School me on Midges

[TLoomis]

Okay, what do you guys know about midges. I have never caught a single fish on them. Granted, I havent fished them much, but when I have, no luck. When do you guys use them? What patterns do you use.

This seems good...

 

[jayL]

Tie some. They are easy, and I know for a fact that they work on the streams in berks county. Fish as a dropper behind a caddis or terrestrial in the summer, and as a dropper off a nymph in higher flows. I float them under a pinch of strike putty in slow water. Size 16-24

 

[Fishidiot]

The most important point about tying midges in my view is to get some "midge thread" meaning a very fine thread. I normally tie with 6/0 for most stuff down to about #20. Once you start getting down to #22 and smaller it really helps to use specialty thread. I don't know the number size but a fly shop can set you up with the skinny stuff.

 

[TLoomis]

I have tied a bunch before, but I never find myself using them. How bout in the winter? They are reeally good in the winter arent they?

 

[MKern]

The zebra is a classic.

I prefer to tie with peacock herl or small vinal tubing, or heck even thread.

 

[Alpabuck]

You need some these
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lHBdLkHYPY

size 20 -26 I just use what ever size grizzly I have and trim it match the size

 

[TLoomis]

Is there any way these posts could get put into my other thread? Idk why it made two....

I will check that out when I get home Alphabuck. I am in school and youtube is blocked

 

[surveyor06]

They are good all year, esp. good in the winter. In the winter, on spring creeks your best bet are gonna be midges and scuds. If your confused about what to use on any given day, a midge is never a bad idea, unless ofcourse the water is super high. I like to fish them in tandem with a larger fly, usually behind a PT or a scud pattern.

 

[Alpabuck]

Youtube blocked? What kinda censorship bs is that what kinda communist school do you attend?

 

[ryguyfi]

Youtube might only be blocked by your current server... mine at work blocks it most of the time so I can't see the videos while I'm here.


Midges are great throughout the year, not just in the winter. If you see fish rising, but you can't see what they're rising to, there's a good chance it's either emergers or midges. My favorite fly is a size 22 griffiths gnat for this reason. I use a few midge nymphs but love the dries. I hit a midge hatch about 2 weeks ago and my 22's were really big... they were close to a 26. If you want to get into midges... you need to think of a 20 as a big fly.

 

[gfen]

I find that my mind reels whenever I tie something on in what I describe as "size stupid." Not that I don't have a row of Al's Rats in my box, but I don't think I've ever caught anything with one, nor do I have faith in it, either.

I've only ever used them as a dropper off a more robust fly. The concept of throwing something that small without something big 'n fluffy to watch makes me hurt.

 

[gfen]

Perhaps its a fascist school, eh? Why do you people always gotta bag on the Communists? There might even be one in our midst...

(hides wallet)

Brookie, a word of advice: If they school has loaned you a laptop, put some tape over the camera. Heh.

 

[jayL]

If you watch Beck, you probably think liberals are communist and a fascist. So depending on Alpabuck's political orientation, you may be saying something redundant.

 

[surveyor06]

gfen,

I feel the same way sometimes, esp. when nymphing with a size smaller than 18, but somehow those trout see that fly, and to my surprise, i catch fish. Exploiting evolutionary traits to catch fish is pretty cool.

 

[TLoomis]

Haha well I have my ways to get around it. Not really sure why it is blocked. They block ALOT of stuff...I am lucky this isn't blocked yet.

 

[jayL]

http://www.peacefire.org/circumventor/simple-circumventor-instructions.html

When I was in school there, it was as simple as opening a dos prompt, running "ping www.youtube.com", and grabbing the IP address that it returned. The filtering software never caught it if you didn't use the domain name. Doubt that works anymore.

 

[TLoomis]

Well right now I just know a teachers password and theyre allowed on youtube so....:-D

 

[gfen]

When I was in school, there was no world wide web. Matter of fact, I remember when we all thought Gopher was the bomb.

I used to get yelled at for not entering the ridiculous FORTRAN data entry crap I was learning in "computer applications" or whatever it was called and romping through the rest of the VAX.

I'm now going to spend the next 20 minutes trying to remember what sort of gigantic laptop I used to take the school coz I was a meganerd.

 

[TLoomis]

Haha yeah I was thinking the other day what it would be like without the interwebz. Its kinda weird to think about...for me

 

[jayL]

It wasn't a big deal until I was in seventh grade or so. I'd like to think that I'm of the last bunch of kids that did most of my growing up without instantaneous access to info (and porn).