Never count out the importance of size.
When they arrived at the Wal-Mart, Clotille went bra shopping while Boudreaux
went looking for a new rain suit, since his support bracket broke on his
last fishing trip and he had used the his FrogTog pants to tie his muffler
back on. Boudreaux’s entire shopping experience lasted about one minute
– find the tog section, check the size tag, pay and leave – but Clotille
was another half hour picking out just the right upper topper flopper stopper.
Boudreaux was mostly as uncomfortable as a long tail cat in a room full
of rocking chairs but, out of pure boredom, read tags on the merchandise.
Clotille gave him a look like he was handing the bras fully loaded with
someone else’s equipment and he went back to fishing supplies to see if
someone had invented a magic lure in the last ten minutes.
When they got back in the car, Boudreaux asked why the bras were marked
A through F. After deciding he wasn’t trying to be vulgar, Clotille gave
a long explanation of how measuring the chest above and below the breasts
and then measuring the chest at the middle of the breasts produced a difference
in inches that bra size charts translated into cup sizes, marked in letters.
When she finished she noticed Broudreaux looked confused. “What’s the matter?
What did you think it meant?” she asked.
“Well, I figured A was for ‘almost’, B was for ‘better’, C was for ‘cool’,
D was for ‘dang’, E was for ‘enormous’ and F was for ‘fake’.”
Clotille just smiled and decided for Boudreaux that was close enough.
Warm water fly fishermen find it difficult to get into the spirit of midge
fishing. Let’s face it, the only time you think of midges is when we wonder
if that little bastard that just bit you has West Nile. But trout are finicky
(especially in winter), and there will be times when the only thing you catch
is frustration – unless you know the techniques of midge fishing. There is
a mind set (that borders on insanity) to fishing with 8X tippet, recognizing
the vague ripples of a subtle rise, or casting extra long leaders (12-15 ft.)
for a dead drift through the narrow line of sight of a shallow trout while
trying to follow the path of a fly you can’t actually see. And there is the
whole issue of tying flies small enough to fit a dozen on your little finger
nail, but if the object is to catch stubborn trout…
WHAT IS A MIDGE? The entomology of a midge is pretty simple. A midge is a
tiny dipteran (two-winged) fly with thousands of species. In the south we
are most familiar with the Ceratopogonidae family of the genus Culicoides
(800 species of “biting midges”) which are equipped with very specialized
mouths that enable them to pierce skin – i.e. mosquitos. However, most species
of midges are harmless and belong to the Chironomidae family, and have no
piercing mouthparts. These are trout food. Stomach pumps pull more midges
(of different varieties) out of trout than any other insect (by a factor of
hundreds). While it is true that a single hopper would make up for hundreds
of midges, trout never ignore the most available food.
All members of Dipthera have 4 phases to their life cycle - egg, larva, pupa,
and adult. Trout begin feeding on midges once the eggs develop into larvae.
Larvas inhabit streams or lake bottoms where there are rock crevices, muddy
bottom or vegetation. They are slender with a simple profile. As they mature,
midge larvae transform into pupal form and develop legs and wings. When it
is time for the midge to emerge from the case, it will rise to the surface
and “hang” vertically in the surface film. Hatches occur in the
surface film, which can be warmer than sub-freezing temperatures of surrounding
air or water. At this stage, before emerging as a winged adult, midges are
most apparent to trout and will rest for temperature and humidity to give
them natural clues, or on the surface for their wings to dry out, before taking
to the air. This creates a weather-be-damned opportunity for the fisherman
because bad weather keeps the midges from hatching and trout will feast leisurely
on the midge emerger buffet. Some of my most successful midge fishing has
come in the midst of snow or ugly overcast conditions. Once airborne, midges
swarm in a mass to mate, females return to the water to lay eggs and the adults
die. More fish food.
Midges are present almost any location where trout are found. Trout love them
because they are loaded with protein and are available when there is no other
food source – particularly when there are no other insects hatching. Winter
and summer hatches frequently involve of a variety of midge species and may
occur on a daily basis as midges come up in huge numbers over an extended
period of the daylight. Midges usually emerge in the quieter sections of the
stream, away from riffles, in flat water. They frequently group together on
the surface as they float downstream, moving slowly, and trout will feed on
them for long stretches. Looking at a midge hatch, you will notice a swarm
of gnats and might see subtle rises or trout rolling near the surface as the
fish feed. The rises are rarely dramatic and require that the fisherman do
in-stream research to choose the right fly. Rule #1, seine the water for midges.
Rule #2; bring magnifying specs to check out what you net. This process will
give you both size and color of the current midge hatch.
BUYING/TYING PATTERNS: Many discount fly vendors sell midges cheap, but finding
them in size 20 or smaller can be tough. A magnifying lamp is almost an imperative
to tie midges. Midge patterns are never bigger than #16 and usually smaller
than #20. Flies patterns are divided into larva imitations, pupa imitations,
and dry flies (which includes emergers). The number one dry is the Griffith’s
Gnat which is supposed to resemble a group of midges floating downstream together
and is easily tied with a peacock herl body palmered over with grizzly hackle
and cross wound with copper wire. For most midge fishing situations a pupal
or larval form of midge fly will be most effective fished singly or in tandem
with a strike indicator. The best thing about midge flies is that the simple
patterns work and are just that – simple. Once you realize that two thickness
of thread on a #24 is all you need, tying a dozen basic flies in a half-hour
is a cinch. Winged and collared patterns are a bit touchier, but producing
8-10 an hour is not hard. You want to tie plenty because you want to have
a lot of color and size options in your fly box. Things can change suddenly
during a midge hatch, or combined midge hatches. Larva patterns are the simplest,
an almost shapeless slim body with thread or wire for segmentation. Red, olive
and black are favorite colors on most waters, followed by dun and chocolate.
Common nymph patterns include the Zebra, Crystal and Mercury Midges. You should
be ready to change colors frequently, especially on productive water where
large trout have the irritating habit of targeting specific stages of specific
insects. If the fish are still working but you aren’t getting any action,
have that seine ready and get set for a color change.
SETTING THE HOOK: Don’t! Tiny hooks set themselves. Seeing
midges on the surface is difficult enough without breaking tippet every bite
because you set hard. You will not see your fly and will have a tenancy to
jerk when a fish takes. Instead, you want to raise your rod tip and pull gently
on the line with your free hand. When the trout is hooked it will be a contest
of keeping a tight line but using only as much pressure as you can put on
the tippet without breaking off. The most difficult time comes if a trout
takes you down stream and you are fighting the current and the fish, or when
the trout is tired and starts to “surf” (lay on its side on the surface) and
is dead weight. At this point the current will pop your tippet unless you
chase down the trout.
Originally published July 27, 2009 on Fly Anglers Online by Bob Boese.