"I created the BARR EMERGER in 1975 after a frustrating day fishing a Pale Morning Dun hatch on Nelson’s Spring Creek in Paradise Valley outside Livingston Montana.
There was a great hatch, and it seemed like every fish in the creek was rising to them. I was frustrated because not only was the Light Cahill I was fishing catching nothing, the trout were not even taking the real duns.
They were eating little yellow specs off the surface. I was baffled. I saw a trout “accidentally” eat a real dun, which it promptly spit out. It was obvious these trout had eaten duns that had hooks in them and learned to avoid high floating dry flies.
At my vise that night I created the PMD EMERGER. I am still fishing it to this day as well as a BWO version."
- Signature Tyer John Barr Umpqua
