Hi All;
Went fishing this evening and it appeared like midges were hatching everywhere, fish were dimpling the surface, and jumping out of the water chasing bugs.
I tried soft hackles with no luck, caught a couple on a size 12 gurgle pop and missed a lot more.
Any one know of a good pattern to use??
Wayne
hard to beat a griffith’s gnat, size 18 or 20. fish it wet or dry. have had really good luck with it in the situation you describe.
I have caught bluegills during a good midge hatch on a small lake using the good ol’ Griffith’s gnat as well. You just have to remember to set the hook imediately so the fish do not have a chance to take the fly too deep
aa
Griffith’s gnat is good. Around here this time of year that might also be a mosquito hatch (they don’t bite until after they’ve mated, so you are relatively safe during the hatch) and I’ve found both dry and emerger patterns about a size bigger than the naturals can be killers.
I’ve had Griffith’s Gnats hit while repositioning my kayak as well. The fly got pulled under and suddenly I was getting far more hits than when it was floating high & dry.
So, if you’re chasing a midge hatch, consider pulling the fly back slowwwwwwwly to you (just crawl the line in with one hand working it in with your fingers).
Just another way to do something the fish aren’t expecting (and aren’t used to ignoring). 
Hi Guys;
Thanks for the suggestions!
Off to the store later this week to get some small hooks and small grizzly whiting’s 100’s
Wayne
A small soft hackle, Black and Starling size 20-24 just drifted along the surface will work sometimes when nothing else will.
It’s great when I think about it… now that you guys brought it up, I’ve decided those Griffith’s Gnat’s I’ve been carrying around for years may have a use. Why didn’t I make the connection before? Oh, it’s not good to get old!
A bit late to the conversation, but I had an experience on the water last week that, I think, applies here.
I was on a local trout stream that, due to the summer weather and lack of significant rainfall, has become very low, very slow, and very clear. The trout are still there, still feeding, but they carefully examine everything that drifts by.
Well as I was fishing, I noticed midges and micro-caddis were the bugs of the evening, so I tied on a #22 snowshoe caddis and immediately got attention. One good take that I missed on the hookset followed by a few very close refusals. After about 10 minutes, they were on to the pattern and it was doing no good.
So I switched to a #20 griffiths gnat and again got a few eager refusals, but no fish. A few minutes later, not even a refusal. The entire time, there is one brown trout, straight across from me, ignoring everything I’ve thrown after the first drift.
Out of ideas, and thinking ‘what the heck?’, I went to the opposite end of the spectrum and tied on a huge (in comparison) #12 olive wulff, usually meant for fast water. I landed it near that brown, who nosed up to it, swam a circle underneath it, and then, without fanfare, came up and slurped it off the surface. Fish on, fish landed!
What made that fish take a fly 3 times the size of the prevailing hatches, I’ll never know, but it just goes to show that sometimes a little counter intuition is exactly what you need. 
Hey wayneb, try my buddy Buzz’s Foam-head Emerger. I know I’ve been touting it a lot lately, but I haven’t found it’s equal. Look in the Fly Tying forum for pics and the recipe. For smaller midges I like to tie it in a size # 18 and add the starling wing. Good luck!
Kelly.
Hi Kelly: Have you ever tied Buzz’s Midge in sizes as small as 20, 22 or 24? Do you fish it as a nymph in larger sizes like 18 and 16?
Bruce
I use 1 or 2 pheasant tail barbs on a size 18 to 26 hook. Wrap barbs up hook with a small black head. Cast them out and let the fish take them.
Has worked for me.
Rick
Bruce, the smallest I have used is a 20, and I have fished it as a dropper on a nymph rig with some success, but it really shines as an emerger in the film in the 16 and 18 size (effective even when the midges hatching are in 20’s and 24’s). Very difficult to see, so I usually drop it behind a larger, more visible dry fly such as a Griffith’s Gnat, Adams or Elk Hair Caddis.
Kelly.
Will all the above work on trout? Meaning all the techniques suggested…and all the flies suggested? I have the same thing happen to me on my favorite creek…and spend multiple days and no hits. One even jumped over my fly line and I swear she winked at me as she dove back down. <grin>
Hmmmm…I rang…but nobody answered. I started reading this thread and from the beginning onward I thought it was about Bluegill. So I asked if all the above would work on trout. I take it a lot of the posts were icw trout. I guess…since no one bothered to answer. I just re-read it and think all the information is good for trout also. Too bad nobody answered though…and I apparently killed the thread.
Actually, I was on vacation by the time you posted and just didn’t see it. Yeah, most of what’s being talked about here should work just fine for trout. In fact, on my trip, some of it did:D.
Griffith’s Gnat or Zebra Midge should do the trick.
Similar incident happened to me, many years ago…
I was fishing early one morning, it was the month of August. The water surface was smooth as a mirror, and there were these tiny circular ripples in the water. I have seen these all my life, and all of a sudden, I realized that I was seeing the after effect of a fish feeding on Tricos. Where the ring was on the water, a second earlier a fish had sucked down a trico, resting on the water surface.
I did not have anything resembling a Trico pattern with me, and I had no fly patterns that were size 18 or smaller with me. So I curse my luck and tied on a size 8 Yellow Stimulator patterns, and then rested my fly rod in the crook of my arm, as I lite up a smoke. When I looked up, and my fly was gone!
Where my fly had been resting on the water, there was a large vortex in the water surface, and suddenly my fly line started peeling off the reel. I had just hooked a nice size Largemouth Bass, who decided that Tricos are nice as Appetizers, but the Stimulator looked like a 24 ounce Rib-eye Steak.
Sometimes when you think you are wrong, you end up being right, for the wrong reasons!
Parnelli;)
“Sometimes when you think you are wrong, you end up being right, for the wrong reasons!”
…and sometimes when you think you’re right, you end up being wrong for the right reasons.
Coughlin
I have found that one of the most versitile flies is a fly called the crackle back. i have caught 5 different species on it (trout, blue gill, bass, crappie and perch) and it can be fished wet or dry. when there are midges in the foam it works great as a dry then at the end of your drift you strip it back as a wet fly and have had numerous fish take on the strip back. just today i was out on our lake and caught about 15 fish all on the crackle back. give this fly a try and you won’t be disappointed. if you need tying instructions pm me or look at this website
http://ozarkanglers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73&Itemid=74
they use brown furnace hackle but i have found grizzly to be the best and sometimes the brighter the material used for the body the better (i have used chartreuse, neon green and pink). experiment
His
jarod jones