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The Mighty Midge
Peter
Clark and Howard Creston relate their specialised
flies, leaders and tactics to initiate these tiny
- but vastly important - insects.
It's
mid April, and Howard and myself have just had a day's
fishing in the Lake District on one of the rivers
in Cumbria. It's 'up and at 'em' time and fish are
rising in the tail of the pool. Spring olives are
coming off, but our imitations are constantly ignored;
the fish are pre-occupied with small black midges.
It is time to get serious. Serious means seriously
small. On goes one of our special midge imitations,
this one we have christened the Spent Midge. It is
tied on a size 22 hook.
That should
match the hatch, but that's only the half of it -
presentation has to be perfect, as a straight forward
overhead cast will allow drag to set in almost immediately,
and that overhanging tree on the far bank makes the
cast even more difficult. A type of combination cast
'the parachute reach mend' is performed. This piles
up the leader in line with the fish and keeps the
fly line upstream of the fish's lie. The fly alights
on the surface and drifts over the fish. The water
is crystal clear, so with the aid of Polaroid's our
quarry is clearly visible. No take. Another cast.
Again nothing. Too much on the menu, we think. Third
cast, perfect drift. Bingo! Up comes the heavily spotted
brown and sips in the offering. Howard's 7X tippet
takes the strain as his ultra-light weight rod bends
to the handle. Two minutes later a deep 48cm brown
nestles in my net, we estimate it to be close on 3lb.
After holding it in the current for a short while
it recovers and swims off, as do all our fish.
After reading
Stuart Crofts and David Calvert's excellent article
on river midge fishing (June '98) we felt something
on the same subject regarding our methods and experiences
would be of interest to readers.
The mighty
midge, the imitative stillwater anglers 'bread and
butter' fly, is a fish-catcher supreme, but how many
river fly-fishers use this brilliant fly in its various
stages especially in micro-sizes . How many occasions
do we go to the river bank and see fish rising. The
usual train of thought is: what are they feeding on?
Olives, pale wateries, spurwings? But there is no
sign of any of these species. Experience through many
similar occasions has now taught us to always take
a closer look, and very often the fish can be seen
to be 'midging'.
So often
does this feeding pattern occur, that Howard and myself
have devised a series of patterns, leaders and techniques
to fish the midge; some new, some stolen, and some
just variations on a theme.
Actual tackle
for midge fishing has got to be in the light to ultra-light
category. Anything heavier than a four-weight is totally
unsuitable, considering we might be using .003 in.
tippets. Our fly rods range from a 0-weight and up
to a maximum 4-weight, and are of a medium action.
Reels are personal preference, but one with a light
drag comes in handy, especially when there is two
or three pounds of fighting brown attached to your
24 or 26 Midge imitation.
After many
years of experimenting with leader set ups we have
now settled for two. We enjoy building them to suit,
but know some anglers prefer knotless tapered leaders;
it all comes down to personal preference.
The first
and longest is 12 feet long and comprises of varying
lengths of monofilament. This one is used when the
fish are up on the top or near the top. It turns over
with tiny flies and, being four yards in length, allows
for a good, drag-free drift.
The second
leader is slightly shorter and comprises of fewer
sections of nylon and is used when fishing sub-surface
or when using a dry and sub-surface fly together.
A 24-inch piece of 0.17 in. mono is Superglue spliced
into the end of the fly line and at the other end
goes a 3/4 in. perfection loop. With the Superglue
splice an almost perfect flyline/leader joint is achieved
without the use of a knot, and when fitted correctly
it will not come apart. The butt end of the leader
is also fitted with a perfection loop, therefore allowing
for a loop-to-loop connection. The tippet section
again is attached loop-to-loop. Perfection loops in
the tippet sections do not affect the performance
of the leader, being almost invisible in the small
diameter monofilament. The advantage of this method
means tippet length and diameter can be increased
or decreased according to conditions.
Flies for
midge fishing are a totally uncomplicated affair.
Being so small, large amounts of materials and intricate
details cannot be integrated into midge patterns.
The only complication is tying on the very small hooks,
but with practice this is soon overcome. There are
a number of excellent hooks on the market that can
be used for tying small patterns, notably: Partridge
Vince Marinaro, Tiemco 101, 100, 200R and Mustad 80100
range. Another excellent hook was the Airflo Rising
Emerger in sizes 20-24, but these are no longer available.
A similar hook is now made by Daiichi, and is also
known as the 'rising emerger', but this could mean
a phone call to the U.S because - as far as I know
- no one in the U.K carries the make.
Materials
for midge imitations are to be found in your everyday
fly-tying kit. Maybe a few useful additions would
be small diameter tying thread. Danvilles Spiderweb
or Uni-thread Trico being our choice. Midge bobbin
holders with silks pre-wound on sewing machine bobbins
are a great help for tying small patterns. Everything
is geared to creating ultra-slim patterns and preventing
any bulk. Small amounts of lead (wine-bottle or ultra-fine
Jan Siman square lead) can be added to sub-surface
patterns to take them under. Another method is to
add split-shot (No. 8s or 10s) to the tippet.
Paramidge
Hook: Size 20-26.
Body: Silk to match natural.
Hackle: Smallest genetic.
Hackle post: Poly Yarn or foam (for visibility).
Spent
or Dead Midge
Hook: Size 20-28.
Body: Silk to match.
Tail: A few strands of Antron.
Thorax: Dubbing to match body.
Wings: White or grey Poly Yarn.
Dry
Midge (1)
Hook: Size 20-26.
Body: Muskrat.
Hackle: Grizzle (clipped underneath).
Dry
Midge (2)
Hook: Size 20-26.
Body: Fine dubbing.
Hackle: Palmered medium dun.
Shuttlecock
Buzzer
Hook: Size 20-26.
Body: Silk, fine dubbing, or herl.
Head & Thorax: C.D.C.
Pupa
(1)
Hook: Size 20-26.
Body: Silk or fine dubbing (mole, beaver, muskrat).
Rib: Clear polythene (builder's visqueen) cut to
1.5 mm and then stretched.
Thorax: As body.
Pupa
(2) (Gary Borger pattern)
Hook: Size 20-26.
Body: Antron, chopped fine.
Thorax: Antron (longer fibres), Velcro to bend of
hook.
Paramidge
Hook: Size 20-28 Curved Midge hook.
Thread: Spiderweb.
Abdomen: Black ultra-chenille.
Wing: Tiemo Aero wing - white.
Parachute Post: Tag end of the abdomen.
Hackle: Genetic black cock cape (neck).
Thorax: Fine black dubbing plus a dubbed band of
orangey red.
To form the
fine taper to the abdomen, light the end of the
chenille, allow to burn for a split second, blow
out and pull between finger and thumb - this extrudes
the core of the chenille producing a fine, tapering
abdomen, then trim to length.
Dry
& Pupa Rig
A Griffiths Gnat or Paramidge is tied on to the
tippet, then 12 - 24 inches of tippet material is
tied to the hook-bend of this first fly with tucked
blood-knot. A Pupa is then tied to the end of this
length of monofilament. Fish have two choices -
the surface fly or the Pupa. Takes to the Pupa are
indicated by the surface fly pausing on its drift,
or shooting under.
Double
Pupa or Nymph Rig
A Pupa is tied to the tippet and then a second tippet
is tied on using the same hook eye. A secondPupa
then tied on to the end of this length. Split-shot
can be added to take flies down.
Indicator
Rig
A small piece (1/2 - 3/4 in.) of fly-line (with
the core-removed) is slid up the leader and kept
in position over a blood-knot. (Usually the first
blood knot, on the tippet). This is an excellent
way of fishing Pupae in slow-moving water.
Article taken from July/August
1999 issue of Fly Fishing & Fly Tying.
Full details of the tying of the aero wing midge,
leader and pupa rig used by authors can be found in
this issue.
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