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PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 9:21 am • # 1 
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Trout, Snow and Tiny Flies


I guess I'm not into most wintertime sports. I tried down hill skiing, only once. I don't need to tell the reader the results of that day. Snowmobiling has never really interested me though I've done it a few times. It was fun, but expensive. I'm a fly fisherman. Here in Idaho, year around angling opportunities provide enough adventure for me.


Fly fishing through the winter months is mostly a subsurface affair- strike indicators and various nymphs as well as some streamer action. But there can be some dry fly action too. Find a windless afternoon when the temperature climbs above freezing and you will see rising fish. At first, you see only only a fish here and there. Then the numbers of rising trout increase into an honest surface feeding frenzy. You look close but you cannot see what they might be feeding on. It appears they are feeding on nothing. But there is a tiny morsel there and it must taste like candy to a trout for these tiny flies seem hardly worth the effort, even for a fish. They go by many names, Chironomids, Midges, Buzzers, Snow Flies and the colder the weather gets, the smaller they get. Pretty soon a #18 midge looks about twice as big as it should be and a #24 about right to match the hatch.

The challenge lies in the whole midge fishing situation; wet, cold, froze over line guides, threading fine tippet through the tiny eye of a minuscule trout fly, donning and doffing gloves between tasks, and the delicate fly presentations needed to fool and not spook feeding trout. Only crazy, obsessed fly rod gurus typically apply.


To understand midge fishing and choosing appropriate flies, you need to have a knowledge of it's life-cycle. In that cycle, there are key stages that are important to success. First is the larvae. They are worm-like and flies should be slightly long and show segmentation in appearance. Patterns such as a tungsten beaded Zebra Midge, presented deep under a strike indicator will get the action rolling, waiting for the hatch. Red and Black are the most common colors to use but one should have other colors as well, like blue, olive and silver.
Midge Larvae mature into Pupae and begin wiggling their way to the surface where they will suspend at the surface for a time in preparation to hatching into adults. At the onset of a midge hatch, trout will hone in rising and suspended midge pupae as they are vulnerable at this time and easy prey. The same zebra midge, only suspended higher under a strike indicator or multiple fly rigs with flies are varying depths can produce fast action when things start happening. This is when you start to see rising fish. The great mistake is to assume it is time for a dry fly but the fish are actually still feeding on emerging and suspended midge pupae. The Zebra Midge or similar midge larvae/pupa imitation, tied with no metal bead or a extra small plastic bead will work better than a deeply presented fly will. Such a pattern can be still be fished with a strike indicator to aid in detecting hits, but will not fall very deep in the water column and often stay with in a few inches of the surface. I find keeping patterns simple will draw more attention from fish than complicated patterns do. The emerging midge is simple in shape and fly patterns should be simple as well. I bit if flash tied in at the tail will draw attention to feeding fish.
As the Pupae emerge or 'shuck' into an adult, the fish will become more aggressive in feeding and when you see rises, quite a bit more intense than the earlier 'dimples' and other telltale signs of fish feeding just under the surface, it is dry fly time. Again, keep patterns simple. I tie a lot of my flies, using the tying tread as the main component of the midges body and a shucking midge can be as easy a pattern to tie as the other patterns, only with a tuft of CDC, Elk Hair or closed cell foam to keep the fly right on the surface. You can do away with the strike indicator but often, I still use them because in such a frenzy of feeding trout, it can be hard to decipher strikes from just fishing rising close by. My eyes are just not good enough to spot a #20=24 dry fly on the top. A fast rising trout that takes your fly and dives back to the depths will take the strike indicator down too. While I'm on the subject of strike indicators, I must add, that as in the midge fly, think small, so should you think with the indicator. A tiny knot of yarn, treated with floatant works great. Some just use another fly like an Elk Hair Caddis but I save those flies for warmer months and just use a small foam or yarn indicator.

The final stage of a midge hatch is what I call 'dead midges' – the midge equivalent of a mayfly spinner fall. In my experience, it can provide some of the fastest action of a midge hatch. After a good hatch, the surface literally becomes covered with drowned, dying, stuck in the shuck, midge clusters and other left overs. At times, schools of trout slurp up these after dinner morsels like a bunch of hungry carp. As with the other stages of a hatch, a strike indicator can really aid in detection takes and believe me, they can be light at the end a trout's midge dinner.


Proper gear selection for fishing such tiny flies under such brutal conditions, varies from angler to angler. Many just grab the same fly rod set up they use the rest of the year. Others are so particular, they have certain fly rods set up just for midge fishing. I prefer a moderate action graphite rod, no longer than 8 ½ feet in the 3 to 5 wt range. Such a rod aids in protecting fine tippets and helps keep hooked fish on sub #20 flies, hooked. For those fly rodders who like going retro, this is a great time to break out old glass and bamboo rods. It is debatable whether or not to use bamboo in sub freezing temperatures. With my cane rods, I try not to use them in temps much lower than freezing and even then, I give them a proper wipe down and some TLC before I put them away. I am one of those who love fishing glass and cane fly rods. When conditions permit, I find myself fishing a bamboo rod more than any other kind. When conditions do not allow for the use of a fine bamboo rod, I reach for an old moderate action 8 foot 5wt graphite rod, from the 80's, at the dawn of a now, very famous fly rod company. The rod is actually a true 3/4wt but marked 5wt as few 4wt lines were available then. It is light, as light as many 2wt rods today and as soft and forgiving to cast as fine cane. For a graphite rod, it is about perfect for midge fishing. It's getting hard to find a true moderate action graphite fly rod made today. This is sad. True, many of today's high end, fast action graphite fly rods will cast an entire line with a false cast or two and nail a targeted trout 60 feet away, but in midge fishing, this is not what we want.


In addition to rod selection, line and leader selection can be just as critical in the challenges of midge fishing. Walk into most fly shop and ask if they recommend 'under lining' a fly rod – that is casting a line that is one size lighter than recommended. I bet such recommendations are rare but in my experience, I find under lining a fly rod aids greatly in working with 6X tippets or finer. A proper lined or an over lined rod will generate higher line speeds, which I feel work against you when trying to cast such fine leaders and present them lightly on the water among feeding trout that can spook easily.


This is oh, so hard to accomplish with a fast action rod or even a medium fast rod, hence my belief moderate graphite or slower action cane and glass rods are much better suited for this kind of duty.


I will leave the reader with one final thought, that is to use barbless hooks, even when not required by law. One can argue this subject a long time but I feel there are two reasons to mash the barbs on a fly and both have to do with safety. Safety to the angler and safety to the fish. I de-barb my flies as I tie them. A barbed fly deep in your skin will take all the joy out of an otherwise great day on the water. Even a barbless hook, stuck somewhere in your person requires some first aid, but I guarantee you will be 'wounded' much less. Catch and release fishing is much easier to practice with barbless hooks as well. You'll release more live fish and less dead fish if you can unhook a fish quickly and with minimal handling.

There is no reason to spend the colder months in front of a computer or wandering around the house suffering from a severe case of cabin fever. When the forecast is for calm winds and slightly warmer temperatures, cheer up, load up on some midges, dress warm and I'll see you on the river.


Image

Image
About a #24 will duplicate this midge


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