Favorite Midge

[djmyers]

What is your favorite midge pattern? What is your most successful midge pattern? What would you recommend having in your fly box?

 

[pete41]

Letort style ant
size 22 through 32
shades of cinnamon,brown,grey.
If you tie them yourself keep the hackle sized to hook or slightly smaller,front and rear balls of fur keep small-don't oversize.
one or at most two wraps of hackle.
This is not the answer to all hatches but will generally get a rise.
I have fished them East and west on some tough waters and was my favorite fly until they made hook eyes too small to thread line through-[thats when I realized I needed tri-focals].lol
If you only carry one midge pattern this fished as midge will usually get some interest.
Only one I could say that about.

 

[RLeeP]

My favorite midge is a #10 deerhair ant.

 

[mute]

als rat, sub or surface, twitched.

 

[JackM]

I have three patterns I like, brown, ginger and black:

 

[pete41]

I see I am not the only one with fading eyesight-
Midge fishing is a youthful sport,I suspect.

 

[jayL]

Zebra midge. 16-24

 

[JustFish]

djmyers wrote:
What is your favorite midge pattern? What is your most successful midge pattern? What would you recommend having in your fly box?

Good thread! My favorite all around fly, especially if you want to fish all year round. I have had my best days in the winter on midges.

How about a biot midge? The smallest glass bead you can buy on a size 26 hook. Any color goose biot for the body. I like white, muskrat, black and brown. Then for the thorax you can use peacock herl, any color dubbing, or muskrat. Using a dab of head cement on the body before you wrap the biot helps to keep it together longer. If you want you can tie in a little krystal flash before the thorax for some flash. Which actually works pretty darn well.

Any questions??????

 

[JustFish]

To be more clear about my post, you can mix and match all of those materials to suit your needs. Be creative, tie a couple of each and see which ones work for you. You can them anywhere from 22-28.

Pete41,

I can't find size 32 hooks anywhere. Can you direct me?

 

[MKern]

Simple cream midge larva using clear micro tubing slide over the hook eye and underlayed and ribbed with cream thread.
OR
Peacock herl (stripped) midge larva.

Dead drifted.

 

[mute]

justfish, size 32 seems insane. Any pics or comparisons?

 

[MKern]

Mute,
On the original Mustad hook list (Hille's has a shadow box with a sample of every Mustad hook from a particular year), a size 32 was about a millimeter long; smaller than most of the beads we use on our beadhead nymphs. However, now they are longer.

As we speak there is a cream midge dancing around my computer screen............about a size 32; coinsidence, I think not.

 

[JustFish]

mute wrote:
justfish, size 32 seems insane. Any pics or comparisons?

Mute,

One thing about flyfishing or life in general, you can never say never! I once saw a guy at The Little Lehigh catching fish when no one was. He was fishing a caddis larvae size 32. I saw it with my own eyes. He had to be close to 70 years old!!!!!! God Bless!!!!!!

 

[pete41]

I saw a size 32 Royal Coachman tied by a guy that called himself big john.Needless to say he did it for a gimmick.

 

[Stevie-B]

I don't fish midges much, but when I do it's a zebra midge (20) or a Griffith's Gnat.

 

[BigHUMPY9]

I have a few favorite midges but I have recently been tying the midge emerger pattern called a klinkenhammer (probably not spelled right) but 20 is the smallest i have tied them. They seem to work consistantly well. I have only tied them with tan body, Pk Hurl thorax half stripped, and white antron or cream wing sprouts. Does anyone else fish them and do you know of any other color combinations that work well?

I also tie a midge with a Pk colored bead head, black thread, and a single piece of flash tied in at the tail, folded up to the head with thred wripped around in segments ( much like a scud back) for flash back. If i can i let the tiniest bit of flash flip up behind the head and I snip it in half if i can. sooooo...I fish whatever that is called as well.

 

[pete41]

Major OOPS and a Padraic waffle.
It's been a long time.
Realized it was the size 28 gold plated hook the fellow tied the royal coachman on.
28 was as small as I wwent-32 available in the 60s and 70s but I didn't use them.
I used the 22 and 28 ant but not the in between-you could get them but why?
not much difference between 22 and 24 -and26 and 28 but huge difference between 22 and 28 from the trouts viewpoint.
about like a big mac and a regular burger.

 

[mute]

Just seems impossible to tie anything more then a wrap of thread on a size 32 hook. I mean all the materials are so big. And jsutfish, i found packs of 25 of 32's for $5

 

[JustFish]

Mute,

Contrary to your belief it is not impossible. Size 32 isn't neccesary. I just saw an old timer fishing them at The Little Lehigh and he was catching fish when no one was. I was more amazed that a man that was 70 years old could see a 24 let alone a 32. I saw the fly he was using and it wasn't a 28. I would like to get a pack of them just for Sh!ts and Giggles. Where did you see them at?

Humpty,

Your not allowed to use midges! You are King Royal Humpy Slayer!!!!!!!

 

[JustFish]

pete41 wrote:
Major OOPS and a Padraic waffle.
It's been a long time.
Realized it was the size 28 gold plated hook the fellow tied the royal coachman on.
28 was as small as I wwent-32 available in the 60s and 70s but I didn't use them.
I used the 22 and 28 ant but not the in between-you could get them but why?
not much difference between 22 and 24 -and26 and 28 but huge difference between 22 and 28 from the trouts viewpoint.
about like a big mac and a regular burger.

I have 22, 24, 26, 28 hooks that I tie midges with. But I see your point in the last few sentnces of your post. There is a noticeable difference from a trout's view point from 22-28.