Day 31 - Midge Dreams

Ever since catching the trout on the Davidson River, I've been thinking about midges. Midges, midges, midges...

Last night after my post, I went and gathered some material together. I initially wanted to do a nymph pattern that would utilize the white thread that I mentioned yesterday about. No dice. My mind wouldn't stop thinking about midges.

All the research that I've done lately on what hatches are going on in October & November in western North Carolina mention midges. I managed to catch the two last week on Red Serendipity patterns. I couldn't shake the feeling that this was I needed to tie.

Midge patterns are probably one of the easiest patterns to tie. All you need is thread, and some wire. I tied mine with glass beads also. As previously mentioned, I had gone to The Bead Monkey in the Twin Cities (Minnesota). I have quite the collection of glass beads in different colors. I decided that I would experiment with the Zebra Midge pattern.

My first two flies were done on a #16 scud hook. I used a black bead with white stripes. Using black 3/0 thread, I wound the thread back to the hook bend. I have some Gudebrod rod thread in silver (HT 9602), this is what I used for the ribbing. I tied a length of that onto the back of the hook, and then I built a slight taper up to the bead head. I then counter wrapped the ribbing and tied off at the head.

The next three flies were close to being the same as the first two, however I changed the black/white glass bead to a smaller dark green bead. After those three I changed to a mirrored black nickel glass bead. I then ran out of #16 scud hooks. I dropped down to a #20 scud hook.

Going to the #20 hook, I had to change plans a little bit. The Gudebrod thread that I was using was a little too thick. I changed up to a Danville fine silver wire. The process was still the same. The first six flies have dark green beads. The next six have black nickel beads. After that NCIS was on and I retired for the evening.


Today, while doing laundry, I sat down at the vise again. Still working on the #20 scud hook, I decided to swap out the black thread for gray. Also, I changed the wire to a fine copper wire that I found at a craft store a few years back. The first six hooks have black nickel glass beads. The next six have a translucent orange bead. I then ran out of hooks again.

Searching through my dresser drawers, I managed to find some #16 heavy nymph hooks. I decided that I would try a little experiment. I'm sure this pattern is out there, but I wasn't really using any pattern recipe. I decided to use brass beads this time. I also switched back to the 3/0 black thread. I tied in 4 strands of Midge Rainbow Flash (Hot Orange). I don't know if this product is available however, it was a sample product for a private label. However if it is available, I would tell you to visit Gander Mountain.


After tying on the strands of Midge Rainbow Flash, I tied on some red 4 strand rayon from Danville. Twisting all four strands together, I worked a taperd body stopping just past the mid way point on the hook shank. After tying that off and clipping the excess, I tied two peacock herl feathers by their tips and wrapped towards the bead. I wrapped the area a couple of times with the herl to make the thorax bigger. Tying that off and clipping the excess I worked the butt ends of the Midge Rainbow Flash back over the peacock herl to form wing buds. And that the end of the pattern, sort of a Red Serendipity/WD40/???


Anyway, I won't get to use these patterns until sometime next week as the wife and I have plans for the rest of the week. Until then, I'll probably still be dreaming about midges and big trout.