Quite a few years ago, I started to take notice of a particular type of feeding fish in our central lakes. I say take notice because that’s all I could do as these fish porpoised and wallowed around the best of my presentations. After quizzing a few club members, backed up with a little reading, I learnt that these fish were midging: typically hard fish to catch. This came as no surprise. I had previously learnt that the size and quantity of midge breeding on the water is sometimes in the thousands, giving the fish a lot of food to choose from.
I started fishing midge patterns such as black, olive, glass and red buzzers; small olive wets (Tom Jones, Greenwell’s Glory) etc.; milly midge; black seals fur nymphs; 007 nymphs; midge balls and every other pattern that was too small to thread my 4 ld tippet through. The midge thing was starting to get a little complicated.
After years of experimentation, I mostly fish one pattern that I developed and called the ‘hatching midge’. Its wings sit in the film, supporting the submerged body.
Fishing the midge
I started fishing it in lakes, where most midge fishing is done, but I also found it to be a reliable pattern for selective fish in streams as well. To fish it in streams, I usually cast it up-stream to selective fish sipping against overhung banks and let it drift drag-free down-stream. Pretty simple huh. Another way to fish this fly is to cast it down-stream toward the fish and let the line go through the guides until the fly is along-side the fish (on its left if you are on the fish’s right) and keep the rod tip low. Once the fly has reached its destination, lift the rod tip and drag the fly upstream past the fish’s nose (the same way you’d skate a caddis fly across a fish’s path). On a few occasions I’ve had a take on a sunken fly, which became submerged while being dragged upstream. When this happens, wait for a swirl or hesitation in the leader and tighten as you would for a fish sipping the fly from the surface.
Because only two wings made of hi viz suspend the fly, it can easily drown (I’ve experimented with hackle, but I find hi viz wings are the best). To avoid the fly drowning, simply add silicone muscilin to the wings of the fly. Following this, moisten the body of the fly with saliva to ensure it sits under the water. Note, don’t add floatant to the fly’s body, it will sit incorrectly on the water’s surface.
On lakes, I fish the fly dead drift, sunk, or skating; although the fly is generally a surface fly. If you need to fish deep to midging fish, it’s usually better to use a team of buzzers and wets with intermediate or sinking lines.
When searching for midging fish in lakes, I usually look for slicks of calm water against rippled water. This is where a lot of food gets concentrated. Not just midge, but most kinds of insect life. I’ve even found smelting fish charging around those changes in the water’s surface.
Tying the midge
Tying this fly is very simple, even the utmost beginner will find it easy. Start with a size 14 caddis hook. Tie in the thread at about 3mm from the eye of the hook and wind it back to the middle of the bend. Catch in a length of fine copper wire and tie down firmly. Start dubbing dark olive possum fur from the middle of the bend to where you started the thread. Keep the body slim and rib with about 5 turns of wire. Now tie in a bunch of hi viz — about the thickness of a pencil — over the body of the fly. Split the hi viz into equal halves to form wings and thread two or three ‘figure eights’ around the base of the wings. Finish by dubbing a small head of olive possum fur over the base of the wings, tie-off and cement head if preferred.
So if you’re having trouble on selective stream fish, or you don’t really have any trustworthy patterns for midging fish, give this little pattern ago.
Maty.
