FW Midge and other Ideas

Back from the PA trip! Everything went well...lots of fun! Saw some trout in the little stream that ran through the campground and park. Including one trout that was pushing 15 or 16 inches.

Anyway I wanted to share a couple of things with you now that I am back. First is a midge pattern that I have been playing around with for little while now. It's design is probably nothing new. But, I have been trying to get a good floating emerger pattern that will be durable and not sink. Even with constant abuse from the fish. In the past I have tied small #20 midge emerger patterns with snow shoe hare's foot for a little wing. This seemed to work pretty well. The only catch was, after every fish you needed to apply dry fly floatant. The act of applying floatant to a fly after every fish is nothing new. I have been doing it for many many years. The only set back to this(for me) is when there are trout rising everywhere taking emergers and you have to spend that extra time applying floatant instead of casting to fish. I finally saw a photo of a small mayfly pattern that showed a small bit of foam for a little wing. And that prompted me to try that for the midge pattern. This solves the problem of having to take a time-out to dry your fly before casting to the next trout. I know this sounds a little crazy. But for me, time on the water is precious! And I want to take full advantage of it. That means that if I can find a way to have my fly on or in the water for longer, I will do it! Of course it may not always translate into more fish caught. But for me it is worth the effort. I am, and so far to this date, have always been a sucker for simple, durable, well thought out fly patterns that catch fish!!!!

So....I will include a photo of the pattern here. And the recipe too!

1. Hook - #18 through #24 Curved scud of choice
2. Thread - Brown (or color of choice)
3. Rib - Gold small Ultra wire ( or color of choice)
4. Wing - white foam cut from a thin sheet bought at the craft store
5. Thorax - black super fine (or color of choice)

Other colors that would work are a tan or cream version, white, red, and of course black.

I also have some ideas that you may want to try while trico fishing. We all know that trico fishing can be challenging. Fishing small flies to weary trout is not everyone's cup of tea. I must admit that I have trouble seeing my size #20 or #22 fly from time to time. So if I do lose sight of the fly, I try and guage the distance of my leader. And when a trout rises in the vacinity of where I think my fly is, I raise my rod to set the hook. So far this has worked really well. But another great idea is to tie on a #16 or #18 ant, beetle or other dry fly pattern(caddis) with a little hi-vis yarn wing. Then tie a 12" to 20" section of 6x tippet off the bend of that fly, and attach your small trico pattern. This will give you something close to your trico pattern to focus on that you can actually see. And when a fish rises near that hi-vi pattern....raise the rod tip to set the hook. You may even find that the trout may take the larger pattern too!! Fishing a two fly rig like this will require some carefull planning. You will have to open up your cast a little to get a larger loop so you don't tangle the flies. And making several casts on the side of the stream where there are no fish would be a good idea. This will allow you to see the two flies drift and see how they look on the water. When you get the hang of casting the two flies, get in position and make your cast to rising fish. Be sure to leave your cast a little short so the the bigger hi-vis lead fly is just off to one side of the fish or above or below the fish. This will allow the small trico pattern to be right on point and in front of fish. This is why you pick a spot off to the side of the stream to practice your casting!!!!

Tight lines.....and have fun!