Troutnut Forum > Fly Hatch Talk > Midges
This topic is about the True Fly Family Chironomidae
Midges are the most important aquatic insects in some places, especially fertile spring creeks where they are extremely abundant and the current is so slow that it's efficient for trout to surface feed on very tiny insects.
Some midges are large, up to hook size 14, but the majority are size 22 or smaller. The number of genera and species is hopelessly huge for angler entomologists to ever learn, and the identifing characteristics often require slide-mounting tiny parts under high-powered microscopes. Even the most Latin-minded fisherman must slip back to the basics--size and color--to describe his local midge hatches. Read more...
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The Discussion
| Goose | October 24th, 2006, 9:07 am | |
| Posts: 29 | Hi Jason & Gonzo! I did well over the weekend by fishing some midge pupa imitations as nymphs and in the film. Where does one find midge larva to inspect for pattern imitation? I fished the pupas and larvas on 5x tippet and it seemed to work well. Do midges live in the silt or on the bottom of rocks, etc.? I have the book by Ed Koch and ?, the other name escapes me for the moment, but it doesn't exactly say where they are found. Midges are about the game in in town during the winter months so I thought I'd learn a little about them. Thanks | |
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| GONZO | October 24th, 2006, 10:43 am | |
| "Bear Swamp," PA Posts: 876 | Hi Goose, "True" midges (Chironomids) are a vast and widely adapted group of the true flies, or Diptera (which also includes such nasties as house flies, mosquitoes, and the dreaded black flies that torment anglers). They are found in nearly every kind of aquatic environment from the largest lakes to little brooks. Pinning down species and assembling hatch charts is an impractical task even for the most dedicated and bug-geeky angler. You will generally find the populations to be highest in slower, silt-bottomed or weedy water. You'll notice that what pass for hatch charts in Midge Magic are mostly records of fly patterns Holbrook found to be successful on Big Spring (primarily) at different times of the year. To extend this to other waters and get specific about identification would have been an astronomical task. You'll also notice that one of Don's primary tools in narrowing pattern selection is a stomach pump. This is certainly one way to do it, but I cringe at the thought of this tool being regularly employed by anglers who might not be as careful as Don is when using it. Personally, I've always found it a bit inconsiderate to deprive a fish of its last meal unless it is truly going to be that fish's last (as in final) meal. My best advice for selecting patterns is to try to capture a few of the recently hatched adults. Midge larvae and pupae patterns can and should be quite simple, and matching the body color of the adult (both base color and rib or markings, if you want to get fussy) should almost always work out. Good luck and don't strain your eyes! :) | |
| Troutnut | October 24th, 2006, 1:41 pm | |
| Fairbanks, AK Posts: 1115 | I've re-filed this topic in the midges section. Be sure to check out the main midges page if you haven't yet. I don't have much to add beyond what Gonzo wrote. I've never lived close enough to a fertile spring creek to fish winter surface activity caused by midges. I see the bugs sometimes, but never enough to bring the trout up top. All my winter fishing success has come with deep nymphs. Some of the next year's hatches, like Hendricksons, Isos, and Golden Stones, will already be grown to nymphs of substantial size by December, and I've had success with imitations of those insects tied to match their winter sizes. | |
| Jason Neuswanger The Troutnut | ||
| GONZO | October 26th, 2006, 11:03 am | |
| "Bear Swamp," PA Posts: 876 | Goose- Just a few afterthoughts about winter midging that might be of help--most winter midges tend to be dark. This is generally true of most winter hatches. Other "dark" winter hatches include the winter or early spring hatches of stoneflies like the Capniidae (Snowflies) and Taeniopterygidae (Willowflies) and even the "winter" caddisflies like Dolophilodes distinctus (Medium Evening Sedge), Frenesia missa (Dot Wing Winter Sedge), and (to a lesser extent) Psychoglypha subborealis (Snow Sedge). These may offer some other possibilities, in addition to the midges. When in doubt, fish a dark fly. And, for surface activity, the "old reliable" Griffith's Gnat is still a very effective pattern. I like to add a post of white Hi-Viz for...well...high viz! :) | |
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