How to Tie a Pheasant Drum Emerger

Producer: Flymen Fishing Co.

“Redfish are widely known for their propensity to eat a wide variety of lures and flies. Through years of guiding, I’m finding the more I fish for them, the more likely I am to use a natural-colored fly that looks “shrimpy.” Most of the time I’m fishing clear water or pressured fish and they wont always respond to a fly that looks like it’s dressed for a music festival. Recently, I developed a pattern that has proven to be successful, is natural looking, and can be fished in the mid to lower sections of the water column.

The Pheasant Drum Bugger is simple and extremely effective. A tail of marabou and few strands of crystal flash. A collar of ringneck pheasant, four legs to each side, Shrimp eyes, and then multiple more ringneck pheasant feathers make up the entire body. It is difficult to get more than three wraps of “hackle” out of a ringneck pheasant feather, but the variety of feathers on a ringneck skin and the gorgeous variation they provide more than makes up for it. I’ll use seven or eight feathers per fly, tied on a size two saltwater hook. A medium gold Fish-Skull Shrimp & Cray Tail provides just enough weight to get it down in the middle of the water column and a weed guard post can be added if necessary. Cast this fly to cruising or tailing fish, watch the eat, strip set, and hang on!”