Popcorn midges

Not matching the Hatch....

When early season fish are midging--when there are zillions of itty-bitty bugs on the water and when fish are dimpling every where you look--brighter than natural seems to be what gets noticed most.

http://montana-riverboats.com/Uploads/Popcorn-midge.jpg
http://montana-riverboats.com/Uploads/midges.jpg

The same thing happens in May, during Montana's Mother's Day Caddis hatch. When the surface of the water is obscured by billions of seething caddis, and when the fish are dimpling where ever you look, abnormally bright flies seem to attract the most attention. Size matters (a lot). And color too. But maybe not in the match-the-hatch way most people think.

Do these hot colored flies really work better? Maybe it's too soon to make a claim that radical. But I can tell you I've been fishing them all Spring this year. And at the very least, they work just as well (as a more subdued and naturally colored fly).

Attractors are supposed to be what works in between hatches. These seem to work just fine, right in the middle of a hatch. If you go too large you don't catch fish. So maybe size matters most of all. And Twinkly-bright can (at least sometimes) be an added bonus. Hot little wets seem to work well during the BWO hatches too, which are just now about to get going (here in SW Montana).

Those are bright colors and should attract attention. What size??

Yes, what size seems to work most often for you...and what IS that material? EdgeBrite?

pittendrigh,

Had to go get my welding visors on, just to look at them. Nice bunch of midges!

Best regards, Dave S.

Those are #18 DaiRiki #075 hooks.
Misc plastic beads (twinkle without added weight) Edge Bright body and Ice Dub tuft in front of the plastic bead.
I use a paper cutter to chop off extra-thin little strips of the Edge Bright. I'll make 20 minute Sculpins if I have to. But these you can crank.
I made close to dozen before breakfast this morning.

My fishing mentor Willy Self got me fishing bright flies a year ago, last Spring. I had one unforgetable day on the Gallatin last April (almost exactly a year ago today) when the BWOs were hatching thickly. It was a perfect day. Cloudy enough to obscure the sun and no wind. Fish were dimpling were ever there was a pocket of soft water......from any glass smooth slick to a medium speed (but not fast) run. I started off with a little Catskill style dry fly with a Partidge soft hackle on a dropper. I had to work hard to catch a few fish, even though fish were rising all over the place. The fish I did catch all took the wet fly.

I remembered Willy. I re-rigged. I put the Partridge hackle wet fly on the point, and then I put a nuclear-fusion-hot orange midge (much like the above) on a dropper. I absolutely wacked'em. Most of the fish I caught (in the middle of a hatch, with fish dimpling every where you looked) took the Fukushima midge--and not the more realistic-looking Partridge hackle wet. That caught my attention. Big time. It's now a year later and I'm working these flies harder than ever. They sure were what the fish wanted on the Lower Madison (below the Beartrap Canyon) the few fishable days we had in March. I fished one day with Willy and our mutual friend Jim. We Hoovered'em in like the fish auger at a Tilapia farm in Belize. Everybody else we talked to that day said something about what a pleasure it is to get out, even when the fishing is slow.

I have had a few slow days this Spring too. Even with the bright flies. Like today (I just got home as I write this). Montana Power is suddenly releasing a lot of water out of Hebgen damn on the Madison. The water is up and it's milk chocolate brown. And nothing is working right now. I fished hard for one hour and caught one small fish. And then decided to go birding instead. So I'm not claiming miracles here. But when the fish are on the feed these bright little flies sure have been something---------even in the middle of a hatch, rather than in between.