The black-red midge is a pattern that I learned about last year. I have had good success with it last fall and this winter here in Colorado fishing tailgaters on the S Platte and Arkansas rivers. In the past, I would fish either a red midge, like a zebra or dojo midge or a black midge, like a zebra or black beauty, but have found this pattern seems to fool the fish more around here.
Hook: Wholesale Fly Company model 10 scud hook, size 20 or 22. Size 22 shown here. I have found that the gold color hook works better for this pattern than one with a darker finish. It lets the red color of the tubing show up better.
Bead: silver lined clear micro bead
Thread: black Veevus 10/0
Body: Hareline blood red micro tubing
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Pinch hook barb and place bead on hook. This can be a non-trivial task… The beads won’t fit on the hook unless you crimp the. barb. Some hooks have a sharper bend angle and the beads won’t make the turn without breaking. These WFC hooks work well. I find I have to hold the hook with an EZEE hackle pliers and fish the hook point through a bead sitting in my bead dish.
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Wrap a thread base over the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the hook shank behind the bead.
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Attach the micro tubing and tie it down to the end of the thread base. Wrap the thread back up to right behind the bead and secure with a half hitch or whip finish.
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This is a lot easier with a rotary vise… Wrap the tubing back to the bend and then back over itself to the thread base. Continue wrapping, trying to keep a smoothly tapered body up to just behind the bead.
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Whip finish and apply head cement (SHHAN) right behind the bead.
You should be able to see a bright red color on the tail half of the body and a much darker color over the first half of the body where the black thread base is under the tubing.
Ted