Filling the Time When you Can't Get Out

Since I wasn’t able to get out this week and therefore have nothing to post as far as fishing goes, I thought I’d share with you a tip I got on Midge tying at the Fly Fishing Show held in MA this past winter from a Fly Tier named Rich Ross. Often I’ve been on the ponds, lakes, rivers seeing fish rise but nothing I had to offer seemed to work. They were hitting something small and black and I have come to surmise that it could have been the notorious Black Midge they were eating as certainly those midges were eating me. Most of the charts I look at that track hatches (fish food) by month will list the midge over the course of months throughout the summer so, if the weather gets bad you may want to look at your fly tying table and tie up a few of these. Hopefully I be writing to you about how I made a killing with these flies sometime over the coming summer months. What I liked about this technique is that it kept the ‘wings’ on top and I can tell you from experience that you can see this fly, even though it is so small from pretty far away.

Here is the Midge build, step by step, it’s really pretty easy.

What you need:
Black Thread
Black Poly Yarn
Peacock Hurl
Grizzly Hackle
Instructions:
Lay a bed of thread to the bend in the hook

Cut a piece of Poly Yarn about 1 ½” long and then pull about ¼ of the thread from the rest of the thread, make a loop and tie the ends on at the back of the hook:

This is where I use that tool I made from 2 large hooks connected with a rubber band:

Hook one end to the loop and the other end some place up high:


Next tie in the peacock herl:

Next tie in the grizzly hackle:

Next wrap the hackle around the thread post that you have held up with to rubber band contraption. Hackle before the peacock because after to wrap the herl you’ll need to tie it in at the back of the hook:

Wrap the thread to the front of the hook and then wrap the herl to the front and tie it in:

Or a more clear picture:

Next unhook the poly year, using two fingers on either side of the thread, pull the hackle to the left of the thread, lay the thread along the top of the hook towards to front and tie it down:

You’ll notice I probably have too much hackle at the back of the hook but if you start the hackle wrap a little higher on the thread, being careful not to go to high that it would extend past the hook eye when you lay the thread along the top of the hook it would be perfect. Cut the left over poly yarn off, a couple of whip finishes and you’re done:

You’ll notice that all of the hackle is on top of the hook like wings, the hook will set down in the water (breaking the film) and the hackle/wings will set up high in the water. The guy who showed me this technique at the show says that you can see it from 30 yards out on the water.

I hope you have fun with this fly. After you do a few you'll find that they go pretty quickly.