, hare’s ear, amber sometimes shades of green. A good mix of seals fur is made from the above colours in various proportions.  

  Ascending sedge pupae offer a substantial mouthful so biggish straggly patterns are not out of place.   During emergence the sedge pupae becomes something of a straggly mass not unlike some of the traditional  loch flies commonly in use  such as bumbles, march browns, and Invicta’s and it is possible  that some  of the wet fly patterns in popular usage are taken for ascending sedge pupae amongst other things. That is why impressionistic flies with a buzz of life and suggestion of movement that do not imitate one specific creature but cover a multitude of underwater creatures are favoured.              

Half hogs with appropriate coloured seal fur bodies do not look out of place when seen next to a hatching sedge pupae, so long as no gink gets in the seal fur. 

 Other sedge pupae patterns incorporate a strip of foam which avoids the use of gink all together ensuring the body sits low in the water and boosting the angler’s confidence that it is where it should be.  However unless you are 100 % certain that is what is on the menu some of the more impressionistic patterns might be more apt.   

Some sedge pupae patterns include sparkly dubbing like lite brite into the dressing to imitate the trapped oxygen bubbles that sparkle in the water.  

Green Peter ,Peach muddler, Hares ear,Fiery brown emerger

When the fish are visibly rising often making a commotion as they break the surface with their backs and they are ignoring sedge hogs or muddlers skated across the top then it is possible they are fixated on the ascending pupae just below the surface, if so try a submerged wet fly on the point that matches the size and colour of the sedge hatching. 

I've witnessed superb splashy rises of good fish after midnight and seen huge quantities of sedge coming off the water but they have ignored sedge hogs.   My tactic then is to use just  two fly’s a small  black sedgehog or muddler sometimes with a small magenta tag which weeks very well after dark, behind this I would have a short leader about 18 inches with a small standard black cormorant about size 14, coloured tag optional.  Fish the fly slowly in the area of the fish and it is often the cormorant that catches.       Again the cormorant family is a very useful family of fly’s that covers a multitude of scenarios.