Written by Mike Gentry.

Many people can't resist fiddling with a good thing.  I know I can't when it comes to tweaking a fly pattern, and past president Hank Hosfield apparently can't as well.  Rumor had it that he had improvised a version of Denny Rickards' A.P. Emerger, a reliable lake pattern, and I had a request to feature it.  So I did some detective work and obtained the pattern.  A slight change of color from tan to gray, and viola!

Hook: Tiemco 5262, #12
Thread:  6/0, olive or brown
Tail: mallard flank barbs, dyed lemon
Rib: fine copper wire
Abdomen: gray hare's ear dubbing
Thorax: peacock herl
Wingcase:: mallard flank barbs, dyed lemon
Hackle: natural gray partridge

1. Tie in five or six barbs of lemon mallard flank barbs for the tail, about the length of the straight hook shank.

2. Tie in the copper ribbing wire at the point where the tail is joined to the hook, and leave for the moment.

3.  Add the abdomen by spinning the hare's ear on a dubbing loop, starting at the juncture of the tail and winding a slightly tapered (gets larger) body forward to about 1/3rd from the eye of the hook.  The abdomen shouldn't be too spiky, so trim or pull out the errant strands.

4.  Counter-wind the ribbing wire with three or four turns to the front of the abdomen, tie off and clip.

5. Tie in four or five lemon mallard barbs at the front of the abdomen and leave them pointing backward for the moment.

6. Add the thorax by spinning three small peacock herl strands in a dubbing loop and winding forward to just behind the eye.  The thorax should be slightly larger in diameter than the front of the abdomen.

7. Bring the mallard barbs forward over the top of the hook, and tie off at the front of the thorax and trim.

8. Select a small partridge feather; the barbs should be about the length of the entire body and thorax.  Tie in the butt of the feather and wind two turns of partridge for the legs, and tie off and clip.

9. Finish the head, add a small drop of head cement and you're done.

This fly does a good job of imitating many emerger patterns (hence it's name, the "all-purpose" emerger). Denny counsels that it is effectively fished with an intermediate sinking line and a short slow pause and retrieve or with rapid 2 or so inch pulls, and I'd have to agree.  The fly also works well in size 14 (use two peacock herl strands) and a good alternate color is olive, using olive thread, olive mallard flank, olive dubbing and olive partridge.